If your neighbor has a flock of free-range chickens that often wreak havoc on your crops or beautiful garden, it’s about time you take measures to keep the offending birds at bay.
This is especially necessary if you want to avoid disagreements with your neighbors while protecting your yard at the same time.
So, How Do You Keep Your Neighbor’s Chickens Out Of Your Yard?
There are a bunch of things that prevent chickens from scratching, pecking, and trampling. You can utilize them to reduce the harm inflicted by these birds on your ward. Better yet, you can decide to erect a mesh fence and keep them out of your compound.
First and foremost, consider determining the reason why the chickens want to visit your yard, to begin with. For them to flock to a spot, there must be something of value to them at that location. Four factors primarily influence their behavior: food, survival, reproduction, and comfort. Chickens may have more than one reason for wanting to visit your yard.
Seven Methods Of Ridding Your Yard Of Your Neighbor’s Chickens
Use these tricks to keep them away:
1. Sprinkle Some Hot Spices Around the Yard
Dust the yard in between plants and debris with one or a mix of the common hot spices – can be
- cinnamon
- paprika
- curry powder
- garlic
- black pepper
- salt
- or cayenne pepper.
Apply your spice to the entire perimeter of the garden or yard, as well.
Chickens find the pungent and burning smell of popular strong spices to be unbearable, so they will avoid locations that reek of these upsetting powders.
If the birds do wander onto grounds covered with spice, the harsh powders will coat their feet and create a tingling or burning sensation that can produce great discomfort, especially in a moist environment.
The birds won’t actually be harmed by the spice, but the discomfort will be unpleasant enough to ward them off the yard.
2. Plant Unappealing Herbs
There’s a selection of plants that chickens naturally find to be unappealing.
If you plant them in your garden or yard in the right positions, the odor alone is enough to repel even the most daring flock your neighbor could have.
Most of the perennial herbs out there work perfectly for this job.
Some options worth trying out include
- oregano
- thyme
- mint
- lavender
- lemon balm
- marjoram
- sweet woodruff
- chamomile.
Established perennial herbs tend to be rooted firmly into your yard, making it hard for chickens to peck or scratch them out, whether out of curiosity or purposefully.
When possible, transplant a few established plants in your yard instead of using seeds or seedlings.
Only established plants are firm enough to stand up to the rummaging chickens. Younger herbs might be weak to withstand them.
Other plant species that have been recorded to cut chickens-related atrocities in gardens include most of the standard annuals, including
- nasturtiums
- marigold
- impatiens
- petunias
- and alyssum.
In environments with acute food shortages, however, even these not-so-pleasant plants can be eaten by hungry chickens.
3. Add Fake Predators
Just like most birds, chickens are always alert to predators. Most chickens, more so the female with chicks, are aware of threats the hawks and owls pose to their chicks.
Therefore, adding some fake predators to the yard can be a great deterrent. Bird B Gone offers excellent predator decoys to scare birds, including this Bird B Gone MMRTH1 Hawk Decoy.
The problem with fake predators is, if you keep one or a few in the yard long enough, chickens will realize it’s bogus and resume terrorizing the space. This means you will need to change the fake predators once in a while to keep them terrified.
Also, you’ll need to be clever about utilizing fake predators. Purchasing one that looks realistically and moves regularly can be a great solution.
4. Deploy Fencing Around the Yard
Fences are probably the most effective method of keeping chickens away from the yard.
They are also more practical and anyone can literally establish a physical boundary right where they want it to be.
Unfortunately, not all parts of the yard will support fencing. Or, you don’t want the restrictions – maybe. The general appearance and look of it may not be too attractive.
Nonetheless, here are a few types of fencing options you can choose:
- Tall Fencing
- Electric Fence
- Chicken Wire
Each option can depend on the size of the yard, your budget, and what’s going to work perfectly for you.
5. Motion Activated Sprinklers
Install sprinklers along at strategic points in your yard, preferably facing the direction where the chicken enters the space.
As the sensors detect the movements made by the chickens on the fence or lawn, the sprinkler will be triggered to spray jets of water which can be enough to upset the chickens.
6. Cover The Yard/Ground with A Wire Cloth
In case there’s a broad area of delicate mulch or grass you want to protect from the birds, you can normally do so by installing a wire cloth all over the patch of ground.
- Chickens dislike the feeling of a fine wire mesh beneath their feet. It may take one or two visits to the yard for them to avoid the space entirely thereafter.
- Buy some wire deer netting featuring relatively small holes.
- Proceed to spread the sheet over the whole area you want to protect from the birds.
- Secure the perimeter and corners of your netting with pegs or heavy stones so that it doesn’t come off.
- Alternatively, buy a wire hardware cloth then cut a rectangular part large enough to spread over the area you plan to protect.
- Proceed to cut a smaller square out of all the corners and bend the four edges at the cut corners to create perpendicular “legs” on which the wire mesh will stand.
- Place this makeshift wire box over the surface you wish to protect. It should remain tightly secure without any additional help.
7. Use Citrus Peels
Collect a few lime peels, old lemon peels, or orange peels.
Proceed to scatter them on the perimeter of the yard as well as the center. If you have plant beds in some parts of the yard, add the peels in between the plant beds.
Also, you can spray the yard with lime or lemon juice focusing more on areas often frequented by the birds. Use the juice in conjunction or instead of the citrus peels.
To produce the maximum effect, consider cutting the limes or lemons and scattering the fruit halves all over the yard.
Chickens generally dislike the smell of any citrus fruit, and that unwelcoming smell might be strong enough to discourage them from coming to your yard.
If a bird does take one or a few nibbles of the fruit, its sour taste will normally repel them, too. This is especially recommendable considering that citrus fruits don’t actually harm the chickens.
Summary
- Neighborhood chickens can be a nightmare if you have some beautiful grass in your yard worth protecting. Maybe you cultivated a few plants of your favorite veggies or other plants that you would want to protect from the wrath of these domestic birds.
- Chickens and spices don’t mix unless both are dead in a pot, so dust your yard with one or a mix of such hot spices as cinnamon, paprika, curry powder, garlic, black pepper, salt, or cayenne pepper.
- If the birds do wander onto grounds covered with spice, the harsh powders will coat their feet and create a tingling or burning sensation that can produce great discomfort, especially in a moist environment.
- Such herbs as oregano, thyme, mint, lavender, lemon balm, marjoram, sweet woodruff, and chamomile are known to be unpleasant to chickens and ducks, so consider transplanting them in your yard for this purpose.
- Other plants chickens find to be unpleasant are nasturtiums, marigold, impatiens, petunias, and alyssum although they may still wolf them down when there’s an acute shortage of food.
- Have you tried to install a fake hawk? Just like most birds, chickens are always alert to predators.
- The problem with fake predators is, if you keep one or a few in the yard long enough, chickens will realize it’s bogus and resume terrorizing the space, so you will need to replace them quite often.
- A fence can be the ultimate solution – it is more practical and anyone can literally establish a physical boundary right where they want it to be.
- You can install sprinklers along at strategic points in your yard, preferably facing the direction where the chicken enters the space.
- As the sensors detect the movements made by the chickens on the fence or lawn, the sprinkler will be triggered to spray jets of water which can be enough to upset the chickens.
- You can install a wire cloth all over the yard – chickens dislike the feeling of a fine wire mesh beneath their feet.
- It may take one or two visits to the yard for them to avoid the space entirely thereafter.
- Also, you can spray the yard with lime or lemon juice focusing more on areas often frequented by the birds. Use the juice in conjunction or instead of the citrus peels.