How do I stop magpies eating my chicken food?

[flyingjase]

Help!

I'm going through 5kg of layer pellets every 2 days for 4 chickens. This is because bloody magpies and crows keep eating their food!

We have an electric fence and a normal feeder which keeps other wildlife (Foxes etc) away but not the wild birds. See picture below of layout.

The chickens really don’t seem to care (I have 2 Rhode Island Red's which seem the most dominant but still don't care, 1 Light Sussex and 1 Barnevelder)

Any ideas on how I can get stop theses wild birds from stealing my chicken's food?

I was wondering if a cockerel would do the trick and chase them away.

[GingerWizard]

Air rifle is just not pratical, cockeral might be an idea.....

google might hold the key.

[didelydoo]

Air gun?

[flyingjase]

Tried Google and can't find much that helped

Too many birds for an Air rifle - literally 10-12 magpies come down and feed at one time

[didelydoo]

flyingjase said:

Tried Google and can't find much that helped

Too many birds for an Air rifle - literally 10-12 magpies come down and feed at one time

Shotgun?

[Sam_68]

flyingjase said:

Too many birds for an Air rifle - literally 10-12 magpies come down and feed at one time

Magpies are quite bright. When their mates start dropping dead beside them, one by one, they will usually take the hint.

[flyingjase]

Well taken your advice and just been out to buy this:-



It's a Umarex 850 Air Magnum. It's .22 calibre with an 8 shot magazine and C02 canister. Apparently it's very quiet, you can fire 8 shots before having to reload it and the canister last around 200 shots

Off to kill some birds now......

[tractorguy]

I've got a few of these at work to keep crows away.

http://www.portek.co.uk/Hawkeyes_Index.html

Not as much fun as shoting them but you can't be there all the time.

[SWH]

Go-faster crows do learn pretty quickly where you're sitting with the air rife, if the chickens can see you and know you're there then the magpies usually do as well. Once you've pinged off the first shot they'll not come back for ages... getting one (clean kill of course) is pretty satisfying as they're cunning little buggers - good luck

You maybe able to find someone with one of these, of course you could make one yourself, but acquiring the live magpie in the first instance is somewhat challenging: http://www.trapman.co.uk/metal-larsen-trap.htm


Alternatively, netting over the top of the pen works, they soon work it out and give up.... oh, also, perfecting the breathing through your mouth only technique, so you can't smell a thing while sitting in the cold damp chicken shed, waiting with the gun, is handy too.

[HereBeMonsters]

Put the food in a low down, covered area that only ground-based birds (such as chickens) would be able to see and access. OK, magpies could still get in, but are less likely to.

Never had a problem with our Eglu and rogues wanting a free dinner.

[AndyAudi]

Try only feeding them enough for the hens so they don't leave anything lying around.

Hens should be eating around 130 - 140grammes each per day.

After a day or two they'll come & eat it as soon as you put it in the feeder (maybe split over a couple of times a day) meaning there'll be nothing left for the magpies.

[MiniEllis]

go to your local chicken paraphernalia shop and you can get a feeder thats a large galvanised box type thing, with mesh at the bottom and the chickens have to stand on the base to counterbalance the weight and open the food tray.
This has solved all birds/mice etc getting to our food.


xxxx

[Longwool]

Larsen Trap.