How to Stop Pigeons Eating Chicken Feed

Have you been feeding your chickens a lot more food than usual recently? Or do they seem to be eating a lot more than they usually would? Have you actually considered that it might not be chickens eating that feed at all, and it could be another animal — another bird — wreaking havoc?

That bird ... the humble pigeon. What a pest!

If you have chickens on your property, you're probably already aware of the many pest problems that can arise. Securing and then keeping secure the chicken coop is of the utmost importance, because one incorrectly-closed latch could mean utter devastation to the entire lot. You almost expect predatory animals to try and take a pop at your beloved birds, but you don't expect an animal like a pigeon to come along and steal the food from right under their beaks.

This could very well be happening to your chickens.

Although it might not seem like the worst idea to have birds with birds, pigeons actually carry a long list of potentially deadly diseases and organisms that could kill off an entire coop in one foul swoop.

Even if they don't spread around diseases to your chickens, they could still cause harm to them. If the pigeons are stealing the food from your birds, your birds have less and less to eat. As a result, they're going to lose weight and could become ill as a result. If you feed the more to overcompensate, more pigeons will join the party, and the problem will actually get a whole load worse. This is more so the case if you feed your chickens an expensive feed.

Many people have had different results from different methods as far as keeping pigeons and other pest birds away from chicken feed and coops is concerned, although hanging old and no longer used CDs around the area seems to be one that is recommended a lot. In reality, anything that catches the light and moves is going to have some impact on birds. They don't like fast movements, loud noises, or bright beams of light, and the CDs will do two things on a sunny day. It also gives you something to do with all your leftover CDs once you've uploaded your library to iTunes!

Although not the most high-tech approach, scarecrows and CDs or other moveable items in the back yard can actually go some way to keeping pigeons away from the area, but you'll need to be careful that you don't start scaring your own birds at the same time. If they won't enter a specific part of the yard because there is a moveable, keep-away object, it defies the point.

If you have the ability, you could create a cage-like protective structure for your chickens, keeping them closed in and other birds kept out. This doesn't need to be overly high off the ground and can be easily made using wooden spokes and chicken wire.