by Texas Homesteader ~
Y’all already know we split the garden area this year. About 40% of that area became the chicken ranging area and the other 60% remained my veggie garden, but more efficiently arranged. I love the symbiotic relationship of chickens/garden. I’m hoping the chickens will keep grass scratched away from the adjoining garden area to help me win the fight against Bermuda grass. And I know they will also eat all the bugs & grasshoppers coming toward my garden from their area. I can toss over grubs or produce that didn’t make it, and the hens provide me with fresh eggs. Win/Win!
I recently shared with you a low-waste chicken feeder RancherMan whipped up for me. While I love how much it reduces the chicken’s slinging it to the ground and wasting it, the wild birds were also loving the free open buffet. We’re feeding organic laying pellets, I certainly didn’t want to be feeding that to the birds! But oh we’ve discovered a secret – check out today’s Homestead Hack.
I’ve heard for years that you can scare away certain critters by placing a moving shiny object around the area. But it wasn’t until I saw this piece by the Prairie Homestead that the light switch clicked on. Maybe there was something I could do to keep the birds from eating us out of house & home. Hummmm…
You know by now my battle cry: “Use Whatcha Got!” I remembered that the string that’s used on our cattle feed bags does not deteriorate very quickly. So I figured that would be the perfect thing to use here.
I took a spare step-in electric fence post and angled it so it was tilted toward the chicken feeder. Then I folded a long feedbag string until it was in a thickness of four strings and looped it through the hole in this old CD I found in our office. I tied a loop on the opposite end of the string & slipped it over the end of my post. The angle of the post and the length of the string causes the shiny cd to move even with a gentle breeze.
Then I stepped back to see how well it worked. BOOM! Wild birds gone! I wondered if the moving disk would also make the chickens apprehensive. But they didn’t seem to be affected by it at all and happily bellied up to the feeder when they got hungry.
Success! Sometimes it’s true you can use low-tech methods to successfully address a problem. And I’ve used items I already had around the ranch so there was nothing to buy. Love it!
~TxH~
Chicken-Care Posts
- How To Teach Free-Range Chickens To Come HOME
- Keeping Chickens Safe From Predators: Automatic Coop Door
- Breaking The Broody Hen
- What Color Eggs Will My Chickens Lay?
- MYO Low-Waste Chicken Feeder
- Repurposed Coffee Can Chicken Feeder
- Keeping Wild Birds Away From Your Chicken Feeder
- Nutritional Difference Of Free-Range Eggs
- How To Protect Seedlings From Free-Range Hens
- Keeping Our Chickens Mite Free
- How To Get Free Chicken Food
All Posts About Chickens
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Other ‘Use Whatcha Got’ Ideas
- Make A Cute Porch Lantern
- Assuring Safety Around An Underground Cistern
- Repurposing An Empty Parmesan Cheese Container – BRILLIANT!
- Replacing Our Bedside Clock/Radio
- Predator Guard For Our Martin House
- Trick Birds Away From Garden Strawberries
- Protecting Tender Seedlings
- Safer Straight-Pin Storage
- Tame Electrical Cords
- Save Your Fingernails When Cleaning
- MYO Chalkboard Labels
All ‘Use Whatcha Got’ Posts
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea – lots of good folks sharing! You can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram.
If you’d like to receive an email each time a new blog post goes live it’s EASY to Subscribe to our blog!
This is awesome! I love that you solved the problem with a cd. Way to be creative and resourceful. Super cool hack! Thanks for sharing with us on Simply Natural Saturdays!
I was skeptical something to easy would actually work, Melissa, but it DID! ~TxH~
What an awesome idea!! What do you do to keep raccoons away?
We have lots of raccoons around here Joyce, but haven’t had much trouble with them in the chicken coop. Maybe it’s the close proximity to the house? Maybe it’s the 6-ft welded-wire fence we used for the coop, maybe just dumb luck… LOL Birds were the main culprit in sneaking massive amounts of our chicken feed. It’s lasting so much longer now, we only have to fill the feeder about once every week or two. ~TxH~
My husband put together a similar chicken feed tube for our girls. We had it mounted to the chain link fence surrounding their yard but when it rained moisture got in and that was with the end caps on! Mold grew inside the tube. Since then, after cleaning out the mold, the feeder was mounted to the chicken house and is under the protection of the extended eave. It really does save on food and cuts down on waste. I will be trying the CD trick to see if that will cut down on the free loading crows, squirrels & cotton tail rabbits.
I noticed a small amount of moisture in the feed after a rain as well Ellen, I figured I didn’t have the cap on tight enough. Thankfully it was not much moisture and by then the feeder was almost empty and needing to be refilled anyway. I’ll be looking at other moisture control steps I can take to assure dry feed. Thanks for the tip. Good luck with those free-loading crows! LOL ~TxH~
For some reason the wild birds don’t bother our chicken feeder which is kept under our hen house. Ours is elevated and we also keep the stray there. I really like your feeder though and going to try and get Santaman to make me one for when this one finally kicks the bucket.
I posted a recipe of yours yesterday and linked back to you. I did not know if google notified you are not. But wanted to let you know I will be doing this time to time if it is alright with you.
Are those your white face? We use to have Black Angus years ago. Santaman wants to get one now, but I get too up and personal with them and can’t eat them. We won’t even eat our chickens. But them we only have a few right now and wouldn’t eat them anyway if we wanted the eggs.
Wonderful idea and great use of using them so-called ‘junk’ CD’s.
The CD’s are also good to hang by your fruit trees as well, along with them disposable aluminum pie pans of which I save when using them mini Keebler pie crusts, hung with fishing line
Yes, I’ve heard of hanging various shiny things around for various reasons, I guess I always just assumed because they were so low-tech that they wouldn’t work. Not sure of the other applications but this hack worked like GOLD for keeping the birds out of my chicken feed. I’ve not seen one at the feeder since I installed this setup! ~TxH~