Jackdaw stuck in chimney attracting mice.

NegativeCreep

I know that there have been posts of this kind before but my situation is a little different.

There is definitely a jackdaw stuck in the fireplace in my kitchen. The problem is that the fireplace is completely covered up with plasterboard. I can hear him squawking, clawing, flapping and pecking all over the place (can't blame him, I'd be distressed too). I also caught 4 mice in a mousetrap in my hot press, which is directly above the fireplace in question.

Could the bird be attracting the mice?

Also, Is there any way of speeding up the death of the bird because i'm definitely not pulling down the wall just to set him free (awful I know) I just can't listen to it anymore!

I've also heard that a dead bird will attract hoards of flies. Is there any way to stop this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated :L

WildCatXX

I think making a hole big enough to reach in and get it would be the best plan... it could be plastered over and repainted. If it dies there it will stink for weeks, and a load of bluebottles will hatch after flies lay eggs on it. I wouldn't think there is any relationship between the mice and the bird. You probably have a nest up your chimney and this is a fledgling which has fallen down. A wire cowel on your chimney would prevent this happening again.

endacl

WildCatXX wrote: »

I think making a hole big enough to reach in and get it would be the best plan... it could be plastered over and repainted. If it dies there it will stink for weeks, and a load of bluebottles will hatch after flies lay eggs on it. I wouldn't think there is any relationship between the mice and the bird. You probably have a nest up your chimney and this is a fledgling which has fallen down. A wire cowel on your chimney would prevent this happening again.

+1

DBB

Take it from someone who had a little mouse die within a stud wall... OMG the smell was awful, for ages. I didn't have a bluebottle problem simply because of the very enclosed nature of where the little fella died, we only discovered him some time later when my house flooded and the plasterboard had to be ripped out.
Besides, I don't know if I could sit there knowing the distress that bird is going through there, dying slowly and terrified. I'd have to make a hole in the plasterboard and get him out. Then I'd buy a cowl for the chimney top, as Wildcat suggested.

TooManyDogs

We had a horrendous smell for weeks too, eventually accidentily discovered a mouse had gotten down the very back of the fuse board and gotten electrocuted.
The smell drove us nuts and that was only a small mouse, would dread to think of the smell a jackdaw would make. Definitely the most humane thing for the crow and your nose would be to get it out

paddyandy

Fireplaces have no spaces for mice to get into them if it's an old house .I've had this problem twice over the years in an old house .Get somebody handy to remove the cover it's probably only tacked on and can be replaced easily .Pigeons like the soot and fall in .

spur

We had similar a few years ago, but in the kitchen. Bird got stuck behind the units and we could hear it - horrible!

What we did was call all the local vets and ask their advice and they put us onto a ranger (I think). He called in the evening and spent ages with us tracking where he might be and eventually got him out - poor bird had moved loads since he'd gotten in. He had to take off a few kickbaords and things like that, but no permanent damage.

NegativeCreep

Have now got reason to believe that the bird can now get in an out when he pleases. I can only hear him in the morning and just before it gets dark which would suggest he is using it as a nest I suppose. I dont really mind this because at least he is not starving or dying

callmekenneth

NegativeCreep wrote: »

Have now got reason to believe that the bird can now get in an out when he pleases. I can only hear him in the morning and just before it gets dark which would suggest he is using it as a nest I suppose. I dont really mind this because at least he is not starving or dying

good news!

like a previous poster i had the experience of a rodent dying within a wall and smell, was like nothing i've ever experienced, for weeks, was in our place of work and we near pull the place apart trying to find it, ugh