Chicken Repellent: How To Keep Chickens Off Your Porch

Do you have free-range chickens and are wondering how to keep chickens off your porch? Well, you are not alone. Lets look at some of the most effective ways to keep chickens out of your living spaces.

How to Keep Chickens Off of Your Porch

From physical barriers, fake predators, strong smells, and negative reinforcement, keeping your feathered friends and all the chicken poop that comes along with them off the porch is a struggle that most backyard chickens owners face. Especially if you have free-range chickens.  To start, let’s learn a little bit about chicken behavior. 

Jump to How to Keep Chickens Off Your Porch

Understanding Backyard Chicken Behavior & Basic Needs

Understanding normal chicken behavior may be part of the solution on how to keep chickens off your porch. Their basic instincts may make your porch seem like a really great place. 

Free- Range Chickens & Foraging

Chickens are natural foragers. They scratch at the ground in search of grit, insects, seeds, and small plants. Free-range chickens are always on the move searching out the best areas of your yard to forage. 

Chickens & Their Dust Baths

Chickens take dust baths to keep their feathers clean and free of parasites. They love a dry, dusty area, possibly under your porch, to throw dust over themselves. Diatomaceous earth is a great addition to sand for a bust bath.

Chickens Love To Roost

Chickens have basic instincts to roost. They will seek out the highest perch, such as tree branches or roosting bars during the night. This gives them a safe place from predators. 

Hens & Their Egg Laying

Hens have a strong nesting instinct and will seek out the best, most quiet, secluded spots to lay their eggs. Often times, the perimeter of your porch is the perfect place amongst the shrubs to lay 100’s of eggs. At my farm, their favorite spot happens to be under the porch. 

Chickens Have a Pecking Order

When it comes to chickens and figuring out who’s the boss, there’s a pecking order. You may see one or two chickens who frequently peck or chase other chickens. Those are the chickens at the top of the pecking order. Those at the bottom of the order may find a safe place on your porch.

Chickens & How They Communicate

Chickens communicate in many ways, like clucking, cackling, and crowing. If you’ve ever had a rooster or two you know all about the crowing. 

Exploration of Free-Range Chickens

Chickens are curious creatures and enjoy exploring different areas of your yard. They will peck at things and explore new areas making it hard to keep chickens off your porch. Who doesn’t love a good back porch?

Distress Calls of Chickens

Chickens have a loud, distinctive call when they sense danger. This helps alert the rest of the flock to potential threats so they can run for cover. That cozy back porch of yours just might be that safe place.

How Chickens Socialize

Chickens are social animals and love the company of other chickens. They form strong bonds with other chickens in the flock. Maybe they love to sit on the porch together. 

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Knowing How to Keep Chickens Off Your Porch

Now that you know a little more about the natural  behavior of chickens, you can stop and think about what is attracting them to your porch area. What makes your porch so much more appealing than their chicken coop?   

Train Chickens to Keep Chickens Off Your Porch

That’s right! You can train chickens to stay off your porch. Consistency is the key.  Use positive reinforcement through chicken feed and treats in a different area of your yard. It may entice them to stay away from the porch area.  It’s also crucial that whatever area or chicken coop you’d like them to stay in has all the amenities they need, like your really great porch. 

Use Natural Repellents to Keep Chickens off Your Porch

There are several natural repellents that can be used to keep chickens off your porch area.  A combination of  herbs, spices, citrus, and vinegar around the porch may do the trick.

Plant Herbs Around the Perimeter of Your Porch

​Planting herbs throughout your porch landscaping is a good natural repellent. Herbs that will deter chickens are borage, calendula (pot marigold), catnip, chives, feverfew, lavender, marjoram, Mexican sage, peppermint and spearmint, rosemary, sage, salvias, St. John’s wort, tansy and yarrow. As an added benefit you’d have a beautiful and beneficial herb garden in your porch area.

​Spices as Natural Deterrents

Spicy herbs and powders such as cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, curry powder, and even cinnamon have extremely strong, pungent smells. Garlic and Onions are also a strong smell that chickens will not like.  Sprinkling these strong, spicy seasonings around the designated area you’d like to deter chickens from may do the trick. 

Keep Chickens off Your Porch With Vinegar

Just as chickens do not like the strong pungent smells of some herbs and spices they also do not like the smell of vinegar. Spraying vinegar around the perimeter of the porch, is an inexpensive way to help keep chickens off your porch. Please know that vinegar will kill plants if they are sprayed so be careful and spray often.

Repel Chickens With Citrus Fruits

Another great way to repel chickens form the porch area is with citrus fruits. Using the peels of citrus fruits around the perimeter of your porch may help keep chickens away.  If you are really serious you could even make your own citrus vinegar spray for an extra strength chicken repellent. 

​Keep Chickens Off Your Porch With Extra Strength Chicken Repellent

Making your own chicken repellent spray to keep chickens off your porch is easy and cheap. Start by stuffing citrus peels and other spicy herbs into a bucket or mason jar and top it off with vinegar. Put a lid on it and let it infuse for 1-3 weeks.

Separate the solids from the vinegar by pouring through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. You can then use it full strength or dilute it with water.  Put it in a spray bottle and spray away.  This is also a great DIY cleaner for around the house. 

The Best Way to Keep Chickens off Your Porch May Be Scare Tactics 

If creating a better environment away from your porch area and using extra strength chicken repellent spray isn’t working, it might be time to change your tactics. Making your porch area a scary place may do the trick.

Create a Chicken-Free Zone with Fake Predators

Chickens are prey animals to a lot of predators.  Using fake owls perched on your porch railing may be effective in keeping chickens out of your porch area. If they feel threatened they will run for safety, hopefully away from your porch. 

Use Motion-Activated Sprinklers

Another scare tactic you can use is water. Chickens hate to be sprayed with water.  Setting up motion activated sprinklers will surely keep chickens off your porch.  They will also water that chicken deterring herb garden you, hopefully, planted by your porch area.

Use a Training Animal to Keep Chickens Off Your Porch

This one can be a little tricky as you don’t want animals, like a dog, attacking your chickens.  Our dog is great with our chickens. I can tell her to get the chickens off the porch and it actually works, most of the time.

Hot Wire to Keep Chickens off Your Porch

Ok, things are getting serious and it may be time to break out the hot wire.  There are several good portable electric chicken fences on the market.  They are easy to set up and can be used with a solar charger.  You could always set up a perimeter around your porch with this electric fence.

Make Your Porch Scary With a BB Gun

Before you get upset with me, hear me out. I’m not talking about some high powered pellet gun, just a basic, small BB gun. You don’t even have to shoot the chickens. Shooting a BB gun in their direction will scare them enough to shew them away from the porch area.  

After doing that a few times they learn the sound of the BBs inside the gun.  Just the sound of the BBs will deter them.

Move Your Chicken Coop Away From Living Spaces

When you have free-range chickens and their chicken coop is close to your porch area its hard for chickens to distinguish the difference between the two.  Keeping their space as far away from yours may help keep chickens off your porch.

Keep Chicken Feed Away From Your Living Spaces

Where chicken feed is, you are sure to find chickens.  Encourage them to stay in a different area by feeding them away from your porch. 

Keep Other Animal Feed Off the Porch

Not only do chickens love chicken feed, they also love cat food and dog food.  The last thing you want is chickens associating your back porch with food. Feeding animals somewhere other than your porch area will help keep chickens off your porch. 

Raise the Roof, I Mean Roost

​Maybe food isn’t the attraction. Do you find that chickens are roosting on your porch?  If so, make sure you provide them with some really great roosting spaces that are higher that where they are perching on your porch.

Distract Your Chickens With Bare Ground Dust Baths

Who doesn’t love a good bath? Not only do chickens love a dust bath, it’s beneficial to their health, keeping parasites off of them.  If they are dust bathing around your porch area be sure to provide them with a better dust bathing area, away from your porch.  

​It Might Be Time To Close In Your Porch

If worst comes to worst or your just tired of constantly trying to keep chickens off your porch, it may be time to just close it in.  Or maybe you should close them in.

Create a Barrier With screened-In Porch, Chicken Wire or Fences

​Creating a permanent barrier may be the best option to keep chickens off your porch.  Just think of how nice a screened in porch would be. 

Fence Off a Chicken Coop or Use a Movable Chicken Run

But wait, why close yourself in?  You do have the option of putting your feathered friends in an enclosed chicken coop.  If cooping your chickens isn’t your style and you want them free range you can always put them in a moveable chicken tractor so they get the benefits of fresh grass on a daily basis.

Ways to Keep Chickens Cooped

Keeping chickens in a chicken coop can also be tricky if its not 100% enclosed. You may find that they are just flying out.  In this case clipping their wings may help.  

​How to Clip a Chicken’s Wings

To clip a chicken’s wings, it is easier to have two people. One person will hold the chicken and stretch one wing out.  Using very sharp, strong scissors, the other person can clip the primary wing feathers. The primary wing feathers are the first 10 feathers starting from the tip of the wing. Be sure to only clip one wing.  If you clip both wings chickens will adapt and learn to fly with both wings clipped. 

FAQs

How to Get Rid of Neighbors Chickens?

First off, talk to your neighbors.  Let them do the work of containing their chickens.  Close off any areas in fences that they may be coming through and hope for the best.  If that doesn’t work, talk to your neighbors again. Be annoying. Set up an environment where the chickens are coming in that will deter them. Use deterrents, like a motion activated sprinkler.

What Smells Do Chickens Hate?

Chickens hate strong pungent smells, such as vinegar, citrus, and strong or spicy things like cayenne, garlic and onion.

What Scares Chickens Away?

Chickens are birds of prey so they have a natural instinct to run from things that scare them.  A good spray with a garden hose or simply darting at them while clapping your hands will scare a chicken off. You may also find that something as simple as a plastic owl may scare them away. 

What Carries Chickens Away?

Chickens can often be carried away by predators.  Arial predators, like owls or chicken hawks can easily pick a full grown chicken up and carry them away.  Night time predators, such as coyotes, may carry chickens off in the middle of the night. 

How Do You Make Homemade Chicken Repellent?

Making your own chicken repellent spray to keep chickens off your porch is easy and cheap. Start by stuffing any kind of citrus peels and other spicy herbs into a mason jar and top it off with vinegar. Put a lid on it and let it infuse for a few weeks. Separate the peels from the vinegar by pouring through a fine mesh strainer. You can then use it full strength or dilute it with water. 

​In conclusion

When it comes to the best ways to keep chickens off your porch, you may find that a combination of things will work well.  Keep trying all the tactics til you find a combination that works for you. After all, aren’t all those fresh eggs worth it?

Happy Homesteading & Chicken Keeping

Jenny@ The GrahamStead

Jenny and her family have been homesteading for over 20 years. They are currently farming on their 10 acre Florida farm, that they built from the ground up, 8 years ago, growing 100% of their meat and a lot of their vegetables. From their small herd of Aberdeen Angus Cattle, Pastured Poultry, Sheep, and seasonal pigs, they are able to raise enough meat for the family while selling extra to the community. All the while, striving to butcher at home, as much as possible, and use the bits and pieces of their harvest by preserving food, making bone broth, and (Jenny’s favorite) tanning all kinds of hides!

Sources:

(No date) Master Gardener: Herbs that repel chickens and deer – the Courier. Available at: https://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/moco/events/article/Master-Gardener-Herbs-That-Repel-Chickens-and-13038800.php (Accessed: 30 November 2023).