Birdies in my Chimney

[Alix]

I am sitting here in the living room and I can hear fluttering and chirping from inside my chimney. *sigh* Dumb birds. A few days ago we heard a bird in the chimney and banged around loudly and made sure the flue was closed so it couldn't get all the way down and into the house. (That happened one Christmas while the fire was actually lit! Bird survived, Christmas tree was a bit worse for wear, dog and cats both enjoyed their Christmas excitement) I think now the silly things are building a nest in there. I don't want to disturb them if they have eggs laid already, but I really don't care for having them in there.

Any thoughts on how I should approach this one?

 

[GB]

We had this happen three times this past year with our wood stove. We took an opposite approach as you though. We opened the flu so they could drop down into the stove (not lit of course). Our wood stove is in our breezeway which has our front door as well as a sliding door to our deck. I had Darl hold up a blanket to block the path into the kitchen and opened both doors then opened the stove. The bird flew right out the front door in .0000001 seconds. By the third bird we realized we didn't even have to hold up the blanket because the bird saw the outside and knew that is where he wanted to go. With a fireplace in the middle of your house that may not work, but just thought I would throw it out there.

 

[LadyCook61]

How about some kind of wire net or something to cover the chimney, to prevent the birds from getting in there in the first place?

 

[Uncle Bob]

How about some kind of wire net or something to cover the chimney, to prevent the birds from getting in there in the first place?

Yep! 1/4" or 3/8" hardware cloth works fine!

 

[Alix]

Well, I appreciate the mesh advice but unfortunately that just isn't feasible with a chimney. We've done that in other places, but the chimney is not only fairly inaccessible, it needs to be cleanable (sweepable?) I should post a picture of the chimney so you can see what I mean about inaccessible. Right now anyway.

Any thoughts about how to get rid of the silly birds now that they are in residence?

Oh and GB, thats a great idea but it wouldn't work in here. Very open layout with no way to effectively channel them outside.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Well, I appreciate the mesh advice but unfortunately that just isn't feasible with a chimney

Why not??? I have two chimneys with hardware cloth on them on a two story house....Also know of others who've done this...It's not permanent...easily removed by a Chimney Sweep or anyone cleaning the Chimney.....

Any thoughts about how to get rid of the silly birds now that they are in residence?

Build a fire!

 

[Alix]

There is too much ice everywhere to get a ladder to stand safely at the moment. That stuff is removable and then you can put it back? I'll check into that UB.

Build a fire! EEK.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Cut the wire to fit the chimney...Lay it on top...weight it down. Or I've seen people use expanded metal cut to fit..It's a heavier gauge metal than hardware cloth...Neither will interfere with the draw of your chimney....

 

[Loprraine]

Not sure what you can do now, Alix, but, when they are gone..........My chimney sweepers put a wire mesh on so it didn't happen again. I think it cost about $30.00 ten years ago, but was well worth the money. If you have someone who cleans your chimney, ask them about it. I did it in another house after a baby owl fell down. Let's just say it got toasted.

 

[Alix]

Ick. At least the sparrow survived the fire at our place. I THINK it is sparrows in there again.

 

[Loprraine]

Let's just say it wasn't pretty. That's why every house after that has a screen on the chimney.

 

[jabbur]

We had a bird get in through the chimney once. I kept hearing it cheeping bur couldn't find it. It's coloring blended in so well with the dark brown bricks and black screen on the fireplace. We ended up sliding a sheet between the screen and the bird and wrapped the whole thing up and carried it outside. Haven't had any problem with birds building nests in the chimney but they do like our front porch! Several springs we've gotten dive bombed by mamas trying to protect their babies!