Old MacDonald had a Farm

There are pigeons in my barn, and it is getting out of control.  Living on a farm I am pretty darn used to seeing animals around, and outside of my personal livestock of horses, pigs, a few head of cattle, I’ve also got chickens, turkeys, barn cats, and a couple of dogs running around.  I get along well with animals and respect the positive way they can impact my land by helping with insect and rodent control and keep food from going to waste.  When I first saw the pigeons in the barn, I figured that they’d help with just about the same things as the rest of the animals do so I let them nest in the upper level.  Obviously, I was wrong.

When it started out, I found about 3 or 4 pigeons in the barn, just casually roosting on the roof.  Later that evening is when I discovered that they were nesting in the hay storage at the top of the barn, but I figured they would help control any ticks and mites that would get into the hay.  What I didn’t realize, was that pigeons can actually have bird mites in their nests!! They got everywhere, all of the animals were itching and scratching, it was a nightmare.  After that I tried to shoo the birds away and left poison pellets out for them to eat.  But my plan failed.

A year-and-a-half later, I’m still here with the same pigeon problem, only now it has more than quintupled in size! My original 4 birds has now grown to nearly 30.  Having a few pigeons in the barn was annoying, but this is absolutely mad.  The cats will kill a few now and again but not nearly enough; that’s what I get for teaching them to leave the chickens alone I guess.  Even worse, the pigeons have learned not to eat the pellets I set out and I’m too slow of a shot to kill them all.  I need some help, please!

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