# Chicken Quarters



## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Chickens are confined to quarters!!!!

For the last month or so, the chickens have not been allowed to free range freely. We're just getting tired of the destruction. The constant digging and re-landscaping. Holes in the lawn, digging up plants in flower beds, covering grass with mulch intended for flower beds and then there was the Hosta Crisis of 2021 (see _Chicken Soup for the ... well for me!!!_). Their ranging is now confined to a large fenced area about 15m square, where they can dig to their hearts content. And they have been. It is amazing how much destruction they (4 hens and a rooster) have accomplished already. It is about half forest and half grass. They even have large low branches for roosting which they like to do at times.

I'm sad about fencing in the chickens. I like having them out and about, never knowing where I will find them at any given moment. I have tons of space they could roam around in, but they spend too much time where I don't want them, wrecking things I don't want wrecked.

So it was either chickens confined to quarters or more chicken quarters in the freezer.











Hosta last spring.











Hostas this spring.


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## MadHouse (Oct 3, 2019)

Sorry to hear that!
My chickens are lucky that I got too overwhelmed with garden/yard work to try and keep neat flower beds. The one plant I wanted to save from them (comfrey), I moved to the fenced vegetable garden, the same with the rhubarb (toxic).
But I have this problem with the goats, when I take them for their walks. They are forever trying to chew the lilac bushes. I used a sprinkler last summer, but could only focus on one bush at a time with that. I bought an 8 pack of little water guns now, small enough to stick in my pocket. I am curious if I will have success keeping them off the bushes.
Maybe the sprinkler (on low) on the hostas could work for your chickens, if you let them out for a short time, like a half hour a day or so. Or closhes.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

A friend set up sprinklers on a motion detector system for her dogs lol. They get near..it turns of ...works for hers. Chickens tend to have their own way. Ours a free range and yes..im tired of them roosting in the barn getting poop in everything below.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Yes, there are other solutions that would work to varying degrees, but considering cost and effort of installation, chick containment seemed by far the best solution.

I have soaker hoses everywhere. Converting that to sprinklers and adding motion senors would be somewhat burdensome. Besides, chickens are not as deterred by a bit of water as goats (or dogs). My chickens are quite happy wandering in the rain. 

I had thought about fencing the flowers. But fencing the chickens was way, way, way simpler.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I don't blame you. My chickens have a large area to be in but they don't have free range to the entire property.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Totally understand! I don’t have anything nice for them to destroy lol but the roosting on the stalls during kidding bugs me to no end! Going out at 2am to check on does and putting my hand in chicken poop is not my idea of a great time! Or even pooping on the kids. So during kidding season they are penned. I feel bad about it because they are used to free ranging but I can’t deal with that lol


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Jessica84 said:


> Going out at 2am to check on does and putting my hand in chicken poop is not my idea of a great time!


LOL!!

Yea, but it wakes you up.


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## FizzyGoats (Apr 14, 2021)

Your hostas look much happier now that they chickens are contained. 




Jessica84 said:


> Totally understand! I don’t have anything nice for them to destroy lol


This is basically me. I don’t really have a lawn or anything nice for them to destroy. Mine are locked up at night so I don’t have to worry about them roosting in the barn, but they still go in there during the day and poop. Roosting in there would be a pain. At least with just the few day time droppings, I can just clean it up while I’m doing my daily barn cleaning. We have such bad bugs here. I need my poultry roaming where the people and the animals frequent on the property. I’m really missing having my turkeys out and about and might start letting all the toms and non-broody hens out in the daytime.


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## Boer Mama (10 mo ago)

You can always throw them a bag lawn clippings after mowing so they get some fresh green to eat once a week… on the garden list I saw you have a ton of berries. I have chicken wire fence standing around my berries so they don’t eat them all… last year goats got in the yard while I was gone, thankfully my 2 legged kids saw them before they killed my new little tree, but they did smash down my fence in front of both my raspberries and my blackberries! So now I’ve got get repairs done or the chickens will get all the berries before they even ripen 😑


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Oh the joy of cleaning the shake out of the bottom of the manger and squishing a rotten egg!
Or realizing a broody hen has been hiding out on a shelf and suddenly there are chicks in the kidding pen.
But we learned early on to keep them confined to the back half.
Our 3 month olds are in the old rabbit enclosure that has access to an outside pen. It was so overgrown with mallow, grass, mustard and nettles that we wondered if they would even go out there.
They absolutely loved their forrest. It took them all of 3 weeks to reduce it to freshly turned dirt.


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## Mini Oberhasli Owner (Sep 26, 2020)

I commiserate with you. All the extra fencing and chicken wire along the tops of pallets and fences in my yard is to keep chickens out of my gardens, kicking out all the fresh bedding from the goat shed, from laying eggs in the hay feeders, from pooping all over the deck, destroying the lilies of the valley.... The goats don't give me any problems lol. I clip one of each chicken wings every year because they are tenacious fliers and this keeps them earth bound. Grrr! Chickens usually won't attempt to fly up to wire fencing, but wood fencing is perching heaven for them. My husband loves his chickens, I'm pulling out my hair😜


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## KY Goat Girl (12 mo ago)

We hate having to keep our chickens locked up but we were constantly having to put the dirt back in flower beds and always stepping in poop as soon as we walked out the door. What’s more, they wouldn’t let the cats eat their food.  The hens knew when I fed the cats and as soon as I would leave they would scare all the cats away. So, for these chicks we have now, we are going to build a chicken tractor so they can sorta “free range”. It will get moved everyday to fresh grass.


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