Barn swallows! Sorry, long-post, need advice

[bananiem]

We had a pair of barn swallows nest on top of a 2nd story shutter last summer. The nest fell down last fall. This spring they came back but we took the shutters down to paint them. They decided to nest on top of our front door!! Several times a day I'd go scrape the mud off as they put it on. They seemed to finally give up, as I hadn't seen them for over a week.
Went on vacation for 6 days. Came back and guess what was above our front door!!! Now I don't want to scrape it down because it might have eggs in it. So i'm stuck with a mud nest over my front door and birds squawking at me whenever I use it.
My question (finally!) is this:
What can I do to make them not nest here next year?

 

[preshi]

theres nothing you can do.. as far as i know. I love barn swallows they are beautiful and really cool little birds I'd feel lucky if they decided to nest on my front door

I'll ask at the hospital on Sunday if tere is anything you can do...

 

[piratesmate]

Put the shutters back up & try putting chicken wire over the door sill where they're building. Hopefully, they go back to a less annoying place.

We have them here, but as I live on a farm they DO live in the barn. I'm always glad to see them flying around at dusk since they eat the mosquitoes.

We had trouble with finches building on the porch until we covered all possible nesting places This past week, though, we've had one sitting on an old hook on the porch every evening. It sits there & chirps then flaps all over when we open the door as though it's trying to get in the house. If the porch light is off, it's quiet, but stays there until morning.