Chickens and Plants

[ericadawn16]

Okay, you guys were so good with my cooking Question that I have another one.

my town has chickens.

They don't actually belong to anyone and although there are laws against free-roaming, they are unstoppable.

However, they are eating my purple, low lying plant. They are probably the same culprit that ate our LILY!
The aloe appears to be the only thing they leave alone.

Short of building a fence around the house which is economically unfeasible and doesn't seem to help anyway...they fly when food's involved or getting a pet to chase them off, what can we do?

*We also don't want to kill them.

Comments

[mercystars.livejournal.com]

maybe put bird mesh over the plants you don't want the chickens to eat...other than that I can't think of anything. I've heard people put moth balls in their gardens to keep critters out but don't know if that would work with chickens.

[dm12.livejournal.com]

Not sure if the mothballs or cayenne pepper would work with chickens. I did cayenne pepper in my vegetable garden last year, and the only critter that came by was our neighbor's cat; he just sat in the garden, didn't eat anything, no harm done and probably kept the birds away, too.

We don't have chickens running loose around these parts!

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

So, you planted cayenne pepper?

[dm12.livejournal.com]

No, I just sprinkled the powder in the garden. I learned that, amazingly, at yoga class where there are a number of avid gardeners! I wonder if planting it might help, too...

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the idea!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Pepper won't work. Chickens have no heat sensors, so can't taste the heat. We feed our chickens mash with red pepper flakes and cayenne because it is supposed to help with potential parasites and it's good for them in the winter. .

[dm12.livejournal.com]

That makes sense actually. It does seem to keep the bunnies and squirrels away, though... or maybe it was the neighbor's cat sitting in the middle!

So, I guess that still begs the question... what will keep the chickens away?

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Damn, but thanks for telling me!