Urban Backyard - Keeping the chickens in the yard?

[NicChicks2013]

Am I understanding correctly, people will put mothballs out to harm chickens or deter them from coming on their yard?

 

[ChickenLegs13]

JungleJane if you know there are pit bulls on the other side of the fence, why take risks? Play it safe and clip their wings. Ounce of prevention...
Be aware the pit bulls could easily come under, over, or through your 6 ft fence.

 

[Janeothejungle]

I've never had any problems with my chickens flying over the fence. They are usually to busy. I didn't know that a chicken could dig such a deep hole trying to find a good bug or to take a dirt bath. They are so funny to watch.

We have 6' privacy fence in about the same amount of yard and have never had one of our girls even try to escape to the neighbors yard. That's not to say you won't have an issue with yours, but maybe you won't. We currently have 11 chickens in a decent sized yard. I will say it is really fun walking out in my backyard, the girls come running as soon as they hear the door open then proceed to follow me around the yard as I take care of things outside.

Almost a year since the original post and I can say that these responses were dead on. The girls have a large enclosed run they can be locked in when we are gone from the house for longer periods, but the rest of the time they forage around the backyard while I putter around the house. They will hop up on the deck or the back of the lawn chairs to get a better vantage, but they have shown absolutely NO inclination to fly up to or over the existing 6ft fence. I did put in a smaller buffer garden space on the pitbull side so that the girls would have to jump two fences to reach the pitbull yard, but again, they haven't been interested. Far too busy hunting for bugs under the deck or scratching through the leaf piles. Not to say that my original newbie concerns weren't legitimate, but in our case my worrying was thankfully over a non-issue. To each his own. Cheers!