How can I keep my hens off of my deck?

[Poor realtor]

My young hens come onto my deck and make a mess. I have noticed that they first started coming onto the deck to reject the advances of a young rooster (and for some reason, he doesn't follow them onto the deck), but now they have just made themselves at home up there. I NEED YOUR HELP! If my wife steps in any more stuff, I am going to suffer the consequences! What can I do to discourage them?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

You have that problem too? un

I had this problem 25 yrs ago and thought it was just their attempt to stay in the sunshine. It became quite a problem. We finally decided to put them all in the freezer.

Now we have the same problem with our new flock, and I'm home now (retired), and still can't keep them off. We refuse to feed them up around the house, but as soon as they see us step out the door....here they come!

We are going to try to build them their very own gazebo/sundeck/treat feeding deck out of an old daybed, add a roof and hopefully they will use it when the weather gets wet and cold.

They are free ranging all day and there are certain ones that just feel more like home on my porch!

Good Luck!

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

Mine has a railing with slats, so I just block off the opening with a piece of exterior paneling left over from their coop. I can slide it back & forth for our ease of entry and exit.

Maybe you can put up a gate and some inexpensive netting around the perimeter of your deck.

 

[bluey]

You know what works well? A baby gate at the entry....

 

[miss_thenorth]

Maybe a squirt bottle with water in it?

 

[JennsPeeps]

We put an old window screen across the entry. So far it's deterred all but our favorite chicken, who is bound & determined to follow me anywhere. Gwen is such a sweetie!

I should add that about a month ago I went out on the pack porch to find that my girls had re-discovered the pepper plants I've been babying. They ate 1/2 of the leaves. Between the craptacular weather here in WA state and chickens who keep eating the plants' leaves, it'll be an honest-to-god miracle if I get a single pepper off of the 12 plants. Anyway, when I found the girls nibbling upon the leaves, again, I. FLIPPED. OUT. I yelled, waved my arms like mad, and tossed the chickens one by one into the grass. The RIR took off before I could get her. They haven't come back to the porch.

Except for Gwen. She's figured out how to get around that screen but she does hightail it for the yard when she sees me coming onto the porch. She knows that's no-no land.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Squirt them with the hose a few times. When mine ventured into the veggie garden in the spring I did that and they haven't even gone near it all summer.

 

[Jenski]

Ummm, you could also get rid of the rooster who's been pestering them. Poor girls!

We have found that lightweight, baby gate-height objects discourage the hens from coming into areas we want to keep clean. This is much less stressful for us than water squirting, etc.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

The water never actually hits them, unlike a beak of another bird teaching them about territory. I never used baby gates with my kids either though. I watched them until I could teach them. Chickens are smarter than you think.

Roosters do what roosters do. But they don't have to do it on the deck!

 

[Poor realtor]

Quote:
My 3 year old son has named the rooster "Shrek", so he's not going anywhere. Shrek isn't really a problem anymore anyway. The hens just go there on their own.