What am I going to do about a chicken that keeps in coming in through the cat flap?!

[DaisyMOO]

Will I have to get a new magnetic cat flap?! Any chicken-training ideas?

(Must admit that it was very handy at lunchtime because it pecked up all of the mess the kids had made under the table )

will it go out again?

Oh I second thread title of the year.

Maybe draw a picure of a fox and stick it to a box and place it by the entrance so when it pops in it gets a nasty suprise.

Wring its neck and have it for dinner - that should stop it!

It's old. It would not be good cooked! I'm liking the fox-picture idea!

Station the cat just inside the cat flap.

Eat it. Lovely free-range chicken. Maybe you could lay a trail of corn so that it walks into the oven.

There are a couple of chicken-fanciers on here - they might want it.

Have you got a cat flap that you can lock going out but not in?

If so let cat have free range going out, but you'll have to let it back in.

OR lock cat flap full stop, act as a slave to said cat.

Loving the thread title.

You should maybe accompany the fox picture with a loud noise and pungent odour. Negative chicken sensory overload.

Maybe shout RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

and squirt jif lemon at it.

What don't chickens like to smell?

I'm not sure whether chicken can smell? Cats are useless, one just freaks out, the other pretends she hasn't noticed.

Just went up to put some washing away and the fecker was sitting at the PC when I got back

I thought they had little nostril at th etop of their beaks.

Found this on google

Behavior

Chickens have a well developed social order (peck order) and birds at the bottom may become culls if there is insufficient feed or water space. Close confinement of birds in cages may aggravate this problem. If birds are mixed, considerable fighting to re-establish the peck order may occur. Temperament is a breed characteristic. Leghorns are more flighty than White Rocks.

Maybe you need to show the chicken who is boss. You need to be top of that peck order and get some respect.

How are your chicken acting skills?

interested in any ideas - if I let mine out they follow me all round the garden, and up onto the patio, and would definitely come in if I gave them the chance!!!

You could try a fox picture above it - might work!

Ahhh

I retract comment about chickens being dim.

V clever re stones and egg shells. (not sarcastic).

Right, have just shouted RAAAAAA at it. Backed off slightly, but is now back in again and ds3 is PHSL at me (not to mention the neighbours I should imagine). Will print off a photo of a fox and see if that helps.

Any other ideas? I'm concerned that one naughty chicken could lead the others astray, including the ducks and they do really runny nasty poos. Do you think Dr Tanya would have any suggestions - question for Thursday's chat perhaps?!

Follow the chicken ... find out where it lives ... tell the owner

en route you could find out why it crosses the road ...

Is there anything it doesn't like walking on like a grill or something that you could put outside next to the cat flap - a bit like a cattle grid?

But it's MINE! Shutting it in the run is no good because it just hops out again.

Oh sh*t, different chicken has now come in!

I had a really sweet chicken who was in love with the tumble dryer. She use to hop in to the laundry room and perch on the td and rock gently backwards and forwards even if it was off......

You need a magnetic cat flap!

Maybe crushed up egg shells outside. Unpleasant to walk on and would presumably give a chicken the heebie geebies to see.

DaisyMoo, did you RAAAAAAAA with 'head of the chickens' attitude? Maybe you need to put more ooomph into it.

And did you try the lemon?

Mine are really scared of this blue tarpaulin thing that flaps - could you hang something flappy over the cat flap so the cat could wriggle in but the chicken would be flapped off!