If you keep chickens, there will probably come a time when you don’t want them in your yard, garden, or living space. Chickens like to know where their food, water, and shelter are so they only wander in areas close to their coop.
However, you can end up with unwanted chickens hate who are into everything such as your veggie patch, flower beds, or scratching around on your lawn. Thus, even if they are not your chickens, but your neighbor’s chickens, your yard is in a range of their coop.
While you could find fresh eggs laid by chickens from your neighbor’s yard, these won’t outweigh the mess they can make in your yard. Generally speaking, you love the eggs, but you’ll want to know how to get rid of neighbors’ chickens, and possibly other animals from your yard.
If you raise chickens, one way to repel chickens is to place their coop a long distance away from your home. Another way is to use several decoy gardens strategically placed between their coop and your yard. More in-depth ways include using certain plants chickens hate, and more.
In our guide, you can learn more about how to deter chickens from your property. By the end, you’ll see the best ways of repelling chickens using quick and effective animal control. (Read Can Bearded Dragons Eat Jalapenos)
Best Ways How To Keep Chickens Out of Garden
Without fencing, there are several techniques to keep chickens out of the garden. You can sprinkle water on the ground, keep it covered, use wire cloth, scatter or even use citrus peels to keep unwanted chickens away.
1. Water and Motion Activated Sprinklers
Water works wonders as one of the best ways to keep chickens from wandering too far. It can also repel chickens that are your neighbor’s chickens. Spray chickens with a garden hose for a quick fix, although you need to do this physically.
If you do this repeatedly, they will learn to avoid certain regions, which may force them to flee. However, there is a better solution, and that is to use motion-activated water sprinklers.
As the sensors in the motion-activated devices detect chickens or other unwelcome animals, they are promptly sprayed with water to drive them off.
2. Spices
Strong spices like black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, curry powder, garlic, paprika, or a mix do not appeal to chickens. Choose one or more, then sprinkle the spice or spice blend chicken repellent between your plants and outside your garden.
The neighbor’s chickens won’t just find the smell repulsive the spices will also make their feet feel uncomfortable.
3. Citrus Fruits
Citrus peels such as lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, and others, can be used around your plants and the perimeter of your garden. Citrus juices can also be effective, and some gardeners slice up whole citrus oranges and scatter the slices around their plants and gardens.
4. Herbs and Flowers
Chickens often eat a lot of what is offered to them and are not picky eaters. The smell of strong spices and herbs is also unpleasant to chickens. It makes sense to plant some spices in your yard in this way. They might grow all the way around your yard as well.
In this way, a chicken would experience discomfort if it were to smell, eat, or even just walk through them. They’ll quickly learn from this not to visit the region again.
Some of the top spices to use or grow are listed below:
- Lavender
- Garlic
- Chives
- Cinnamon
- Citrus Peels
- Catnip
- Cayenne Pepper
- Marigold
- Mint
- Thyme
When using spices to keep chickens away, you need to consider where you are placing them, the weather, and if you want to use the whole plant or just the spices.
For the latter, you might even have to wait a while for the spice plants to develop or bloom. Perennial herbs, such as lavender, lemon balm, sweet woodruff, and thyme repel hens.
Established plants are harder for chickens to harm than seedlings. Chickens forage for food, such as bugs and insects, and they will go around your flower beds, so you can use plants like citronella, lavender, lemongrass, and mint. Just remember some plants won’t grow in crowded soil. (Read Can Cats Kill Chickens)
5. Cover Out-of-Bounds Areas
Grass or weeds can hide bare earth spots. Chickens can dust and bathe on bare areas of dirt. By reducing bare patches in your garden, chickens will visit less.
If weeds bother you, plant closely. Some plants can’t grow in congested soil, so choose carefully.
6. Building Fences
This is the easiest way to prevent chickens or wild turkeys from harming your garden. A simple fence such as chicken wire fencing will keep fowl and animals away. Planting shrubs can be another form of fence that can stop chickens from wandering around your flower gardens.
Perhaps the best ways to keep chickens away are yard fences. They are also incredibly useful because you can create a physical boundary wherever you want. Sadly, not all the spaces in your yard will probably be able to be fence-able. Alternatively, you may not like the limitations or overall design.
However, there are several fencing types to purchase:
- A tall fence
- Chicken Wire
- Electric fence
Each choice will depend on your yard, your financial situation, and what would work best for you. If you opt to put up tall fencing, it should go around the perimeter of your yard. It must be fairly high for keeping chickens in one area.
Anything less than 6 feet is usually a fair minimum, and hens can cross anything below. Generally speaking, this is the most expensive choice. There are many fences, primarily made of wire or wood.
One of the cheapest and best options for limiting access to particular parts of your yard is chicken wire. It is particularly well-liked by chicken owners. Installing wire around flower beds will effectively keep your birds away. It is reasonably simple to install and economical.
The most extreme alternative, but the one that will help chickens learn quickly, is electric wire. Chickens won’t prevent them to sit or climbing on it because of the shock, and they frequently fly in the opposite direction. This may be lined up to encircle your yard.
7. Wire Cloth
You can cover a vast area with wire cloth to prevent chickens. Wire cloth protects the ground. This strategy works well for mulch, newly-seeded, and seedling areas.
You can raise the wire cloth to protect seeds and plants from chickens. Make sure the wire cloth is supported by heavy stones, bricks, or other materials.
Some homeowners make wire cloth boxes by cutting a square from each corner and bending and fastening the edges. This wire-cloth box may be changed to any height to cover the entire structure. (Read Can Bunnies And Chickens Live Together)
8. High Containers
Plants grown in pots that are high enough to keep chickens out of reach rarely bother them. Choose a few plants you want to be especially guarded about and place them in tall containers.
Chickens can be easily discouraged from destroying plants using raised beds. Your plants should be fine as long as your raised beds are high enough to prevent hens from flying up and wandering around.
9. Hanging Containers
This food is ideal for hanging plants that curious chickens love to eat. Plants can be protected from chicken damage by being placed high up because unlike other birds, most chickens are not very good flyers.
10. Chicken Tractors
Chicken tractors are small, floorless chicken coops that can be moved and conveniently retain chickens while making them with completely movable housing.
With the use of chicken tractors, you may confine the hens you grow so that you can regulate how they wander around in search of more food.
11. Exclusive Dust Baths
Install a bare space dedicated to keep chickens from your garden. This bare plot of dirt should be 3×3 feet, far from your garden, and near your hens.
If they have a location for dust bathing, scratching, and digging, you’ll deter chickens from your garden. Sprinkle diatomaceous earth on this dirt patch every few months to prevent chicken mites.
12. Chicken Garden
When raising chickens, you can build garden areas for them with your own hands. You can select plants, bushes, shrubs, and low-growing trees for shade and protection from predators.
Blueberry and elderberry bushes give your own chickens enough goodies so they spend time in one area, and from wandering. Chickens love to free-range, so a garden like this near their coop will be enough to keep your own chickens happy and keep your chickens safe.
Also in this, you can add some perches so they can get away from larger animals and potential predators.
13. Use Fake Predators
Chickens are always on the lookout and are instantly aware of predators. Using fake predators can deter chickens from your neighbor’s home. However, chickens can be smart and when they see the fake predator in the same position, it won’t keep chickens away for long, yet they can deter other pests.
14. Use A Pet
Another choice would be to use your pet or get a pet. Particular breeds of dogs and cats both perform well in this. Naturally, you don’t want your pet to attack and kill the chickens, but sometimes just having them around is enough.
You might also think about purchasing a Rooster. You’ll probably be able to keep your chickens near their coop by doing this. Roosters are pretty good at keeping chickens in line and keeping the hens closer to the coop. (Read Can Chickens Eat Shrimp)
Conclusion
You’ll need to give hens out of your yard some thought, preparation, effort, and consistency. But once you can successfully control where they go and don’t go, it will all be worthwhile.
In the end, chickens are always searching for food, comfort, and the opportunity to procreate. Your chances will be much greater if you can prevent things from happening in your yard.
