Neighbours’ chickens pecking my ankles in garden

[NotJackieWeaver]

Hello chicken-keepers.

I welcomed my neighbours’ chickens when they arrived last year but the neighbours decided to make only half-hearted efforts at containing them.

By the end of last summer I had fallen out of love with them because they kept pecking my ankles. I couldn’t really relax in the garden because of the pecking and the neighbours kept walking into the garden to recapture them.....

Right now they are under cover so it’s fine but I don’t know what to say in the spring.

The neighbours are ok-ish but they are a bit selfish. Actually very....

What to say in spring?

No Smiley it’s their house. That’s one of the problems. Their grandparents owned my house too and I’m not sure they realise the sale was in 1989!
The wife roamed free in what is now my garden as a kid. It affects her mindset.

The only solution then is to request your neighbours keep the chickens contained in the spring.

Or shin pads.

“The chickens are in my garden too often. Please do more to keep them in”

Lol shin pads rofl

Growing a spine is stressful......they are so entitled!

Next time they neighbour calls in for them, answer the door eating a drumstick and say “What chickens?”

Buy a big bag of frozen sweetcorn when they're noshing pick up and lob over hedge . Seriously they're good at keeping pests down. Never saw a slug when we kept them

what chickens

I'm baffled how your neighbour is wandering into your garden if you have a hedge

Smiley, they use the entrance!
The chickens come through the hedge, the people come through the entryway.
Not vice-versa!

So sweet corn as bait to tempt them out? That could work if it was just occasional.

I'd go outside with a packet of sage and onion stuffing.

(If the netting they are under at the moment is fine mesh then it's within rules so don't worry too much unless it's big enough for garden birds to get in and join the party).

Unfortunately chickens aren't very clever and quite forgetful so deterrents don't really work. You've either got to stop them getting in or deal with their dopey owners unfortunately. Maybe next time one gets through, keep it safe but out of sight of the owner for a little while so they will maybe think more carefully about securing their own boundary if they think there is more risk of them going permanently missing? If they get onto a road they are doomed due to aforementioned chicken stupidity. Obviously pop hen back yourself but you need to get the idea of the chickens staying safely in your garden out of the owners head.

I have chickens, they are marvellous creatures but they are also absolutely hooligans when they want to be.

“I'd go outside with a packet of sage and onion stuffing.”

:)

I think carrying chicken back to owners garden would have an impact but would be tense....

The day my neighbours moved in with a new puppy they nailed batons and chicken wire all along the hedge in about an hour and puppy proofed the garden. This is not a big ask of your neighbours.

Agreed.
They are CFs.
First word isn’t chicken.

You can get several metres of chicken wire for about a tenner. I think I'd just suck up the cost and put it all along the hedge to stop chicken invasions.

Your neighbours don't sound bothered so maybe just take it into your own hands.

Chicken wire in my tiny garden along my path?
Crikey! No.
Don’t you think it should be in theirs?

Send them a roll of chicken wire with a gift note along the lines of 'Keep your damn chickens in your own garden'. £10 well spent.

PMSL that would be perfect!
I’m telling my dh that one :)

Fancy having chickens and not making their area secure. I'd worry about that as well as the neighbours' ankles!

Your choices are:

1. Keep moaning and do nothing
2. Chicken proof your garden
3. Ask them to chicken proof their garden.

As you appear like none of these options