How to keep people away from our chickens?!

[MyFrancesca]

We are city chicken owners. We have a double lot. We have the lot our house is in which has a 4 foot chain link fenced in back yard. The second lot is directly behind our backyard, connected by a gate doorway (can only access the 2nd yard by going thru our back yard connected to the house) and is also fenced in by 4 foot chain link. We have been struggling to keep our chickens in this bacl area, as they have found ways to sneak out. The past 3 months have been a trial and error process of blocking off more ways they have found to get out.
Our house sits a good 40 feet off the sidewalk. Our chickens have decided they like our front porch and if they can find their secret way to get out, they go right up front to the porch and scrounge through the flower beds. This doesn't bother me at all...they aren't in danger, they have never gone near the road and I am not scared they would attempt to go near the road. They walk along the house and back around to the other side of the yard, which is still our property and no where near the sidewalk or road.
With all that said...we have had numerous people make the 40 foot walk up into our yard to chase our chickens. Over and over...day after day...different people walking down the sidewalk see our chickens and then come into our yard to chase them...follow them...try to capture them...I have no idea what they are thinking or why they're doing it. I don't understand the concept myself. If I saw a cat on someone's porch, I would not assume it is okay or appropriate for me to enter their yard and go after it. Same goes for chickens. If I saw a chicken in someone's yard, minding its own business, near the house...I would not think to myself, "I think that is a wild chicken and it needs captured." I would not once consider trespassing into the yard to follow it...I would not ever decide it's appropriate for me to enter this property and try to catch it.
Today I put a note on our door that reads: "Yes, they are our chickens. Yes, we know they get out sometimes. No, we don't need you to put them back. Please leave them alone for their safety." I have now added 3 more no trespassing signs to hidden areas in our yard that you can only see once you enter our yard and not from the road (we live in a snooty-ish neighborhood so we don't want them out for the world to see).
Anyone else have any ideas on how to keep our chickens safe from the public? I suggested making a run but since we have a fourth of an acre fenced in, we'd really like them to be able to utilize the entire space. We love that they get to play outside in the grass and bushes all day. We continue to build up the chain link when we find areas they are using to get out, one area we thought we had blocked off but the weasles found a way out anyway so that is on the agenda for tonight.

 

[newbie32]

I am one of those people that tell it like I see it and I hope no one jumps down my throat for this but.....
if your chickens are in your yard then people need to stay out of your yard and you need to inform the authorities when people trespass!

That being said-if your chickens keep getting out of your fence then that is your fault. If I was being a good neighbor and placed a chicken back into a yard to HELP my neighbor, then I would be upset if my neighbor got snooty and uppity with me for touching her chickens! If you don't want people trying to catch and return your chickens then keep them in the yard. Build them a run and problem solved.

 

[itgns]

I am one of those people that tell it like I see it and I hope no one jumps down my throat for this but.....
if your chickens are in your yard then people need to stay out of your yard and you need to inform the authorities when people trespass!

That being said-if your chickens keep getting out of your fence then that is your fault. If I was being a good neighbor and placed a chicken back into a yard to HELP my neighbor, then I would be upset if my neighbor got snooty and uppity with me for touching her chickens! If you don't want people trying to catch and return your chickens then keep them in the yard. Build them a run and problem solved.

^^^^ Agreed with all of this.

As for trespassers, walking out onto the porch with a rifle (usually unloaded unless we feel actually threatened) has done the trick for myself as well as some of my friends. Then again, we live outside city limits.

 

[aggiemae]

I tell unrully children and drunk adults that the chickens are suffering from a highly contagious disease....and I keep a bottle of hand sanitized in a bin by the coop door for the people who are allowed to touch our hens

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would start by putting a sign on a post at the sidewalk saying to keep out.

 

[MyFrancesca]

We have 3...the signs are sort of hidden, as mentioned above...so people can't see it when driving by but once you're in the yard, you can see them because they're sort of placed behind the flowers so the city can't see the tacky signs.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Besides signs Can you fence in or do some sort of ornamental fence in the front yard so people are either less likely to come in or so they think it is fenced? Something like those loopy wire things they just stick in the ground?

 

[MyFrancesca]

:/ errr...I don't know. I'm not sure it would really look right to put something like that up in the yard. I'm thinking about trying to find a company that makes signs and have them make one that says "Please don't touch the chickens" and make them decorative in our flower bed...

 

[akelley]

Can you keep them in a run and then let them out only when you're home? That way if they escape and people decide to chase them, you can go outside and inform the trespassers that they are not welcome to chase your chickens.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Make the signs too decorative and people won't "see" them, and of course there is the problem that half the people will think they don't apply to them anyhow. Do you have any idea who these people are? I do think that you are going to either have to be pretty obvious with the "Leave The Chickens Alone" sign, or do something boundary wise that will make the people who want to come up to the house think twice. I am now envisioning a flock of chicken shaped signs that all say something about leaving the chickens alone ... sort of like a high class version of the pink flamingos...
There is also the thought that as the chickens get braver they will probably start wandering more anyhow and you won't be able to leave them out front unsupervised or they will start going out of your yard.