Encouraging Destructive Barn Swallows out of my horse barn (1 Viewer)

I was hoping to receive some advice on Barn Swallows. I own a farm in Maryland, USA. We originally had about 5 swallows, (over ten years ago) and they were not a problem. However, now, we have dozens of swallows residing in my barn where I house Thoroughbred racehorses. I am very much a nature lover, but now the swallows have become somewhat of a problem, because they are defecating everywhere and digging into my insulating material, building nests everywhere and making a real mess. Obviously, I do not want to eradicate the birds but my question is: If I build a large and inviting aviary / bird house for these swallows, are they likely to move out of my barn and into their new pad? Or do you think they consider my barn their home, and therefore, will not migrate to their new location? Any advice on how to encourage them to live somewhere other than in my barn is greatly appreciated!!

Best option would be to put a hard cover over the insulation so they can't dig into it. Putting up a separate birdhouse for them might work, but I suspect they'll prefer to stay in the original location, not least for the extra warmth from the horses on cold nights. If there's any most advantageous locations for nests within the barn, hammer in 3 or 4 nails to act as a base support for them to build new nests on.

Worth remembering that their presence keeps down numbers of mosquitos, horse flies, etc., so they are very beneficial to your horses.

A neighbour with a large barn he used as a mechanics' workshop had the same problem - so he put up a few wooden ledges in places where the droppings didn't interfere with the cars below. That worked a treat. He also put up a communal nestbox for the House Sparrows on the wall outside and they got used too.

Swallows will use any convenient ledge - so if you place ledges where you wouldn't mind the nests they are likely to move - especially if you make the places where you don't want them less attractive - perhaps with baffles or shielding, etc.

Good luck.