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Bird Netting in Barn

So the place my wife works for is getting a new horse barn/arena. Of course the barn builder offers a bird block package, but I wonder if it’s enough or worth it. Has anyone experienced or has bird netting installed on the bottom of their rafters? Something like:

We would span it across the rafters the width of the barn. Any down sides to this approach? The only negative I can see is it might hold dust.

So, the barn where I board has netting. Birds get stuck in it. At one point some of us rode around the indoor and counted a dozen poor souls hanging in it. It is gross. Also, in the time period between the initial stick and the demise, there is a lot of flapping and flailing and if your horse is prone to spooking you will be miserable!

Maybe your product is different?

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Yeah, bird netting is notorious for trapping birds :frowning:

Hardware mesh is probably a better choice if you want that sort of thing? Or just put in a ceiling instead of leaving the rafters open…?

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We have a resident grumpy owl in the covered arena.
She takes care of other birds, pigeons and such, quickly.
Also rodents, snakes, rabbits.

During mating session she permits a male owl to share the barn, afterwards he gets run off.
She likes her privacy.

We have some chicken wire in the other barn, above the stall fronts, vertically and works as a barrier there, not sure how any wire would work horizontally, on rafters.

I’ve heard that fans deter birds.

If you put in a metal ceiling, take steps so you don’t end up with condensation raining down. (Which happened in the only indoor I’ve ridden in with a dropped ceiling.)

Ditto the comments that birds get stuck in the nets and die.

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I wish the fans would deter birds. We have large ceiling fans in the aisles to aid with air flow and we have a couple of bird casualties weekly. There is nothing worse than finding some poor mangled sparrow flailing around in the barn aisle.

Bird spikes work very well. We bought ours at Lows. The spaces were a bit far apart for sparrows, so we doubled them up. We installed them w zip ties instead of screws as that was easier for us.

We want to not only stop perching, but nesting in the hidden parts of the roof. I was hoping that the 3/4" net would be a little better at not catching birds.

It probably will be better than nothing is my guess.

This says netting needs to be less than 5 mm

3/4" is 4x too big.

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I have similar netting, but I hang it from all my door headers. It’s attached across the top, then hangs down 8’, and is loose on the sides. So you can walk under it, duck under it if on something taller, and drive under it easily. Once in a while a sparrow will hop in the barn, but otherwise it deters birds from flying in.