They've taken over the front porch

[albsure]

My wife is nearly at her wits end. With the weather warming again, the "flock" (3hens and a roo) are much more mobile and enjoying the whole property. They seem to especially enjoy the wood rail porch on the front of the house, and leave nice presents for me to clean off with the hose when I get home from work.

I don't want to confine them... any suggestions for keeping them off the front porch?

 

[easttxchick]

There's really not much you can do other than hose or sweep frequently. No matter how many times I shoo them, they just keep coming back pecking on the front door for me to come out.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Good luck!! They'll only get off if I shoo them away and then when I'm gone back in they come again!! But they usually don't stay long cause there just to busy. But I also don't have a railing either!!

Missi

 

[Tala]

I put up a gate at the top of the stairs to my porch. The birds have clipped wing feathers and the porch railing is taller than our fences, so they always had to be ON the porch before they could get up to the railing.

Keeping them completely off the porch works great for me - unless you forget to latch the gate! My birds will come inside the house too if I don't latch the gate and shut the door completely.

 

[gckiddhouse]

We have spent hundreds of dollars fencing off our huge back patio for the same reasons. It is just embarrassing to have folks over. The darned chickens still come over the fencing and we find it impossible to keep them off. We decided to stop free ranging them for a while to regain some sense of decorum at our house.

I always fantasized about spending like 3 days out there with a power sprayer and just blast any chicken whose beak dared cross the threshhold of the patio. Operant conditioning would eventually work, I theorized, I just didn't have the time or the power sprayer.

Good luck with that...

 

[dawg53]

I have almost an acre of yard and you'd think they'd be out there in the yard somewhere scratching around,but nooooo! They love the porch,the driveway,the sidewalk and the garage. They always leave me presents to clean up too.