4 Spices That Keep Chickens Away

Having chickens around your garden, front porch, or compound can be disturbing. Talk about how they could pick up some seeds from the garden.

They could also come in their clusters and cause a lot of nuisance, leaving poop all over the place.

Thankfully, several spices can keep them at bay. In this guide, we will consider some of them.

In the following sections, we will identify some spices that can keep chicken away. Also, we will show you other alternatives besides using spices.

4 Spices That Keep Chickens Away

There are various strategies to employ to keep chickens away from your house or garden. Using some repelling spices is one of them, and you may be surprised at how effective they could be.

Below are the four spices on our list:

1. Garlic

Garlic is one of the most affordable spices you can use in warding off chickens. They are easy to find and are always available in every season. Garlic smell is usually very disgusting for chickens and repels them instantly.

You may have an aversion towards garlic smell. But you see, the high potency of this natural spice in deterring chicken is worth forbearing the scent.

If you loathe garlic odor, one way to use it without having much smell in the air is to drop raw cloves on your porch.

But if you don’t mind the smell, mash and pour it into a spray bottle. Next, add some water.

Finally, you can spray the garlic water around areas where the chickens come to.

If you have neither fresh garlic nor a spray bottle, apply garlic powder to your front lawn, porch, and garden.

Rest assured, garlic is not toxic to your plants. Instead, they are toxic to mites that are harmful to the chickens. So, when you apply garlic powder, you kill two birds with one stone.

You are also protecting the chickens from mites and sending them away from your space.

2. Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a popular spice for cooking. It is a common cooking ingredient that you probably have in your pantry already.

If cinnamon is on your shelf, bring it out. And if you do not, you can easily buy at a local store or online marketplaces.

Chickens hate the smell and will do all they can to avoid it. However, cinnamon has an intense scent that chickens find repulsive.

You can sprinkle cinnamon powder in your garden or front lawns to deter chickens from coming around.

If you enjoy cooking with cinnamon, you can buy it in large quantities. The best part of this method is that you can apply cinnamon as long as you want. In addition, it has no known danger to humans and pets.

3. Pepper

All shades of pepper, from chili to Cameroon to cayenne, are chicken repellents. If you already have them, you’ve got all you need to keep chickens away from your environment.

Chickens find the scorching and spicy features of pepper extremely irritating.

Peppers also have a slightly painful effect when chickens step on them. That said, the hurting feeling does not affect the chickens’ health. It only scorches them for a short period, and that is all to it.

You can apply pepper powders by sprinkling them around the garden or the backyard. Do this repeatedly for about a week and watch the chickens invading your compound disappear in no time.

4. Paprika

Paprika is more like a variation of peppers. They are dried peppers and usually have a semi-burnt smell and taste. Paprika is very irritating for chickens and wards them off.

Like other spices, all you need to do is sprinkle the paprika on the garden lines, lawn, and front porch. Parika is also very affordable and easy to find, so you have nothing to worry about.

Alternative Ways To Keep Chickens Away

Spices are a great way to keep chickens at bay from your home. However, there are other effective chicken-deterring strategies you may want to consider. Below, we consider some of them:

1. Plants

Chickens are repulsive to certain plants. These include peppermint, lavender, lemongrass, marigold, etc.

Here is the exciting thing about most of these plants: while they repel chickens, they smell pleasant to humans. So, it is a win-win for you with this method. Your yard will smell nice, and the unwanted visitors will stay away.

If you have a garden, you can plant any of your choice plants there. But if there is no garden in your yard, another option is to grow the chicken-repellant plants in pots and leave them outside.

Instead of going through the rigor of planting chicken-repelling plants, you could buy mint and lavender oils and spray them around your house. There are several fragrances of these oils available for purchase.

2. Leave Your Pets Outside

Here is a chance to give your furry friend a full-time job. Dogs and chickens are enemies that never look forward to seeing each other.

You are right on track if you have a bullmastiff, German shepherd, or Golden Retriever. Plus the natural hatred between these animals, you can further train your dog to see chickens as unwanted guests and chase them away.

Your dog will happily see this as an opportunity to get busy while doing other things.

3. Fences/Barriers

Here is another way to keep your garden and compound free from chickens. You can build a little fence for your garden or run a net or barbed wire around it. Just anything to barricade it from unwanted guests will serve.

If you own poultry and want to keep the chicken off your garden, you could also build a fence around the chicken house to keep them away.

One thing you can also do is to trace the exact place these chickens are coming in from and close it up.

Reasons You Should Act Fast in Deterring Chickens

Whether or not you own a garden, there are numerous reasons you shouldn’t delay taking steps to keep chickens at bay. Here are five of them:

1. To Prevent Air Pollution

Unless you are rearing chickens, having these birds entering your compound could mess up the atmosphere.

Chicken dung has powerful and awful. The chickens could dig for bugs to eat in their waste and mess up more areas. These unwanted guests may even explore your trash and leave some smelly dirt in the open.

2. To Protect Your Garden

Chickens are the last thing you need if you just set up a garden in your backyard. However, these birds are uniquely attracted to ornamental plants and flowers.

They also have a soft spot for grains and seed-like materials, including grasses. So, if you have berries and tomatoes in your garden, it is very likely that the chickens around are aware and will visit soon.

Imagine waking up in the morning, heading out to the garden you love, and putting so much work into it. Then you discover that chickens have invaded your garden, uprooted the seeds, and dug out the manure.

Trust me – it is going to be a very horrible sight.

3. To Protect the Chicken From Harm

Sounds strange, right? Why would you keep chickens away because you want to protect them? This reason applies mainly to chicken owners who stay close to where chicken predators are prevalent.

Say you live close to the woods in a rainforest region. Predators, like snakes, could lurk around, waiting for an excellent opportunity to pounce on your chickens.

So, in keeping the chickens away, you are, in a way, protecting them from harm.

4. To Keep Your Surroundings Tidy

Chickens will always leave a mark wherever they go. Little wonder untidy people are usually likened to chickens that litter the place.

Unless you are ready to clean up your front lawn or backyard time after time, you need to keep the chicken out. Else, prepare to have your cleaning tools handy at all times.

After they invade your garden or trash, various kinds of litter will be scattered around your house. This litter could give a wrong impression to guests who come around, and you wouldn’t want that.

Conclusion

Keeping chicken away using spices is pretty effective and DIY-friendly. Spices are everyday things you can get easily without spending so much. With garlic, cinnamon, pepper, and paprika, you can deter these unwanted visitors from your environment.

Besides applying spices, another foolproof chicken-deterring strategy you may want to consider is growing plants like peppermint and lavender.

If you own a pet dog, that is another bonus for you. Leave the dog outside often, and the invading chickens will stay away from your yard.