Serious poop problem, contemplating chicken run

[lightningsally]

We have two adorable backyard hens, a sweet, gentle isa brown and a bold brute of a black australorp.

(When I've made a few more posts I can put some pictures up.)

We have allowed them to free range in our lovely little inner city backyard for six weeks now. We have a range of native and hardy cottage plants and lots of mulch for them to scratch in.

The problem is that for a good proportion of the day, they hang around our back door, either anticipating leftovers or desperately wanting to come into the house, and they poop ALL over our back patio. They even poop on our door mat!

It's becoming a big problem.

My question is, if I confine them to a chook run now after they've tasted relative freedom for the last month or so, how will they react?

Alternatively, is there any other solution to the poop problem other than live with it??

Thanks!

 

[nwfl]

put them in a run for the better part of the day and only give treats there. they'll get over it and be happy with any situation. also, install some sort of gate for your porch or baby gate, too for when they are roaming. good luck!

oops just saw you have a patio. goodness. you might need to portable fence the birds when they roam. we have fencing wherever we want to keep birds out and some still go over.

 

[hispoptart]

Maybe you could put a pretty fence with a gate around the patio to keep them out. Ours come up on out deck and we have the same problem. We are going to cover the rails with chicken wire and add a baby gate so they can't come in there.

 

[Chemguy]

You could also cover the area near the door with a tarp, sheet of plastic or piece of cardboard. It's not as nice an idea as the one that hispoptart had, but is at least functional.

 

[Clay Mudd]

put them in a run for the better part of the day and only give treats there. they'll get over it and be happy with any situation. also, install some sort of gate for your porch or baby gate, too for when they are roaming. good luck!
oops just saw you have a patio. goodness. you might need to portable fence the birds when they roam. we have fencing wherever we want to keep birds out and some still go over.

+1. With my first flock, I pretty much let them run wild, until I lost one to a dog attack. Then I started keeping them in the run except when I was going to be outside to watch them, and they got used to it pretty quickly.

 

[bleith]

Same problem here, but I choose to jsut live with it. I get to much of a kick watching them in the yard.

 

[Mattemma]

I got tired of the poo on the driveway/porch, so I ran some plastic fence with bamboo poles and zip ties. Sometimes a few still get through at times,but Jack lets me know(vocal) and I herd them back to the proper area. I got some poo on my porch that is like freaking cement.

 

[mstricer]

You could get one of those fake owls and put it some where near where they can see it, it just might scare them enough to stay away. That's all I got. Michele