What do the neighbors have that I don't?

[Melky]

I am having a hard time keeping my flock out of the neighbors yard.. we have 7 acres of land to explore, and yet they want to visit the neighbor.. we had a barbed wire fence up on this section of the property. And we just put up new horse fencing today in hopes of keeping them in our yard. We have been slowly upgrading our fences. Our back and front pastures are fence with the new stuff, but the middle pasture where the chickens are is in progress. Our only problem with the fence we put up today is we couldn't go all the way to the end post because we have a creek that runs under our fence. If we put the new fencing over it, it would get clogged up with leave and sticks etc.. so there is small section that is still just barbed wire. Well, my girls went around our new fancy fence, threw the small section of woods, and right back into the neighbors yard! They aren't even scared of the neighbors dog... any advice on how to keep them in my yard without going broke? They won't even come to me for treats when they are over there..

I would add a top netting like aviary or hardware cloth to prevent fly overs. Fence off a nice portion for the chickens. Make sure your fencing sides are hardware cloth too small to get through. Basically close off any escape route.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I am having a hard time keeping my flock out of the neighbors yard.. we have 7 acres of land to explore, and yet they want to visit the neighbor.. we had a barbed wire fence up on this section of the property. And we just put up new horse fencing today in hopes of keeping them in our yard. We have been slowly upgrading our fences. Our back and front pastures are fence with the new stuff, but the middle pasture where the chickens are is in progress. Our only problem with the fence we put up today is we couldn't go all the way to the end post because we have a creek that runs under our fence. If we put the new fencing over it, it would get clogged up with leave and sticks etc.. so there is small section that is still just barbed wire. Well, my girls went around our new fancy fence, threw the small section of woods, and right back into the neighbors yard! They aren't even scared of the neighbors dog... any advice on how to keep them in my yard without going broke? They won't even come to me for treats when they are over there..

How big is your neighbors yard? Would your neighbors allow you to put the fencing around their yard to keep your chickens out of their yard? If your neighbors property isn’t as big I would just apologize for my chickens going onto their property and make that as a suggestion. maybe you could just drive some steel fencing post and put up chicken wire, but keeping it still on your property. I don’t know about your flock but mine won’t even go over chicken wire. I fence off all my veggies that way to keep my small flock out of my food areas. I think I just use 3 foot fencing of chicken wire.

 

[Luv Ducks]

My neighbors chickens used to go over a 6 foot privacy fence to get into my yard. I loved seeing them. They always felt bad about it. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, lol. Now that I have ducks and they got rid of the their chickens, my one duck went over into their yard and they brought her back to me. I put deer fencing over their pen and now everyone stays in the large pen with the deer fencing and six foot chain link dog panels I used to surround it. I fastened it together with zip ties and it has held up great. A couple of time in our Ohio winters I had to go out and smack it with my broom from the bottom up to get the heavy snow to come through and i have posts to hold it up in different areas of the pen. The ducks seem happy and so am I since they are Mallards and can fly.

 

[Flockincrazy]

I am having a hard time keeping my flock out of the neighbors yard.. we have 7 acres of land to explore, and yet they want to visit the neighbor.. we had a barbed wire fence up on this section of the property. And we just put up new horse fencing today in hopes of keeping them in our yard. We have been slowly upgrading our fences. Our back and front pastures are fence with the new stuff, but the middle pasture where the chickens are is in progress. Our only problem with the fence we put up today is we couldn't go all the way to the end post because we have a creek that runs under our fence. If we put the new fencing over it, it would get clogged up with leave and sticks etc.. so there is small section that is still just barbed wire. Well, my girls went around our new fancy fence, threw the small section of woods, and right back into the neighbors yard! They aren't even scared of the neighbors dog... any advice on how to keep them in my yard without going broke? They won't even come to me for treats when they are over there..

I throw scratch down where I want them to stay so make a trail away from that side of the property it should help

 

[parvani]

... the neighbors "free range" their chickens in my yard. Three of their chickens have been in my yard for 3 days, roosting in my coop. I'm tired of returning their chickens to them. They also let their dog out and can't figure out why he doesn't understand boundaries. He killed 2 of my chickens.

I don't want to have to go to any extra effort to keep their chickens or dogs out of my gigantic hen yard. I bought lots of fencing to keep my hens in, clip wings when needed and they just let their animals run amok. Whenever my chickens see me, they come running. Now when the neighbor's chickens see me, they come running too.

Their dog killed 2, so the 3 who have come to stay with you are their replacements. Of course they aren't the same breed or as healthy as yours were -- that's why you should keep all 3 instead of just 2.

And you should inform your neighbors of course, so they know there are no longer any hard feelings about the dog attack. They will probably be relieved, as it sounds like they have too many chickens to take care of already.

 

[Devyn Nagy]

I have the same issue! Mine always head straight to the neighbors, who complain. I have to literally stand and babysit them when I let them out is their run to make sure they don’t go there. We have tons of property too and for some reason they head straight to the neighbors

Exactly the same here...

 

[Sierra G]

I'd approach the neighbors with a bribe and an apology. If you're getting eggs now I'd use a dozen eggs and some homemade lemon curd for the bribe. The bribe should be something that highlights the value of having a neighbor with chickens. For the apology just say sorry if the chickens are bothering you and we're trying to find better ways of keeping them from straying. Maybe it's not an issue for your neighbors or maybe they will have some ideas that will work for you.

 

[aart]

@megg0728 did you find a solution here?

 

[Mutchi]

Unfortunately no advice to keep them in your yard, but we were able to train our chickens to come running when they hear a song (my daughter chose the Chicken Dance song) They would often ignore us when we called, so we started playing the song every time we gave them mealworms and now they sprint to us when they hear the first notes of the music.

i should do that!

 

[Capto Veritas]

I am having a hard time keeping my flock out of the neighbors yard.. we have 7 acres of land to explore, and yet they want to visit the neighbor.. we had a barbed wire fence up on this section of the property. And we just put up new horse fencing today in hopes of keeping them in our yard. We have been slowly upgrading our fences. Our back and front pastures are fence with the new stuff, but the middle pasture where the chickens are is in progress. Our only problem with the fence we put up today is we couldn't go all the way to the end post because we have a creek that runs under our fence. If we put the new fencing over it, it would get clogged up with leave and sticks etc.. so there is small section that is still just barbed wire. Well, my girls went around our new fancy fence, threw the small section of woods, and right back into the neighbors yard! They aren't even scared of the neighbors dog... any advice on how to keep them in my yard without going broke? They won't even come to me for treats when they are over there..

Your chickens probably prefer your neighbor‘s yard more because the property is larger, there is more bugs for the chickens, or your run / coop is too small.