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The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

maxnagy.com

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Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#31

Post by oblak »

ihaveajob wrote: post #23

I've been daydreaming about something like this for my squirrel problem. The damn things nearly leave me without nectarines unless I install a cumbersome, unsightly net over the tree.

Squirrels eat nectarines/peaches? Maybe I should hit wikipedia more often and check out things that "everyone knows"

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#32

Post by severino »

oblak wrote: post #30
severino wrote: post #24

This is funny. I've tried to make pigeons come into my terrace to feed them and allow them to nest with no success at all. Yet other people struggle to keep them out of their balconies :D

Have you tried providing food? All you need is raw seeds, no salt! There are all kinds of small and big birds that visit our balcony, especially in what passes for winter these days.

Yes, I left seeds, bread and other stuff pigeons and other small birds may eat, and also provided some kind of shelter, but the only visits we have here -no matter if I provide food or not- are seagulls, which I'm not interested in.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#33

Post by rglullis »

severino wrote: post #24

This is funny. I've tried to make pigeons come into my terrace to feed them and allow them to nest with no success at all. Yet other people struggle to keep them out of their balconies :D

Do you do the same with city rats? Both are carriers of a huge amount of diseases.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#34

Post by goldenkey »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #19

> [Spikes] work IFF you buy the right ones AND put them absolutely everywhere AND are careful to actually mount them correctly AND you don’t plan to use the area covered yourself at all AND you don’t even want to look at its disgraced looks. So it is completely pointless for a balcony. They can also be horrifically cruel. I've seen a pigeon die after getting impaled on those kinds of spikes and it was a traumatic exp…

I use these plastic spikes. [1] Not even sure if you can call them spikes, moreso just protrusions. They aren't sharp at all so they don't impale the pigeon, only stop it from roosting. They work really well because the pigeons just aren't comfortable sitting on them.

I agree with you about sharp metal spikes. Those are really terrible and I feel bad for any bird that gets injured by those.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Bird-X-Plastic-Polycarbonate-Spikes-A...

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#35

Post by severino »

secondcoming wrote: post #28
severino wrote: post #24

This is funny. I've tried to make pigeons come into my terrace to feed them and allow them to nest with no success at all. Yet other people struggle to keep them out of their balconies :D

Why would you want this? They'll crap everywhere. If you have neighbours they may not appreciate it either.

I always felt curiosity about pigeons, specially homing pigeons and pigeon racing. Where I live, there is not much interest in pigeon racing, but there are quite a few pigeons and doves. Considering I have no neighbours nearby and there is plenty of space here in the outside, I tried to attract them but I failed so far.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#36

Post by maccard »

maxmunzel wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I commented about this project of mine a month ago [0] and decided to write a more in depth blog post about it. Feel free to ask any questions :) [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31024099

What happens when you sit on the balcony?

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#37

Post by rkuska »

severino wrote: post #24

This is funny. I've tried to make pigeons come into my terrace to feed them and allow them to nest with no success at all. Yet other people struggle to keep them out of their balconies :D

I once found pigeon nest behind my window with 3 eggs in it. I didn't have the heart to destroy the nest. Little did I know about what filth I will have to clean up once they take off. Also, they left behind some very tiny beetles that I battled with for few weeks to come. They were so tiny they managed to squeeze in through the window's sealing.

This year I found an egg again. I threw it away.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem

#38

Post by ramraj07 »

93po wrote: post #29

I built something similar using the same internals of a battery operated water gun. I 3d printed a 360 turret enclosure, stuck it on a stepper motor. However mine was manually controlled via my phone. I used it to break up cat fights in the middle of the night

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