Don't know what to do! Need advice!

[Orly29]

My mom currently resides in a little town (Banquete, TX) which is unincoroporated...we do not have our own police dept (except county) and I'm not able to find out anything about chicken ordinances. We have a few chickens that like to fly out of our large coral and our neighbors who just moved into town from out of state are very displeased that a few of our chickens roam around. I have kept them locked up for months and everytime I let them out...they roost in a tree and fly out. The neighbor has contacted animal control in the next town over and they left my mom a warning saying chickens have to kept in an enclosure...these were left after my grandma passed away last October and I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't want my mom to get in trouble either. Apparently keeping them in a cage is not going to allow them to live out there lives comfortably and they just keep going over to the neighbors since they throw scraps to the trillion cats they own. I don't know what to do...any ideas?

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Chicken tractors. Protection for them from the cats, and they still get to free range.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Do their cats come into your yard? Call Animal control

 

[LaLoomis]

I'm not sure what you mean by "large coral" but if it's not keeping the chickens in, it's not working.

They don't need to be kept in a cage, they just need to be in an enclosed run that they can't escape from. Try clipping their wings or putting bird netting over their run.

 

[Orly29]

A large section of our backyard is fenced in w a 6ft high fence and inside the fenced area are cages...I just refer to the entire fenced area as the "coral". I know it's not working...but the chickens don't get out everyday...if anything maybe once in a blue moon. I don't really know what kind of harm chickens can do to out of towners. I would call animal control regarding the cats, as they have scratched up my Audi, but it's not the cat's fault...they are just animals, they don't know any better. I really didn't want to get rid of these particular chickens, but they won't stay put!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Not a lot of options. The only way they are going to stay put is to either clip their wings, this only works if your fence is wire or such that they cannot get thru it, or contain them in a coop and run of their own if you are able to. Chickens don't need to run loose to live happy lives, many, many chickens, including mine, live in a coop with a run and don't seem to be remotely unhappy about it!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If you are unincorparated, unless you are in an HOA, you fall under county ordinances. That being the case, you need to check with your county and see what county ordinances say about chickens. I sincerely doubt that they require chickens to be enclosed. You may need to keep them on your own property, in which case you need fences tall enough to keep them from escaping. In general, even chickens that like to get high will not be able to except by stairstepping up from one level to another, using railings, bushes, branches, etc. If you keep these kids of things away from the fence, a 6 or 8 foot tall fence will contain most chickens.

Neighbors being displeased does not mean they are legally within their rights--squeeky wheels get action, so make sure that your wheel is equally squeeky. Find ourt exactly what your rights and restrictions are.

 

[wombat]

Make a run that's 6' high. Use 1"x2" welded wire. Use 1/2" hardware cloth around the bottom, overlapping the welded wire. If you get 48" hardware cloth, and bury it a foot deep, you've got the bottom 3' covered against predators. Optionally roof it with plastic mesh to keep out hawks, or hardware cloth if you don't close up the coop at night and need to keep coons out.

Bomb-proof enclosure.

 

[Tweeza]

If the cats are scratching your vehicle call animal control. After a while your car will start to rust; it might take it a while but it will.