Birds V Bales

gerryirl

Anyone have any experience of using bangers or something similar to keeping birds away. I made of few bales of silage today. My father usually gets the gun out but I had most of them in and I had to goto a play the kids were in . I had 12 left in the field but when I came back 2 hours later they had a great job done on them. It's hateful

Base price

gerryirl wrote: »

Anyone have any experience of using bangers or something similar to keeping birds away. I made of few bales of silage today. My father usually gets the gun out but I had most of them in and I had to goto a play the kids were in . I had 12 left in the field but when I came back 2 hours later they had a great job done on them. It's hateful

All you can do is patch them up (with silage tape) as soon as possible, learn from the experience and draw them in asap after bailing in future.

Hanging a few dead crows around where you have stacked them will help to prevent further damage. You can also buy hawk/birds of prey lookalike kites etc. I have seen something like this over veg fields in NCD
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawk-Kite-Scarer-5mTelescopic-Flag/dp/B00GMLLUL4

gerryirl

Base price wrote: »

All you can do is patch them up (with silage tape) as soon as possible, learn from the experience and draw them in asap after bailing in future.

Hanging a few dead crows around where you have stacked them will help to prevent further damage. You can also buy hawk/birds of prey lookalike kites etc. I have seen something like this over veg fields in NCD
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawk-Kite-Scarer-5mTelescopic-Flag/dp/B00GMLLUL4

thats what I usually do, I stayed up 24 hours a few weeks ago when we had the big cut and a long draw with them. Very dull day here and I used to hear that the shine of the plastic didnt help. thats that theory out the window anyway. Do the hawk kites work

Base price

gerryirl wrote: »

thats what I usually do, I stayed up 24 hours a few weeks ago when we had the big cut and a long draw with them. Very dull day here and I used to hear that the shine of the plastic didnt help. thats that theory out the window anyway. Do the hawk kites work

Don't have one myself but as long as its windy/breezy they will fly and scare the birds.

Water John

I think if you are caught for time, the best thing is to draw the bales together. If they are individually around the field, the lookout crow, will perch on them.

gerryirl

Water John wrote: »

I think if you are caught for time, the best thing is to draw the bales together. If they are individually around the field, the lookout crow, will perch on them.

I done that one year and even put them in a field that wasn't cut and they went at them that's why I stay out all night now, just after today was thinking I'm not ganna have man with shotgun all the time. Googled a few bangers there , they are not cheap

charolais0153

gerryirl wrote: »

I done that one year and even put them in a field that wasn't cut and they went at them that's why I stay out all night now, just after today was thinking I'm not ganna have man with shotgun all the time. Googled a few bangers there , they are not cheap

Could you take a few lighter cuts. We only ever have 40 or 50 bales max at a time ...pales in comparison to the 180 we made one time on the one day.
Could you get someone to help you draw them in with you? A neighbour or a young lad?

Say my name

If you only had a few left in the field for the night. As Wj said put them together.
You could also leave the tractor and trailer or jeep or car near the bales overnight.
It'll give the birds the impression that someone is there.
Or else I'm sure it could be done leave the radio on in one of those vehicles and the window down. It wouldn't do the battery any good but you'd have to way it up against the cost of the silage. The battery can always be recharged or changed I suppose anyway.

I wouldn't be using a brand new vehicle with a coded radio for the job though.:pac:

Dakota Dan

gerryirl wrote: »

thats what I usually do, I stayed up 24 hours a few weeks ago when we had the big cut and a long draw with them. Very dull day here and I used to hear that the shine of the plastic didnt help. thats that theory out the window anyway. Do the hawk kites work

Like everything kites work at the start but when crows get used to them they'll take no notice of them. My neighbour had a pit of wholecrop one winter and put up a hawk kite after a few days they took no notice of it even when it was in full flight. Thing is crows are fairly intelligent.

memorystick

What is this type of scarer like? Bales on headlands of barley.