Chimney anti-crow measures

[JohnW2]

Hi. Although far from being a stranger to DIYnot, I've never posted in this forum before, and I'm not even sure it's the right place - but I can't see a better one!

One of my chimneys is pretty tall - just over 13m from hearth to chimney pot (takes 15 x 36" rods to get up brush out the top). We generally only use it (open fire burning logs) around Christmas time, and the crows use it for the rest of the year for nesting purposes! I've therefore just had my annual fight to 'sweep' it - and, as usual, ended up (after a lot of sweat and swearing) with nearly 3 dustbin bags full of twigs etc.!

I have a couple of other chimneys almost as high, but they are fairly easily accessible from roofs. We therefore have mesh cowls (is that the right term?) on them, and whizz up and remove them if/when the chimneys need sweeping. However, the really tall one is a different kettle of fish:

Untitled

• JohnW2
• 4 Dec 2012
• 2

... getting up there to fit (or remove) a mesh thingy would not be a trivial exercise (certainly not a case of 'whizzing up'. like for the otehr chimneys!). I was therefore wondering whether there was any clever sort of mesh cowl that could be pushed up the chimney 'internally' into position with rods (and then 'pushed' out with rods when required) - or, since I have not got much hope/confidence that would be possible, whether anyone has any other clever ideas/advice (other than achieving 'proper access' to the top of that chimney!).

Kind Regards, John

 

[catlad]

You could get yourself one of them air horns like a fog horn for a boat, and every morning when you leave for work you could give them a blast up the chimney, seriously though is there not something you can fit like these high pitched things that scare away cats, but for birds.

 

[Aqua]

The first and very obvious problem is access to the top of the chimney, there may be some brave/daft soul with a long enough ladder but it looks more like a scaffolding job.

So, it wants to be a one visit job with scaffolding up. Have you thought about some type of spikes set on top to make it impossible for the crows to land/nest up there?

The idea works well against pigeons but not sure about crows, either way something along those lines to stop the birds nesting in the future is where i'd be looking.

http://www.birdcontroluk.co.uk/bird spikes.html

 

[JohnW2]

The first and very obvious problem is access to the top of the chimney, there may be some brave/daft soul with a long enough ladder but it looks more like a scaffolding job.

Thanks for your interest. Sure, that's the obvious problem. I do know a soul with a very long ladder who is probably both brave and daft enough to try it (I've seen him do crazier things!), but, as the owner of the chimney (which has been there for nearly 120 years), I'm frankly a little nervous about him leaning a ladder against it!

So, it wants to be a one visit job with scaffolding up. Have you thought about some type of spikes set on top to make it impossible for the crows to land/nest up there? The idea works well against pigeons but not sure about crows, either way something along those lines to stop the birds nesting in the future is where i'd be looking.

Yes, we've considered that sort of thing. Several of our neighbours have tried all sorts of variations on that theme, but without too much success. - but I'm certainly open to suggestions, particularly regarding any devices particularly designed for chimney tops. One thing, of course, is that, since we use the chimney so little (uaually only a few days per year), the only reason it needs 'sweeping' annually is to remove the birds' work - there's never any soot. If we did do a one-off scaffolding job and have some some sort of mesh thingy put on the top, it would probably not need sweeping for many years (but could one be certain that the devils hadn't manage to block it somehow?!).

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

You could get yourself one of them air horns like a fog horn for a boat, and every morning when you leave for work you could give them a blast up the chimney, seriously though is there not something you can fit like these high pitched things that scare away cats, but for birds.

Thanks for your interest. We tried sending some very loud noises up the chimney. It frightens them off, but they're back a few minutes later - so it would have to be a frequently repeated blast. Since they seem to have their breakfast and immediately start nest building before 4am in mid summer, that option would not be very practical (or popular!). Something not audible to humans would, of course, be fine - but, like you, I don't know whether that's possible with birds - I'll look into that.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[hotrod]

Cherry picker would get you access, I've seen Rentokill use them @ ~ 20m for anti-bird measures. You've got the same ridge tiles as me by the way

 

[JohnW2]

Cherry picker would get you access, I've seen Rentokill use them @ ~ 20m for anti-bird measures. You've got the same ridge tiles as me by the way

Yes, a cherry picker would do it if it were stable enough to be able to extend quite a long way sideways at that height withoit falling over - as you can probably see, there is very little space between the house wall and the garage, so the base of the picker could not get directly below the chimney. Mind you, hiring such a toy is a significant expense just to deal with some wretched birds

Kind Regards, John

 

[theoldun]

Bird Guard Chimney Cowls - birdstop.co.uk
www.birdstop.co.uk/chimney_products


Chimney Cowls Stop Pigeons or Birds Entering Chimney Pots - PCRC
www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/.../chimney-cowls-stop-pigeon..

Regards oldun.

 

[Watshot]

Links not working, try these:

http://www.birdstop.co.uk/chimney_products.asp

http://pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/html/reviews/chimney-cowls-stop-pigeons.html

 

[Nige F]

Hi. Although far from being a stranger to DIYnot, I've never posted in this forum before, and I'm not even sure it's the right place - but I can't see a better one!

One of my chimneys is pretty tall - just over 13m from hearth to chimney pot (takes 15 x 36" rods to get up brush out the top). We generally only use it (open fire burning logs) around Christmas time, and the crows use it for the rest of the year for nesting purposes!

Leave the rods and a plastic bristle brush in situ - or in flue Then jiggle it every morning - crows `ll soon get fed up

 

[JohnW2]

Bird Guard Chimney Cowls - birdstop.co.uk www.birdstop.co.uk/chimney_products
Chimney Cowls Stop Pigeons or Birds Entering Chimney Pots - PCRC
www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/.../chimney-cowls-stop-pigeon..[/QUOTE]
Thanks, and thanks to Watshot for having posted corrected links. The problem is that none of these devices really address the problem, of very difficult access to the chimney pot, which I mentioned in my OP. It's just about possible that I might be able to coax one of the 'spring-fit' conical cowls up the chimney on the end of rods, but it would probably be a challenge.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Leave the rods and a plastic bristle brush in situ - or in flue Then jiggle it every morning - crows `ll soon get fed up

Thanks. I'm not too sure to what extent that was intended as a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but the general concept of leaving the rods in (which something done about the aesthetics of the bottom end!), with some sort of 'obstruction' attached to their end, is actually quite a clever idea, which I hadn't considered. I'll give it some more thought.

Kind Regards, John

 

[hotrod]

John,

You're right it won't be "a £20 job" if you use a cherry picker, but you never know you might be able to get a decent price on one for say half a day and (maybe) use it for another job whilst you're at it? Just a thought.

Some info for you*:-

http://www.smithshire.com/files/eq_files/HR21D.pdf

http://www.smithshire.com/files/eq_files/004-0090 AB46 15m Boom Lift.pdf

*Other access hire companies are available. *Don't* pay list for hire you should be looking at least -40%.

 

[JohnW2]

You're right it won't be "a £20 job" if you use a cherry picker, but you never know you might be able to get a decent price on one for say half a day and (maybe) use it for another job whilst you're at it? Just a thought.

That's a very good point. There are a few small high-level jobs that have been getting put off - so I could probably justify a half-day, or perhaps a full day hire.

Of course, I'd have to hire it again every time I wanted to sweep the chimney. However, given the very small amount of usage the chimney gets, once I'd prevented the birds getting in, it would not need doing very often at all (so long as I could be sure that they hadn't been 'posting' twigs through the cowl!).

You're *Other access hire companies are available. *Don't* pay list for hire you should be looking at least -40%.

Thanks for that advice.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Nige F]

Leave the rods and a plastic bristle brush in situ - or in flue Then jiggle it every morning - crows `ll soon get fed up

Thanks. I'm not too sure to what extent that was intended as a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but the general concept of leaving the rods in (which something done about the aesthetics of the bottom end!), with some sort of 'obstruction' attached to their end, is actually quite a clever idea, which I hadn't considered. I'll give it some more thought.

Kind Regards, John

No , it wasn`t tongue in cheek Just me thinking "outside the box" .