Keeping chickens out of dog yard

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

This is a very resourceful place, so I thought I check in here for some suggestions. I have free-ranging chickens of various breeds, they have the whole farm with plenty of space to roam about. My parent's have a fenced dog yard, which hasn't been a problem up until now. I really hate to pen up the chickens all the time, because they are great for lice/flea/tick control, etc.

My parent's Jack Russel Terrier recently started attacking chickens when they go into the dog yard. He ignores them when he is out and about on the rest of the farm (always with supervision), but he has access to the dog yard from a doggie door and is not always supervised when in the yard. The yard is fenced with a 4 ft fence the whole way around, and is tight from the bottom up so they can't squeeze through the fence anywhere to get into the yard. Anyone have experience with something we could do along the top of the fence to keep the chickens from getting over it? I know a taller fence isn't always the answer, but I'm wondering if a strip of electric tape around the top would stop them?

Part of the problem is my mom has a bird feeder across the dog yard, so the chickens have learned to go from the goat pen/dog yard fence and cross the dog yard to get to the bird feeder on the other fence across the dog yard. We are trying to find a compromise that will work for everyone, allow the chickens to free range, the dogs to have free access to the yard, and my mom to continue feeding birds. I really don't think there is any hope on training the terrier to leave the chickens alone, but I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Miniv]

Move the bird feeder?

 

[Riverrose28]

I'm with miniv move the bird feeder. I used to have two keets that would jump onto the fence then over into the yard with my dogs, after being chased several times they figured it wasn't worth it. I also have a JR and they don't tolerate chickens in their space or snakes, or much of anything. I watched mine attack a black snake, it was wrapped around his whole body, but he won the battle, chickens need to stay out of his space. We arn't allowed by law to have free roaming chicks anymore, but I'm thinkng of getting some more they are great for killing those nasty ticks.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

The bird feeder is a part of the fence, hard to explain but it's a big wooden one. I'm not sure it's movable. The JRT ignored the chickens for over a year, but then my mom got a new dog that is interested in them and so now the JRT is too. Her other dog just wants to herd them, she doesn't hurt them. I think we got lucky by having no problems with the dogs and chickens for so many years!

Thanks for the help.

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

I'm getting a solar charged electric poultry fence for my free range girls to keep them out of the neighbors yard. Its a net type roll fence.

 

[Sterling]

Maybe not along the same lines but.... Years ago I used to let my chickens have the run of the farm until it started getting messy. They were laying eggs and pooping in my hay bales.

Or when I'd go and get hay to feed the horses they would be in them making nests and fly out fluttering and screaming...not fun!

Also stepping in the poop and tracking it inside was getting old. Would love to still let them roam all over just to keep the tick population down. But we decided to give them their own little heaven on earth on the farm. They have their own corral, complete with chicken house and chicken coop, nesting boxes and everything a chicken could want. What did they start to do last year once they started growing was jump fences going into the horse's corrals, spreading the good hay I would just put down for the horses and at a couple of points I saw my little Junior get annoyed at one hen he liked to stomp on her. So...plan B came into play. I clipped each of their wings...flight feathers only on one wing where they can jump to perch up high but they dont' get enough jet power that they can fly over fences and go into the other corrals and pasture fences. They stay in their own little world and everyone is happy.