Hey, chickens are digging up the mulch in order to eat all those bad bugs that want to eat your plants! Are they actually damaging the plants, or just messing up the mulch?

I'm thinking Crisco, flour and a deep fryer then inviting Lavonne and I over for dinner! :-)

Doc's right, plus the chicken fert ain't a bad thing at all unless there is too much of it. Chicken poo is pretty hot but if they aren't using is as their primary bathroom then you should be fine.

...and if you have A LOT of chicken poo bag it and bring it to The Middle Tennessee Plant Swap! It's as good as gold to us.

My neighbors dogs did a good job on my chickens, when I had some.
Norm

"I'm thinking Crisco, flour and a deep fryer then inviting Lavonne and I over for dinner! :-) "

You are sooooooooo bad. But have to admit that sending them to freezer camp did come to mind for a moment. Then I snapped out of it.
They will not hurt most plants.They are good for the garden ubless they are eating the plants. Then talk to the owner.

Chickens will kill your plants. They scratch and dig up roots. Their manure is as hot as it gets. Chicken manure needs to be composted or it will burn everything up. You might try putting chicken wire on the ground. Rhonda

You have my sympathy!! I had a love hate relationship w/our chickens. Loved getting the fresh eggs, loved having available organic fert, but .... I didn't like leaving them penned and when I tried to turn them lose during the day it was horrible! If you've not actually seen the damage they can do, it's hard to imagine. They love mulch and nice loose soil. It's not just cosmetic damage, they can and do remove ALL your mulch. And they don't limit themselves to just the mulch. It looked like they were digging to China. They dug so deep around some plants that the roots were exposed and the plants suffered some damage before I realized what had happened. I tried some sprays that are supposed to repel critters but that didn't work. Then I tried putting down plastic bird netting on top of the mulch with an additional thin layer to hide the netting. That's what I was working on when I finally gave up and just got rid of the chickens. It was very frustrating to watch all my hard work be destroyed. The netting might have worked but I had such large areas to cover that I just couldn't handle it. If we can afford a larger pen in the future, I might have chickens again but that'd be pretty expensive and probably for me just easier to buy eggs!

Sorry to be of no help, but just had to tell you "I feel your pain". Those chickens had me in tears on several occasions, and much as I like to get along with other folks I'm afraid I'd not tolerate someone else's chickens destroying my flower beds. Crisco and flour would definitely be my recommendation :-)

Good luck,
Frances

Invite the neighbors over to see your beautiful flowers. Maybe they'll take a hint. If not, you may have to 'splain it to them.