Help! Chickens are starting to wander over my fence and into the neighbor's yard

[YardBirdCountry]

Hello,

My chickens are 14-15 weeks old. I have five chickens. 2 RIR, 2 Cinnamon queens, and one Jersey Giant. This is my first attempt to raise backyard chickens. I have a fenced in back yard with a standard four foot chain link fence. I keep them in the coop (with a small outdoor run) at night and let them out during the day to "free range" in my backyard. My backyard is probably 15x40 yards as far as the fenced in part. Prior to this week they tended to stay in the backyard. They would go up at night on their own and I would shut them in, and they would wait for me to let them out in the morning.

So far so good. It's been very rainy around here. So usually when I come home, the feeder is getting stuck. That is the food does not tend to fall when they eat it from the bottom pan because it is all wet and stuck. I think this is causing them to expand their territory and search for food.

When I come home from work I notice they are very hungry and the pan is empty.

They also found out that they can easily get over my four foot chain link fence. Before this wasn't an issue. I was a little worried when they started perching on it, but they weren't going over until very recently.

Luckily, my next door neighbors are very cool with chickens. I noticed that they were getting close to the my neighbors area. I went to talk to them about it and it turns out they have spotted my chickens in their backyard before. They thought they were "cute" and did not mind. Even asked if it was okay if they fed them and what to feed. However, About 60 yards from my backyard fence, however, is a golf course and more houses. They have only gone into the one particular neighbor so far (as far as I know), but I am a bit worried the people on the golf course or the neighbors back there may not be as understanding.

Here are my options as I see them

1) Find a feeder that will keep the food dry. I have something that may work OK. Additionally, put the more open feeder I have under the deck where it will stay more dry. I am hoping more food (so they never run out when I am gone during the day) will keep them in place and less likely to wander off.

2) Attach chicken wire or fencing to my chain link fence at the top. Make it so they cannot perch up on my fence and add about 3 feet of height.

3) keep them cooped (hope not to do this, I like ranging them, and the small outdoor run and coop will get really nasty more often

Here are the trouble makers, perching on the fence. (one of the birds is not into flying over the fence or perching on it)

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I would start with the simplest solution first which is of course the feeders. One thing that you could try after the food is to string a wire along the top (like clothes line) just above the top bar. This way when they try to perch they can't get on the solid pipe and have to land on the unsteady wire. It won't be worth the trouble and they will give up.

 

[4 the Birds]

I agree with the wires up top of the fence. That upper fence bar is an inviting roost! Clamp a metal post up 12" or so at the corners and run a few lines of 11 guage tension wire 6" apart. The roll of wire and wheel connectors can be found at Tractor Supply. Should not run more than 50 bucks to get lines up. Your feeder needs to be under a roof or canopy so that it is always dry. Many hang them so that they are up off the ground as well. You can toss feed on the ground each evening as well and they will be anxious to see you as they learn the feeding routine. Also give them some roost bars within your free range area. Clipping the wings may also help but I don't clip and my birds stay within a 4' fence. With a comfortable area and plenty of food.... they will not have any reason to leave!

 

[Hayduke27]

I agree with the wires up top of the fence. That upper fence bar is an inviting roost! Clamp a metal post up 12" or so at the corners and run a few lines of 11 guage tension wire 6" apart. The roll of wire and wheel connectors can be found at Tractor Supply. Should not run more than 50 bucks to get lines up. Your feeder needs to be under a roof or canopy so that it is always dry. Many hang them so that they are up off the ground as well. You can toss feed on the ground each evening as well and they will be anxious to see you as they learn the feeding routine. Also give them some roost bars within your free range area. Clipping the wings may also help but I don't clip and my birds stay within a 4' fence. With a comfortable area and plenty of food.... they will not have any reason to leave!

I agree here. Run the wire, it will be plenty of discouragement. And you definitely need to hang the feeder in a dry, covered area. Keep that food dry! You can even hang a tarp over it like a tent, just keep the rain out of the food.

 

[YardBirdCountry]

Thanks for the replies. Nice coop! I'm going to look into running wire on top of the fencing as soon as I get back into town. And I'll have to construct some roosts to give them a place to perch outside the coop to replace the fence. In the mean time, I did what I could to keep the food dry and my wife should keep enough food in the feeders for me.

This morning right before I left, they flew out of the fence again, wandered up into my open garage and started pooping.

They are used to running to me always thinking they are going to get fed, but now they have had to learn some body language to fear. I flap my arms at them, yell "Shoo Shoo" and they run back toward the fence. The jersey giant is smart. She runs to the gate, and waits for me to open it then runs back in. The rest are a bit more squalky and stubborn.

 

[aart]

If they fly over the fence without landing on the top rail first , the wire idea might not work.
Good luck! Curious as to what solution you will find for this issue..please do keep us posted.

 

[chfite]

If the food is kept in the coop, it should stay dry.

Wire or string along the top of the fence to prevent their flying over will certainly help.

I would discourage my neighbors from feeding the chickens. They will readily go to a source of food, especially if it is a treat such as sunflower seeds. In fact, they could help if the chickens came over to visit by walking over to the fence and tossing some sunflower seeds back into your yard.

For what it's worth, they soon will be too heavy to fly over the fence.

Chris

 

[barnaclebob]

They are still pretty young and good at flying. When they are older and heavier they may get lazy and only fly when they have to.

 

[YardBirdCountry]

Thanks guys. It's good to know they may grow too large and lazy to bother.



As of now I am pretty sure they do not fly over the fence without flying to the top rail first. The only exception to that is a "life or death" situation when my mom brought her little yappy dog over and it got into the backyard and started chasing my chickens. Two of them scattered over the fence and I am pretty sure they went right over. The jersey hid in the woods near the creek and golf course and it took me a while to find her. She choose to reveal herself to me but I had a hard time getting her to let me pick her up and bring her back.

I am going to hit tractor supply or a hardware store and get the wiring up. I'll post pictures and let you know how it works out.


In my coop the feeders hang off the ground in the open air part of the coop so rain can get in the feeders. I am going to make some changes to prevent rain from getting in the feeder as well.

 

[YardBirdCountry]

I came up with a quick solution on the fly. I decided to zip tie chicken wire on top of my fence. It seems to work pretty well. As I was hanging it, they tried to jump up on one of their normal perch spots. They stayed up there for a little bit, did not like it, and jumped down.

So it -seems- to work. I did not fence the areas that were heavily vegetated because I've never seen them jump up there.

I will build some wooden perches later when I have time to replace the lost roosting spots.