Naughty birds/How can I keep them out of the neighbor's yard?!

[Chickens&Ducks]

A bit of back story: I live on 10 acres but we're about 2 wide x 5 acres long (hope this makes sense, we border our neighbors about 5 acres on either side). One of our neighbors has some big, mean dogs that he wasn't keeping on his own property. We've dealt with Animal Control to little avail but finally got them ticketed for dog at large in May and haven't had big issues since then.

My chickens have a coop that they sleep in that's in a fenced in area. In the mornings, we let them out, they fly over the fence, eat bugs in my yard, no big deal.

So fast forward to Wednesday.... they decided to venture into the neighbor's yard, his garden to be exact. My 6 yr old's suggestion was to spank them but I don't think that's exactly feasible. LOL I kept them cooped yesterday and only let them out for about an hour before dark. Today we kept them cooped until they could be watched.

I really can't fence the entire yard for a couple of reasons- we're renters and it's REALLY long and therefore expensive. Any other suggestions? Is there anything that they're scared of? They've never left our property before and just know that with the issues with this neighbor, they'd likely let their dogs loose to try to eat them, plus my birds shouldn't be in their yard.

 

[HEChicken]

Unfortunately, chickens can't be trained to stay within an area, and they don't make chicken-sized shock collars for underground fences either (to my knowledge) so it sounds like your choices are to fence an area large enough for them to free-range but not so large as to cost a fortune (and possibly to be removable so you can take it with you when you move), or perhaps to get a livestock guardian dog and train it to keep the chickens from venturing very far (an expensive and time-consuming, long-term solution, to be sure).

 

[Gullygarden]

Please look at my byc page. I use an entirely movable electric mesh run. This protects my hens from all the bad dogs in the neighborhood that killed my previous chickens. This also keeps them home and gives them enough room. google premier chicken fence. Much cheaper than a "real" fence and you can take it with you. I use a solar charger! Good luck.

 

[Mahonri]

Either cover their run/fenced area, or trim their wings... or you'll get ticketed for chickens at large....

 

[Mattemma]

You can make a run from plastic fencing,bamboo poles,and zip ties.Move it around.Cover the top with bird netting. I would clip wings first. If I were the neighbor I would not be nice about chickens in my garden.I don't want anyones pets/livestock in my yard.

 

[BrokenRoadFarm]

Quote:
Or worse, they will get eaten by the neighbor's dogs or possibly shot by the neighbors. Maybe you could cover a smaller part of the run instead of the whole thing? We have a 12 X 20 enclosed run for ours and then we put them in a tractor to forage in the yard. We have 10 acres and LOTS of predators so they are not allowed to "free range" - to me it's not worth the risk...good luck!

 

[speckledhen]

The only way you can keep them from going somewhere is to put up a barrier they cannot get through, under or over. You cannot train a chicken to stay away from anything, simple fact.

 

[AuntieE]

I have a smaller yard than OPs, and while I have a large enclosed coop and run, I don't have full fenced in yard. Our neighbor has a PERFECT garden, and I'm absolutely paranoid about my chickens finding it. I do want them to have access to fresh grass and bugs, though. We have a small budget, so I had to be a bit creative. We ended up using a 2 1/2 foot high fenced "play yard". It's a heavy duty plastic/resin fence that makes a 12 foot diameter circle. You can buy more panels to make it bigger. Originally, we used it when grandma watched our kids. She couldn't move very fast, and we were worried our baby at the time might get away from her and head for the road. It's perfect for our 6 chickens now. When they were little, we just used as is, and moved it around the yard as needed. Now they'll try to fly out, so we zip tie some plastic garden fencing/netting on top. Still very light and portable. Works for me!

 

[JPHorvath]

Tall fence on your property line will fix the problem.

 

[R_Chickens]

Quote:
I get an image of the cat on Griswald's Christmas Vacation when it bites into the Christmas lights. There is a Bzzzzt, then a puff of smoke and all that it left is the outline of the cat in fur. Shock collars on chickens may end with the same kind of...result ;-)

It seems unlikely in your situation that you can rely on the good will and understanding of your neighbor, since you called animal control on him first- even resulting in a ticket. I'm sure he faced similar challenges keeping his dog home or even possibly getting rid of him.

I don't know the situation or if you were over reacting or forced to the last option of calling animal control, so not making a judgement about it. Just saying it will likely make it more critical for you to control your flock.

Sorry I can't offer a solution, but watching to see what others recommend.

Good luck!

Oh, and WELCOME to BYC!

- JC