Crows nest

Wonder if anyone has a fantastic idea to deal with my problem cheaply.

I have a pair of crows that appear to be trying to build a nest in my chimney pot which I want to discourage. Each morning for the last week or so there is a bunch of twigs and bits of other stuff and chimney lining on the sitting room hearth. Two storey house with quite a high chimney stack.

I know you can do properly e.g. get a cowl put on the pot, get it swept etc but I don't really want to lay out a lot of money (I've got 6 chimney pots and the sweep may be only a temp fix).

I've got a diy sweeping kit but it gets a bit stuck I think where the roof meets the bottom of the chimney stack itself. It's been professionally swept just a couple of months ago and it was fine.

Any cheap DIY bright ideas ?

Thanks.

 

Smoke Pelets from the Plumbers merchants employed at the right moment might give them the message.

I know of a cottage in Cornwall where they suceeded in building a nest in an open flue. They kept throwing sticks down till they filled the flue up. Trouble was, by the time that had happened half the kitchen and the entire inglenook was filled with sticks.

 

Maybe not the way to go now, but when my dad worked on the railways
We had a full metal fire shield
Used to put a detonator on the fire, put the guard up and five minutes later BANG
chimney swept and the Crows Gone :-)

Jack McH

 

Never fails.........

 

Blimey Jack, was that one of the detonators they put on the track to warn work crews of an aproching train?

 

We had a neighbour with a 60'+ Beech tree with Crows nest sat there for years.
Last year they moved and the new owners have now cut 30' off the top.
I wondered where the crows had gone
Good luck. Theyre persistant little B*******

 

I remember we had a coal fire when I was little. I also remember the only time my dad physically launched me across the room when I was maybe 4 or 5 year old. We were all sat by the fire, staring into it, captivated in the way you are with open fires on freezing evenings. My dad suddenly leapt out of his chair and physically pushed my older sister and me off the sofa quite violently. I can't remember the exact detail of what happened next but there was a loud pop, and my dad was in a stinking mood and was very vocally angry towards the coal man.

All these years later, it sometimes comes up in conversation. His version of events is that in a half asleep state staring into the fire, he suddenly spots a plastic cylinder with a couple of wire at one end being caught in the flames and starting to deform in the heat. I don't know how he knew what it was, but he did. I don't know if it could have hurt us but I hold no grudge about being physically launched out of the way just in case.

 

Yes they were, Worked a treat
So long as you had a good steel "blazer" and held it tight up to the fire place

Jack McH

 

Need one of these to get rid of the 65 scrap iron a-holes that keep coming around..........

 

Does anyone know the collective name for crows please?

 

Its a murder of crows.
My favourite is an exaltation of larks.
Wonder what the collective noun is for gardeners

 

Thanks Harry, I think you've started something here now.

Would it be a Crop of Gardeners?

 

It should be a Relaxation - if it wasn't for all the graft needed to get there.

 

Hi Fens,sorry to hear about your problem.I think you will find that the birds in question are not crows but Jackdaws as they like to nest in chimneys whereas crows tend to go for building a nest high in the top of a tree such as an oak.Rooks nest in Rookerys so if you ever drive past woods that have lots of nests in the tops of the trees you will be able to identify them as a Rookery

Apart from what you have already suggested i can't think of anything else you can do apart from sitting on the roof for a few days/ weeks and waving your arms about to shoo them off .If I wanted to get rid of them myself I would just spend the money and get the cowl fitted then it would be a problem sorted

Hope you manage to get the problem resolved