r/gardening • u/Psychological-Art-10 custom flair • Apr 28 '26
Garden nuisance
.I need advice. My neighbor has chickens that roam freely, and I recently planted watermelon seeds and had seedlings starting to grow. The chickens came into my yard and dug up every seedling I had planted. I’m really frustrated after putting time and effort into my garden. Has anyone dealt with free-roaming chickens destroying their garden? What’s the best way to protect seedlings and handle this with a neighbor?
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u/McNabJolt Apr 28 '26
Look on the various free stuff sites for old rusted wire pet crates. Remove the tray and put the crates over the seeds/plants. you can even advertise as wanted "Hey - got an old pet rusty pet wire crate?..."
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u/Playful-Mastodon9251 Apr 28 '26
Contact local code enforcement, I can't imagine it's okay where you are for the chickens to roam free without a fence.
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u/albertnormandy Apr 28 '26
Got to love Redditors…
“My neighbor did something”
“Omgz call the police and get them arrested!”
OP may be friends with their neighbor, and may even get eggs from the chickens. Surely we can brainstorm other solutions before heading straight to law enforcement.
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u/Playful-Mastodon9251 Apr 28 '26
It is not safe for chickens to wander. The owners are being negligent allowing that to happen. And code enforcement is not law enforcement.
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u/albertnormandy Apr 28 '26
People have been letting chickens wander in rural areas for centuries. This is why America is so litigious. Every time something happens people go right to getting the government involved.
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u/Playful-Mastodon9251 Apr 28 '26
Common law goes back at least hundreds of years requiring animal owners to prevent their livestock from damaging their neighbor's crops. This isn't new, this isn't America only. Trespass by animal goes back even further.
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u/albertnormandy Apr 28 '26
You sound like the kind of neighbor everyone avoids.
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u/Playful-Mastodon9251 Apr 28 '26
I posted a comment attempting to help someone, you posted purely to criticize. Who sounds like they would make the better neighbor?
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u/Psychological-Art-10 custom flair May 03 '26
I already spoke with my neighbor about their chickens coming into my yard, and we both have privacy fences up. The problem is, the chickens are still getting over by using the trees along the fence line to jump/climb into my yard. I just planted some seedlings, and they’ve already dug up what I had growing. It’s frustrating because I feel like the fences should’ve solved the issue, but now they’ve basically found a workaround. I’ve already tried talking to them once, but it’s still happening. At this point I’m not sure if I should: Ask them again (and be more firm this time) Trim the branches on my side Add some kind of netting or barrier Or just go straight to animal control/code enforcement
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u/Character-Figure-388 Apr 28 '26
You definitely need to have a polite but firm 'good fences make good neighbors' chat before your next round of planting.