Any help, my hens are eating the siding off my house!!

[Ivytwilight]

Update!
I tried lemon tonight. I grabbed two off the tree in the front yard and brought them to the patio door. The patio is concrete and the first place they started to peck was the corner of the wood siding, right next to the glass sliding door. ( I have pavers put up against the corners so they cannot get around them to the wood and caulking for the time being) When Plouffe saw me holding the lemons she made the most fuss I have ever heard from her. She took one look at the lemons and ran away clucking, most upset with me. In her defense they are HUGE lemons...as huge as lemons get.
Furbush was not impressed with the yellow objects. I cut one in half and started to smear it all over the corner. I have picked this corner as the testing ground. She not only started to peck the corner, but tried to take half the lemon out of my hand. I didn't give her any, but lemon is right out! So, for now I put the paver back against the house. After this they both got back together, discussed how to upset me some more, and moved a few feet down to start pecking there...I eventually had to put them back in their run. I will try Vaseline tomorrow, at this point why not!
On another note my dog hates lemons and the lemon juice. He took one sniff of it and went to the other side of the yard, barking. So, if you don't want a dog to chew your wood siding I believe I found the solution!

The caulking is painted over, the same color as the rest of the siding. Which is why I'm shocked they can hunt it out so precisely. They have a taste for it! We bought this house as is and we painted over everything we could! The paint had not been changed since the 70s the neighbors informed us after praising our color choice. They were as happy as us with the change.
I will take a few pictures tomorrow of some of the damage and them in the act if I can. You can hear them pecking at the walls from inside, you open the door and they start pecking at the ground like they have done NOTHING wrong...I know better! As my husband says they are being jerks, cute jerks, but jerks nonetheless. I did inform the husband we would probably have to buy some sort of barrier and he gave me the stink eye... but didn't complain, yet. I will look into the gutter guard!! Thanks for the helpful tips and advice! I will keep you all updated!

The threat of a chicken patty. I told Furbush this is what happens to bad lady birds. She didn't seem overly concerned.

 

[galanie]

Could you maybe take a picture of where they are doing this so we can see exactly?

 

[Ivytwilight]

Could you maybe take a picture of where they are doing this so we can see exactly?

Here are a couple photos I took of some of the spots.

This is a portion of the back patio. You can see a paver I have set up on the corner of the door, a chair leaning against the house, in front of another paver because they were just jumping up and pecking above the paver. There is also the green flower pot I dragged to put in front of another spot they were really going to town on.


One of the corners, where ever the yellow paint is missing or cracked in the pictures is the damage they have done in the last week.

This is a section about 4 inches long where they ripped the caulking out. The house is old and the best way to fix this siding( without residing the whole house) is to caulk any holes or gaps, so we did this before painting, being an old house there were multiple regions needing attention.

Here is another spot they were working on

And another, they jump up and peck where ever there is caulking, where ever paint is missing is the damage they have done in the last week. We just finished painting...we did it ourselves, just the two of us, so it took awhile and it is pretty aggravating seeing hours and hours of work being destroyed so effortlessly. They are doing this along the whole back of the house. The sides of the house and front of the house are brick so I have no worries there, but 98% of the house exposed to the backyard is this wood siding.


Those are just some of what they did in a couple days. I used to let them out for a large chunk of the afternoon, say 2pm until dark, but now I only let them out after 4 (it gets dark around 5 30 abouts) and if they start pecking I have to put them back in their run. It is frustrating >< I wish my girls would just behave themselves. We don't want to keep them in their run. We got them as a form of pest control, so we wouldn't have to spray our yard and house with scorpion poison every month (nasty stuff!) We bought this house about a year ago, it was sitting for awhile and there was a huge scorpion problem. We got them as chicks and haven't seen a scorpion since they've been in the backyard foraging. (We used to see several in the yard every night and one in the house every couple of days. A Bark Scorpion even stung our dog in the face.) They are doing their job of eating all the bugs, just too good of a job at foraging...I guess. So, I don't want to have them penned up all day or have parts of the yard blocked from their access. Just puts me in a mood these birds.

 

[TweeTea]

...The threat of a chicken patty. I told Furbush this is what happens to bad lady birds. She didn't seem overly concerned.

Larf, that brightened my morning, the threat of a chicken patty, but I must say she looks rather more excited and expectant than fearful of the threat, he he he.

Sometimes if you don't laugh you'll cry.

Maybe you can surround the house with little potted plants, something cheap but hardy and bushy. A living barrier. It would probably cost more, but look better than a chicken mesh fence?

Good luck with the vaseline and I can't wait to hear the next update to the demolition chickens

 

[galanie]

Ok then that's worse than I hoped. I hoped it was some sort of siding that really didn't need the caulking. But that does. Dang. Only thing I can think of besides a physical barrier is a type of caulking that isn't so flexible. But I'm not aware of one that would do what you need it to do that is inflexible. I have a feeling that if you keep that place a long time, you'll have to replace that siding regardless. But I'd hate for the chickens to be the reason! You could look around for some 1x1 plastic netting or plastic chicken "wire" that is green or white. A 2 foot bit of that placed around 4-6"" from the wall should do it. whatever color looks best there. Plastic works because it only needs to keep a chicken out. They can't "fly" over something that is that close to the wall and can't perch on it. And if it's that close to the wall also, they're not going to like being stuck in there if they do get between the mesh and the wall. And they likely won't be able to get out because they can't spread those wings. Won't hurt them but they won't be wlling to get stuck there again. Not to mention that this would be tons cheaper than a full fence anywhere.

 

[TweeTea]

How did the vaseline go? Curiosity is driving me crazy

 

[Ivytwilight]

I did try the Vaseline two days ago (sorry for the delay!) and it did not go as planned. They started to peck the other side of patio door, so I put enough of the Vaseline to cover the area...Furbush ran up to it and started to eat it like it was a Christmas feast, than Plouffe started to eat what was left on her beak!!! I fear my girls are none to bright..eating paint, caulking, and now Vaseline!! For now we have put any manner of obstacle in their way. Pavers, chairs, plastic tubs...an outdoor welcome mat I have stuck to the wall...anything we have around!
They seem to concentrate most of their destruction on the patio, which leaves us with the problem of fencing off the area, we would have to put a barrier up around the whole patio that we, and the dog can easy get in and out of, or figure out something over the concrete closer to the wall. I don't know! Right now cost effectiveness is the main issue. So, for the moment I am letting them out to forage for a shorter amount of time, hoping they will be busy elsewhere and not have hours to destroy the house.
I did have a thought that maybe they keep doing it because they know it brings me running outside! They tend to like whenever I am about because I spoil them rotten, so I've started to send my husband out to chase them away with a spray bottle of water. (He hasn't spent nearly as much time with them as I have and they aren't all that fond of him. He isn't very upset about being the bad guy.)

With a barrier, would it have to remain up forever or could I take it down after a time and hope they forget about their obsession? If I can take it down after a spell, how long should I wait before I remove the barrier?

Thanks again for any advice!

 

[Den in Penn]

A barrier forever. Even if they don't remember it, after a while of being blocked from it, given time they will return to investigate the area again. It is in a chickens nature to look for something to eat, always and forever looking.

 

[Cebarmlds]

Instead of the caulking could you use cement in those cracks? maybe something like grout they use tiling floors?

We had a problem with our hens pecking and eating the styrofoam forms used for the basement foundation, the styrofoam should have been covered years before but hubby never got around to doing it and our chickens loved eating it! so he ended up doing a quick cover with thin set cement, it looks better than exposed styrofoam too.

 

[Ivytwilight]

Tomorrow we are off to see what else could be used for mending the siding. I hope we do find something more substantial! If not, at least shop around for a barrier of some sort. Wish us luck!