Landscaping Plants and Flowers

[sammi_lynn12]

Has anyone been successful on keeping their chickens out of their landscaping around the house and flower beds without putting up fencing around the plants and flowers?

I love letting my chickens free range but they are tearing up my landscaping and have tore it up all the way down to the cloth underneath the mulch. Fencing isn't really an option as its the landscaping in front of our house and around the side of our house and the whole point is so people can see the plants and flowers from the road and it looks nice. Wire fencing just isn't an eye appeal and it will bother me to look at! Lol

I have read that sprinkling the area with cinnamon, paprika, and garlic will deter them from going near them as they don't like the smell but I wasn't sure if anyone has actually tried this before and whether it actually worked or not? They also have chicken repellent spray you can make to spray plants and landscaping. Has anyone actually tried any of these things or it there something else that actually worked?

I hate keeping them penned up because they enjoy free ranging a lot but we spent a lot of money and time on our landscaping and we can't just live with them tearing it up either.

 

[nuthatched]

Only fencing will keep them out, they'll eat plants to the ground. Spices won't do diddly to keep them out, unfortunately.
Maybe get some 2ft chicken wire and spray paint in black?

 

[sammi_lynn12]

Only fencing will keep them out, they'll eat plants to the ground. Spices won't do diddly to keep them out, unfortunately.
Maybe get some 2ft chicken wire and spray paint in black?

My only other option is building them a chicken tractor for nice days and just moving them around the property allowing them to forage. We have six acres for them to do whatever they want on and they choose to be in my landscaping! My neighbors have 3 acres right next to us and a pond surround by all sorts of shrubs and trees and bugs and have told us they don't mind if our chickens venture onto that part of their property. You would think 9 acres of land would be enough to keep them occupied!

 

[nuthatched]

My only other option is building them a chicken tractor for nice days and just moving them around the property allowing them to forage. We have six acres for them to do whatever they want on and they choose to be in my landscaping! My neighbors have 3 acres right next to us and a pond surround by all sorts of shrubs and trees and bugs and have told us they don't mind if our chickens venture onto that part of their property. You would think 9 acres of land would be enough to keep them occupied!

Ours do the same, they could be anywhere on the property or in wash across the street but no, they run over to the neighbors and try to dig in their flowers.
A tractor would easily solve problems.

 

[addctd2plnts]

We use walk in movable pens for our ducks and they work well. Ours came from Stromberg’s Chickens but the kits need to be upgraded with much heavier zip ties and hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. Using these pens helps our ducks to have fresh grass daily and gives the grass time to recover. The only negatives are that the medium size, 10x13’, requires 3 people to pick it up and move it. The other issue is they DO go airborne in winds over about 25-30 MPH. We don’t have too many of those days and simply cut some of the zip ties on the tarp on top on those days and keep the birds inside.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I put up 2' tall poultry netting and it keeps them out... except that one time when a hen decided to lay a clutch of eggs in the depths of my rosemary bush.

 

[sammi_lynn12]

Ours do the same, they could be anywhere on the property or in wash across the street but no, they run over to the neighbors and try to dig in their flowers.
A tractor would easily solve problems

We have all sorts of odd lumber laying around and some fencing left over from when we made their pen so it wouldn't take nothing to throw a tractor together. I hate to do that to them but they can't behave. They have been free ranging for two months and just recently decided that my landscaping is their favorite spot!

 

[centrarchid]

I have not seen effective repellents of any kind. If you have enough acreage, then consider establishing patches that are more attractive to the chickens and some distance away from areas you want to keep chickens out of. Otherwise, suck it up and use one of the methods suggested that you have this far ruled out

 

[Hudsonsgirl]

Only fencing will keep them out, they'll eat plants to the ground. Spices won't do diddly to keep them out, unfortunately.
Maybe get some 2ft chicken wire and spray paint in black?

Yes! I saw where someone took a roller brush to paint the hardware cloth black on the coop. It really does help make the fencing "disappear".