Hacker News Reader

Comment by sudden_dystopia | Hacker News Reader

I’m worried about my 5 chickens and what happens if they catch it(I know they will die but like does the USDA come knocking and then burn my flock and coop to the ground?). I’ve taken down the feeders and gotten a fake owl to try to get rid of birds in the vicinity but they are still all over the place. There is not really anything more I can do but lock them up in the coop all summer but that would drive them nuts and could stress them out to the point of death anyway. This sucks.

View on HN

So this would be a very HN thing to do, but what about building autonomous turrets that identify birds and shoot them with something that scares them away? (Note that killing them is not only distasteful, but adds another problem: those bird corpses will attract other unwanted animals, so it's a non-starter anyway).

EDIT: instead of downvoting, please comment so I can understand why you don't like this idea.

Another guess at tomorrow's top submission: "Show HN: I turned my coop into a 3D CAVE to keep my chickens from going crazy" ;)

Well, now that you mention it, it would be interesting to see if a screen, or the content of the screen, had any impact on the chickens. Probably the easiest thing to measure would be egg production, but you might be able to measure "well-being" in some way. (I don't know much about chickens, but I've heard they are extremely stupid, so it may have no impact.)

they are very responsive to light spectrum; intensity; and periodicity. you can manipulate egg production, and breeding cycles by manipulating lighting parameters, and providing specific nutritional supplements.

> I don't know much about chickens, but I've heard they are extremely stupid, so it may have no impact.

They are instinctive rather than intelligent, but strongly exhibit stress symptoms when kept in tiny overcrowded pens. A screen in an otherwise bare box might not provide sufficient stimulation and reward, e.g. the 'pleasure' of finding food when chasing small bugs across the floor.

just putting in 2 cents, first is the harsh reality of using lethal means to defend a flock is not somthing most people want to handle; second is a domestic flock is a smaller priority than a large wild bird die off event. these are reasons right there, but not reason enough for me

I would probably be raising chickens in something like a greenhouse/pavillion, and using hygienic technique to minimize crossover events.

Your model would have to differentiate between birds and chicken, sounds like an interesting problem to solve.

Playing a loud noise would probably be enough, but you obviously don't want to scare your chickens, so maybe a auto-aiming nerf gun that shoots 20cm below the detected target?.

I know chickens can fly a little, but I imagine they don’t really do so — so only targeting and acting on things above ground level should be largely sufficient

ERROR: UPS man is now detected as a buzzard.

> Your model would have to differentiate between birds and chicken

Sounds like a job for XKCD 1425.

The noise would work for a week, tops. The birds would get used to it.

Just actually shoot 1 in 100 or so and that’ll keep them away.

Hum... Somebody posted an automated water pistol for scaring pigeons not long ago.

Possible alternative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow

Yeah that would work, but how will I be able to put it on my resume?

If you could put constructing straw men on your resume then you'd be competing with tons of internet trolls.

They said they tried a "fake owl", but yes maybe a human-like scarecrow would work better. If so it would certainly be simpler and cheaper!

Obligatory mention that killing most birds is a federal crime under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Well, yet another good reason to just scare them away!

Also, chickens will eat small animals, though usually more like mice than small birds. But I wouldn't put it past my chickens to at least peck at a dead bird, thus negating the whole exercise.

There's nothing actually wrong with this idea but it does read almost as satire. It sounds like an Onion article.

> Onion article

Remember ThinkGeek's SkyTag?

https://web.archive.org/web/20120218133853/http://www.thinkg...

Put poison high off the ground out of reach of the chickens. Eventually the birds will figure out that area is bad news and avoid it.

Then you have dead, poisoned birds for them to peck at.

Ten years ago, somebody built a squirrel detector/watergun combo to protect their bird feeders without harming the squirrels, [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPgqfnKG_T4

> So this would be a very HN thing to do, but what about building autonomous turrets that identify birds and shoot them with something that scares them away?

Indeed it is a very HN thing to do:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30642632

Consider installing anti-bird netting (or wires, if you have a big range)

I'm under the impression song birds and the like don't really transmit too well, mostly its waterfowl. Having ducks, geese etc flapping about your yard would be something to worry about.

Uh curious how your hens feel about the fake owl watching over them.

Chickens don't seem all that smart to me. Either that, or they've become so domesticated they just assume whatever is going on around them is okay because humans are allowing it to happen. In either case, my suspicion is that they won't give a cluck about some silly fake owl hanging around their coop.

Same, I live in CA and thankfully it hasn't been reported in CA at all somehow. I live by a popular bird flyway so it's a tad concerning.

the poultry free range birds are being moved indoors and still allowed to be labeled free range. The risk to flocks is so great.

Sucks for everyone involved, but not as much as euthanizing the flock

Buy new ones if they die? Looks like they cost $20 each.

Prices would go up in a bird flu epidemic

Reply on news.ycombinator.com