Bird in the Chimney!!

[FionaD]

At least we don't have to worry about raccoons in Scotland ​

i don't think the mesh I had was some sort of smoke filter. Maybe that's something different.. Here's the kind of thing I've got, but now my mesh is gone....pretty sure it's just for birds.

 

[BrotherBart]

Scottish wildcat will take care of the birds.

 

[bholler]

WHat are you trying to accomplish with a screen?

Keep birds and other animals out 3/4" mesh is not a spark arrestor those are at most 1/4" mesh and they clog in no time

Do you really expect sparks to shoot out of your chimney that are robust enough to stay hot all the way to your roof?

Yes it can and does happen in a fire

 

[Hogwildz]

I have the DV cap with screen , and aside from first year poor burning techniques and poor wood( my user errors), I have never had a clogging issue since.
As much as some don't want to hear or admit that maybe their burning habits may not be as good as they think, a cap screen can only be a reminder.
8 years, no screen clogging issues, not even close.
First 4 photos are from 2009 cleaning. last 3 are from 2008, when not as dry as wood as I would have liked was used, but still acceptable for me by my standards.
And I don't even have a cat stove. The proof is in the pudding, or photos I should say.
Cry all you want about a clogged screen, just means your burning habits, wood or both are subpar. If your clogging a screen with even 1/2" openings, the issue is you and the wood, not the cap screen.
Easier to blame the cap screen, then admit you may need to adjust how & what you burn.
To each their own.
I know what I have, and how it performs, and the pictures back it up. Anyone can achieve this, if they want to, not that hard really.

 

[DougA]

I bought mine with a screen and thought it was fine until one day we had squawking in the stove in the summer. I opened it up and out flew a starling that was much blacker than normal. It flew into the white stippled ceiling a few times and eventually got out the door. Quite a mess. That's when I put a better mesh on the cap. Yes, it does clog up a bit with crap. A few bangs with a rod and the stuff comes off very easily but it doesn't require me to re-paint the ceiling so I am much happier.

Loved the raccoon story. The closest I can come to that was our new school principal was visiting a neighbors home one spring evening and dad was on a long ladder trying to get a family of coons out of his brick chimney. The principal called Children's Welfare to have the kids removed from the household as he deemed it unfit for habitation. The ensuing fight was much bigger than the one with the raccoons.
City people tell farmer jokes, we tell city slicker jokes.

 

[FionaD]

Scottish wildcat will take care of the birds.

... In a similar vein, presumably, to how this guy takes care of things.


Hogwildz, that's some pretty efficient photos records you keep there. Really useful to see progress in that way. Thanks.

In my case, the guy is basing his advice about removing the mesh on his experience of other people's meshes, I guess that goes a long way to show most people operate their stoves, over here at least.

I didn't even know about spark arrests! Probably rarely an issue in this part of the world, were we tend to worry more about too much rain getting down the flue.

Well, given everything I've learned here I think I may put the mesh back in late spring. Its a wide one so i think I'm burning well enough for that and even if a bird gets in at some point I will at least know it wasn't cos of something I could have done but didn't.

I think I have a thing about this becase I used to live in a ground floor apartment in a castle that (of course) had fireplaces. The chimneys going from the ground floor in that place were very long indeed.... One evening when the fire was burning I noticed little bits of soot coming down and falling into the fire... I thought it odd and then decided maybe I need to get an extra chimney sweeping scheduled.. Thought no more about it. The next evening when the fire was lit the same thing happened again, only this time it got worse and worse. Then, after a few minutes a pair of bird legs appeared from the chimney opening above the red hot coals. They were moving. I rushed over, put my hand into the chimney opening and pulled... It was a pigeon. And it was alive. The poor creature must have been stuck in that long chimney for at least two days and two nights of smoke and increasing heat as it fell hour upon hour ever closer to the fire. It wasn't at all burnt, but it was warm, very warm and its beak was filled with soot. It died in my hands within minutes, mercifully. I don't want anything remotely like that to ever happen again if I can take any step to avoid it.

 

[soupy1957]

I have had three birds in my wood stove in the past few years. Getting them out is always an adventure.

It's a comfort I guess.........to know I am not alone with this issue. I'm glad it was only "one" bird and not a family. I'm glad it was not a family of bats!!