WIBU to let my chickens in next doors garden?

[ChickenlessHead]

Seeing as their 3 fucking cats spend their days shitting in my dc’s sandpit and digging up my plants?

I’ve tried everything - squirting with water pistol, sonic cat repellant, covering up sandpit (they just shit on the cover then). I had a little nest of robins in my tree earlier this year and one of the cats knocked the nest over then put a baby bird on dc’s slide.

We have a low wall at the end of our garden that extends along the bottom of next doors garden too. My chickens are free range during the day and have recently been hopping up on this wall. Dh mentioned we should probably put up some kind of fencing to stop them walking along it and going into next doors garden. But next door have no problem with their pets shitting all over my garden and I’m inclined to feel the same about them tbh.

Cats are no threat to the chickens btw, the chickens have seen off the cats many a time (one of the reasons I’m quite fond of them). Next door don’t have a dog either so chickens would be quite safe there.

heebie we have a 6 foot side gate which they scale so I don’t know how high we’d have to make these walls? And I really don’t care about anything related to wildlife - I work in conservation which is one of the reasons I find it particularly galling to see them killing birds I’ve put nestboxes up for.

Get your chickens in training, they need to defend your garden 😂 Or borrow some bloody great geese for a week; they are evil b*ards 😉

heebie I haven’t got cockerels! They really make very little noise (apart from when they’re laying which they do in their house).

Most domestic cats shit at home. They are very territorial and have their spots to do it. But cats do roam and they will sometimes shit elsewhere. And feral cats will shit where they like.

It's what they do. You need to get over it, or do something about it. Lot's of cats where I live, never had a single poo in my garden. It's not a problem most people have.

I’ve tried waterpistols. Dc’s thought it was brilliant but cats just jumped a bit then looked at me disdainfully and carried on.

Um, I’m trying to do something about it hotbuttered.

I'd go with the geese. Or borrow a dog? They need spooking out of your garden.

It's funny people saying put bigger fences up...never seen a cat scale a fence???

I know you are but the answers from these other eejits is just that cats are bastards and no-one should have one which is unhelpful and frankly idiotic. The cats exist, what do they think should happen to them?

Geese is a brilliant idea. Those birds are complete and utter psychopaths. I shall see if I can borrow some from someone.

Cats don't normally shit on sandpit covers. Are you sure it's not fox poo? Our neighbours have chickens and their presence does encourage local foxes to prowl around. Neighbourhood cats shit in all sorts of parts of our garden, but only in bits where they can then spread a bit of soil over their excrement. Foxes on the other hand seem to get pleasure out of shitting on kids' toys, animal hutches and on concrete...

Keep out of the garden for a week whilst they strut their stuff 😂 Once got attacked by seven (mate thought it was brilliant & was too busy wetting herself to shoo them away) & yeah, psychopaths is right! Even the bravest of cats would struggle against a gaggle of them buggars.

Ps the best cure for cat poo in the garden is to get a cat, as cats never seem to poo on their own territory, only in gardens where other cats don't live...

Cats shit places. It's tough luck, its what they do

It's what they do. You need to get over it,

Your attitude stinks worse than the cat shit.

Think that depends on the cat. We used to get other cats toileting in ours...our cat was old & senile so never really saw them off his patch

I've got cats and I kept chickens for a few years. Chickens cause infinitely more destruction to a garden than cats. Frankly, if you don't mind chicken shit covering your garden, and your garden being scratched up by chickens, I fail to see why the odd cat turd should bother you. Chickens shit for Britain!

Your attitude stinks worse than the cat shit

My attitude of cats exist and you have to co-exist with them stinks? And the cats are bastards and no-one should have them posters are ok?

I think you are a tad confused.

Is it possible to put up a small trellis piece above your fence, gate, wall which will make it a half metre or so taller so the cats can't get over it?

I too like to attract wildlife to my garden and I was upset when, at my previous house, neighbourhood cats would jump over my fence and kill the birds I set up nesting boxes for. So I put up a trellis on top of all my fencing and gate and it stopped the cats jumping into my garden.

Also, I'd be worried about a cat attacking your chicken in the neighbour's garden. Maybe the chickens as a group can scare off a cat, but if one chicken hops over the wall and is on it's own....

I know chickens wreck gardens, so I’m not overly precious. But they’re fenced off into their half of the garden and the other half is for dc’s to play in.

It’s definitely not fox shit, we do get a few foxes round here but the difference is pretty clear. I don’t know why they crap on the sand pit cover, I thought they were supposed to bury it? Maybe just habit?

I’m really not hugely bothered by it, it’s more just a bit irritating. It was just the thought of spending my Sunday fencing off the bottom of the garden and I thought ‘fuck it, let them go next door’. Which they inevitably will no as I’ve spent the morning on MN and doing shit all.

The point being that rescuing a cat is more important than a small chance of shit in your garden

No. It's more important to YOU. You want a pet, great. Clear up its shit.

When I was young, it was common to have a sandpit cover made of four pieces of wood which made up the outer sides of a square (or rectangle) with chicken wire mesh tacked across the centre of the square. No cat ever used our sandpit as a toilet when it was in place.

We had experience of neighbours cats using our garden and leaving dead some of the birds we feed.

We felt like developing some serious weaponry or nasty traps but in the end went for an electronic cat scarer - with a solar powered battery. The pitch is adjustable and it only comes on if a warm body crosses into its range. The birds don't mind it at all. The cats here hate it! We now have cat-poo free garden and many more birds.

The children/teens in our family don't like the noise either - but I can turn off the scarer when they are in the garden.

ILoveMillHousesDad 😂

Have you dried used coffee beans in the sides of the garden? My mum swears by it and I bring her bagfulls of the stuff from work.

Cats don't normally shit on sandpit covers

Cats shit anywhere.

I know that's hard to believe but the reason many entitled catowners believe that they don't shit in certain places is because they're busy shitting in the neighbours gardens instead

"Are you sure it's not fox poo?" Oh please. Cats normally poo in the flower beds and try to dig a little soil over it after. Where we used to live, there were way too many cats and several of them pooed in the middle of the lawns, on people's door steps, under the cars directly on the tarmac, on the pavements and in flower pots. We didn't have any pets and I had to remove poo at least twice a week. I got compostable bags, so I didn't pollute extra just because the cats polluted extra. "Cats normally.... blah blah blah". The cats I know haven't read those books and can't be bothered with those "rules".