Will neighbors rooster steal my pullets?

[Starfire669]

Hi guys, I'm just starting a mixed flock of chickens/geese. I currently have straight run 6 Rhode Island Reds, 5 Barred Rocks, and 7 Silver Lace Wyandottes. I also have 6 Buff Orphintons pullets, and 6 Black Australorp pullets. My oldest are 6 weeks, and are the straight runs. I want to keep 2 Roos for my flock. My problem is my nieghbor has had chickens since before I moved here and they are fully mature game birds. He has 5 hens and 1 Roo that free range and have no enclosure. They always fly over the fence and come into my yard. Not only am i worried his Roo may try to steal some of my hens because my Roos will be immature, but his chickens fly over the fence around my garden and damage it. My chickens are all fat laying breeds and i plan on clipping their wings to prevent flying. He can't clip his birds wings because stray dogs and cats will get them if they can't fly into a tree. He and I both have bad backs and are disabled, though he is worse than I am. So he can't build a pen for them, and I can't do it for him. He is a really nice guy and I don't want to be a total witch over this, but I really don't want his birds in my garden or breeding my hens as I plan to hatch chicks of my own.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[azelgin]

I don't think your chickens will follow his (the neighbor's) rooster home. The reason I feel this way, is I've never been able to rehome my chickens to the coop they weren't raised in. I lock them up for three weeks and when I let them all back out to free range, about three weeks later, they're all back where they started from. I tried to move them, to keep the crowding down, when a coop had extra room. You'll probably end up with his rooster at your house, instead of your hens leaving home.

 

[Starfire669]

Will his Roo hurt my immature Roos? That is a concern as he had 3 Roos, 1 was killed by another and then he rehomed 1 and kept the biggest 1. So his Roo has killed other Roos and I'm worried about mine getting hurt or killed. I want to keep my birds all laying types, no mongrel game/laying crosses. I'd like to keep egg size and production.

Plus how do I keep his birds out of my garden? They fly up to 10 feet high into trees to roost, so fencing isn't going to work. My herb garden in particular attracts their attention and they have killed some plants already.

 

[azelgin]

Sorry, but it doesn't look to promising for your roosters, or, garden.

Not much way to keep airborne chickens out of a garden.

 

[Starfire669]

So most likely the nieghbors Roo will kill mine for the hens?

 

[azelgin]

So most likely the nieghbors Roo will kill mine for the hens?

Sorry, but yes.

 

[Starfire669]

Do you think the geese, being territorial might keep the Roo in his own yard? The goslings reacted badly to a batch of chicks I'm brooding for my sister, attacking them. But they are friends with my flock that they were raised with.

 

[Starfire669]

My goslings with their chickens.

 

[Starfire669]

I have a rescued Siberian husky who killed a chick of my nieghbors last year when she caught it in my yard. I have since built an escape proof pen in the very back behind the house to contain my dogs. Would puting her in the yard, on a chain for an hour a day scare his birds away? I'd have to do it before I start free ranging my own birds. But could that work?

 

[Starfire669]

Those chickens go all over, they get into every yard adjacent to my nieghbor and even cross the street. He has cut down his flock by giving half away to friends and family because he knew they were getting out of hand. But he can't bring himself to get rid of them all. He told me to chase it out of my yard when I catch them in it, but the birds wait till I'm either gone or can't hear them in the yard. I'd like a humane way to make my yard scary to his birds and teach them to stay out. I don't want to kill any, that's why I'm asking about putting a dog out for a while so they can see it lives here. I'd use scent if the birds could smell. Or if geese will defend their territory from strange fowls.