There are several techniques you may use to deter chickens, be it your chickens foraging around your garden or the neighbors’ chickens making a mess in your yard. So, you may hear about the common practice of placing a fake predator that chickens see as one of the best ways to scare them away.
It makes sense since chickens are excellent at surviving in the wild because they quickly spot and escape from predators. To prevent chickens and other bird species from causing harm to yards and other areas, you may use fake owls. The question is, will a fake owl keep owls away and chickens from your garden?
In our guide, you can learn more about how do owl decoys work. By the end, you can learn chickens are far from stupid and won’t be put off after a while by no fake. Chicks see it hasn’t moved, much like chicken down decoys do when hunting. (Read Can Chickens Eat French Fries)
Why Do Chickens Forage?
Chickens in the wild scrape through leaf litter seeking insects and other tasty treats. That’s “foraging.” Chickens naturally forage. It’s why they’re good scavengers. Chickens will forage 16 hours a day if allowed. Letting your chickens free-range is a terrific way to give them exercise and let them show their natural tendencies.
Not everyone wants yard chickens. There are a few things you can do to keep your chickens from escaping. Keeping chickens in your yard by giving them lots of food and water in their coop. This will encourage them to stay near home, where they can find their needs.
You may need to take serious precautions to protect your chickens if you have many predators. Electric or poultry fences can keep predators out of your yard and safeguard your chickens.
Will Fake Owl Keep Hawks Away From Chickens?
Hawks will stay away from chickens if a fake owl is around. You should be cautious of hawk predators with pet chickens in your yard, as once they have one, they can prey on them when hungry.
To deter hawks, place decoys or fake owls in your yard. The trick is owls terrify hawks, and the plastic owl is seen as the main chicken predator by the hawk.
Why People Put Fake Owls Outside Their House?
There are a few reasons people put fake owls outside their homes besides to deter chickens. One thing to note is when using an owl decoy; you need to move it around your garden. One spot on your fence and hens and other birds or animals see the owl decoy, don’t move.
To scare off birds from your property, employ fake owls. Many different birds tend to ruin areas of your land. Then, to scare the birds away, plot owners use fake owls.
Owls are common predators by nature, and smaller birds, animals, rodents, and insects fear them. Therefore, fake owls effectively scare birds from your land. The most intelligent birds, however, cannot be duped by a fake owl. They’ll quickly realize that your fake owl is stationary and isn’t a risk.
Make sure to reposition the fake owl after a time to heighten the birds’ fright. One thing to help keep birds away from your home is not to put cat food or other pets food on your deck to eat. This is one way to attract undesirables because if food is easy to eat, they’ll keep coming back. (Learn How To Get Rid Of Goat Heads)
Will A Fake Owl Keep Chickens Away?
A fake owl will keep chickens away, although this won’t last long, and the fake owl will only temporarily scare chickens away. Chickens quickly realize the owl doesn’t move and won’t hurt them.
To sum up, fake owls will keep chickens away, yet it isn’t long-lasting. It’s a temporary fix until your chickens realize the owl is harmless.
How Far Do Free-Range Chickens Roam?
When you let them roam free, your chickens will naturally stray from your house. The size of your yard, the accessibility of food and water, and the presence of predators in the neighborhood are some variables that will affect how far they will stray.
Because they are intelligent birds, chickens will quickly determine which locations are safe to investigate and which to avoid.
Your chickens might not stray far from home if there are many predators around; however, if you live in an area that doesn’t have many threats scaring them, your chickens might travel for miles before coming home as they are not scared.
How Do I Keep Chickens In My Yard?
There are a few things you can do to keep chickens in your yard if you don’t feel comfortable letting them go free. Using a poultry fence or electric fence is one of the simplest methods to accomplish this.
Poultry Fences
Wire mesh is used to make poultry fences, available in various heights and widths. Depending on your demands, they can be put in permanently or semi-permanently. Remember, there are various fencing options with cheap chicken wire.
While chicken wire can keep chickens in, it may not keep a predator out. Make sure any fencing is at least six feet high, as predators can’t jump this, and neither can your chickens. Any fencing should be buried in the ground to avoid any digging underneath.
If you have free-range chickens, offering them shrubs and ground bushes to scratch in the ground can be enough for places for your chickens to hide and help keep them in one area.
Electric Fences
Like physical fences, electric fences shock any chickens that work to cross the way.
Perimeter Hedge
Planting a hedgerow around your yard is another choice to keep your chickens in your yard.
Coop Location
Suppose you keep chickens for a few days in a new coop after you get them. When you let them out, they naturally return to the coop out of a sense of security, comfort, and protection.
Lock Coop At Night
Keeping your chickens in the coop at night makes them feel secure. There isn’t any great need to lock them in, but they will automatically go inside once it gets dark. Because of this, the urge to wander is reduced. (Read Do Deer Eat Dappled Willow)
Train By Feeding
You can keep chickens in your yard by feeding in one area. Chickens love to scratch, so get them into this habit, and they’ll stay close.
You can feed them manually or put out a feeding station to automatically provide them.
No matter how you keep chickens from leaving your yard, you need to be consistent. Chickens are intelligent and quickly learn. If you’re not consistent, they’ll take advantage and wander off searching for food.
Dogs To Scare Chickens
Your chickens might get scared if you get a dog for the yard, as chickens hate the smell of dogs.
Dogs may make excellent yard helpers as the sound of a dog barking can frighten chickens, so they run away. Dogs scare chickens even though they are not natural predators.
Protect with a Net
Another way to keep chickens away is to cover your chicken run with bird netting. By putting up a physical barrier between their coop and where you wish to stop them, they’ll leave to hunt food elsewhere.
You can hang these around your plants or hang them over your chicken run to stop them from escaping over the fence or roosting in trees and bushes.
Strong-Smelling Spices
Strong-smelling spices might scare chickens away. Fortunately, most of these chemicals are pretty safe for people. Garlic, a spice sometimes used to scare chickens away, and a member of the onion family has a strong smell that can do just that. Scatter around your plants or the inside of your fence to prevent harm to veggies and flowers.
Motion-Activated Sprinklers
Using motion-activated sprinklers is a terrific way to safeguard your plants from chickens. Put them where chickens roost and aim sprinklers at likely invader spots. You can place these in many areas, and they will emit water or sound to scare animals and birds away.
Fake Owls
An effective way to guard your yard from pigeons and other problem birds nesting there is to scare away chickens with a fake owl. As raptors, owls are naturally inclined to frighten off unwanted bird species. Numerous pests, such as tiny rodents, are successfully repelled by fake owls.
A real owl would be far more expensive but much more effective.
What Do Plastic Owls Scare Away?
If you are concerned that chickens may wreck your garden, you might wish to purchase lifelike owl and other predator decoys. Decoys are available for purchase online and in feed stores. These pretend predators make a fake noise as they wander around the garden.
The result of fake predators can be pretty successful in keeping chickens away and may work better than real predators. But some fowl, like roosters, are more naturally afraid of decoy warnings and may flee.
Placed close to your garden, a realistic predator or bird decoy can frighten off stubborn hens. To divert these chickens, you can place fake goodies throughout your plants. Similar to how decoy owls will help scare squirrels away from your garden.
A decoy that mimics other predators can be used to successfully keep a flock of chickens out of your garden.
A practical option for larger birds is a Coyote Decoy with a faux fur tail, scent pad, and movable legs. It can keep chickens away, yet it would be at the higher end of the budget than a fake owl. (Learn How Do You Know If Zucchini Is Bad)
Final Thoughts On Keeping Chickens Away
Avoiding feeding chickens is the trick in repelling them. Place your chicken coop as far away from your house as you can if you don’t want your chickens to cause a mess. Other techniques include deploying an electric fence and putting a fake predator on your land.
Depending on where your chicken coop is located, you can also utilize visual scare tactics, such as hanging pots. Having a fence may be better than relying on fake prey decoys.
Also, you could include a rooster in your flock to prevent chickens from wandering too far from the coop. If you cannot deter your neighbors’ chickens, you might want to train them to respond to your calls by running to you and claiming some extra free eggs.
