I'm not a bird hater but I do not want those darn barn swallows in my barn. It began a few years ago where we had about 6 birds building nests in the barn. My boys would remove the nests and place them outside in the trees. But as the years went on, more and more birds were taking up residence in my barn. They just keep coming and coming year after year until last year I swear I had over 50-70 in my barn.
They built a number of nests inside, on and around my light fixtures. Then they would roost at night up along the electric wires that run along the top of my barn over the stalls. The result was disgusting. I had bird crap everywhere and on everything and it stunk. They crapped in my horse's water buckets, in the feed buckets, mineral blocks, all over the clean bedding, in the motor parts of the fans and on top of the horses. i mean to tell you my horses had bird crap on their heads, backs, you name it. I was livid and it had to stop. I had no intention of getting salmonella poisoning either and that is a real possibility.
So here's my solution and my tip:
Go to the garden area in Walmart, the inside part, not outside by the plants. Look for a flat clear plastic package that says something like 'Garden Netting" Its about $6.98 or so. Its a huge piece more than I could use so I cut as much as i needed and I nailed it up on both doorways to my barn so it would cover from top to bottom..When the horses go out, I lift it up and when they want to come back in I leave an opening about 3" high on one end. They have no problems with it but the birds do. They can't get in except an occasional one that might find the 3' opening and fly under it .But I fixed that too. The birds seem to all come in from the back door of the barn for some reason so that is the doorway that I leave the netting touching the ground. A few did get stuck in the net from time to time and they eventually get loose .Other times I would help them get out of it but never had a bird fatality. Now the wind will blow the net so I used a staple gun to secure the sides about half of the way down. If you are plagued like I am with barn swallows you need to try this.
This has been a public service announcement.
They built a number of nests inside, on and around my light fixtures. Then they would roost at night up along the electric wires that run along the top of my barn over the stalls. The result was disgusting. I had bird crap everywhere and on everything and it stunk. They crapped in my horse's water buckets, in the feed buckets, mineral blocks, all over the clean bedding, in the motor parts of the fans and on top of the horses. i mean to tell you my horses had bird crap on their heads, backs, you name it. I was livid and it had to stop. I had no intention of getting salmonella poisoning either and that is a real possibility.
So here's my solution and my tip:
Go to the garden area in Walmart, the inside part, not outside by the plants. Look for a flat clear plastic package that says something like 'Garden Netting" Its about $6.98 or so. Its a huge piece more than I could use so I cut as much as i needed and I nailed it up on both doorways to my barn so it would cover from top to bottom..When the horses go out, I lift it up and when they want to come back in I leave an opening about 3" high on one end. They have no problems with it but the birds do. They can't get in except an occasional one that might find the 3' opening and fly under it .But I fixed that too. The birds seem to all come in from the back door of the barn for some reason so that is the doorway that I leave the netting touching the ground. A few did get stuck in the net from time to time and they eventually get loose .Other times I would help them get out of it but never had a bird fatality. Now the wind will blow the net so I used a staple gun to secure the sides about half of the way down. If you are plagued like I am with barn swallows you need to try this.
This has been a public service announcement.
