Chickens ruining flowerbeds

My neighbor just got chickens. They come into my yard and do serious damage to my big flower beds. They scratch the mulch out into the lawn and it looks terrible. I am on my last nerve with these evil chickens. Please someone tell me something I can put around to keep them away besides a fence. I have to many beds for fences and fences would look terrible. I was told to use chili powder.This didn't help at all. I can't have a dog either.They have a big nice fenced lot to keep them in and we ask them nicely twice to keep them in the lot. They didn't pay us any attention. Thank you. Any advise would be apreciated.

That is terrible. They are very hard on gardens--although if they are controlled they are useful too. Chilies won't work because birds do not have taste receptors for capsaicin.

Perhaps if you took pictures of the damage they are doing and took them to small claims court? Or just call animal control....?

Does anyone else have a suggestion?

This message was edited Sep 29, 2008 5:40 AM

You may be able to drape or suspend from a string bird netting. That is virtually invisible from the road or closer up and the chickens can't figure it out. Hang it with fishing line perhaps? It's cheap. You may catch a few birds which would give you ammo for negotiating with that insensitive neighbor...

gardener5, while I do appreciate your delemia,
I just want to say "there are no bad chickens, just bad owners"

Sorry I don't have any real suggestions.. I distract my chickens with thier own garden.. they very rarely get into any of my flower beds.. but that is MY job.. I agree it is NOT your job to train someone elses chickens.

It does sound simple, but have you spoken to your neighbors. Maybe they think you enjoy their chickens and think they are as cute as they do?

I would catch them and either butcher them myself for my freezer or take them to be butchered. Small recompense for the damage they inflicted. in most places if you catch an animal on your property (especially after you've alerted the owner this is happening) you can dispose of them as you see fit including killing them.
Contact your local police for information on what your local laws say about this. If they haven't got any chickens left there won't be any damage. If they buy more chickens do it again. Take pictures of the chickens on your property especially doing damage in case they decide to take you to small claims court. Also send them a notarized letter about the chickens and what they're doing. Get a sign receipt for this letter which proves they got it. Just saying in court I told them or I wrote to them isn't enough. You need to legally be able to prove what the problem was and that you attempted to peacefully deal with it.

MollyD

I feel your frustration. One of my neighbor's cows got out constantly-I totally understand that this occassionally happens to all of us but his fencing was missing in places and he didn't care. Almost every morning at 6 am we would be rounding up his cows and bringing them back to his farm. Then they found the garden. That was the last straw! That day he was presented with a bill from me! I was lucky that he didn't argue with me about it! There were clear hoof prints all over my trampled onions! He repaired the fence after that.
I agree with Molly, if you have a camara to take pictures of the chickens in action. If so, I'd take pictures and then if you are able, catch them. Call your local animal control office and have them pick them up. Show them the pictures and they should write a report up. This way if your neighbors don't want to pay for the damage you have additional proof for small claims court. No animal should be a nuisance to neighbors. Especially since you've tried to explain the situation to them and they don't give a hoot. Those little chickies should have an owner that cares about their well-being.
good luck,
Sue
Good luck.

I've been lurking, but haven't responded. I agree with all the people that have responded so far. I don't think this is the fault of the chickens, its the fault of the owner. They need to have a place for them that keeps them on their property. If not a fenced yard, then a fenced in chicken yard for just them.
I'd take pictures, capture them, sell them, if the neighbors don't care to listen. These are the kind of people that give the rest of us responsible chicken owners a bad name. *ugh!*