Hi all. About a month ago, a group of 4-6 chickens, hens I think, have shown up in our small backyard. We are in a suburb in a decreasingly rural area and we don’t treat our lawn with pesticides and I use insecticide around the perimeter of the house sparingly. Our yard backs into a field and we have many backyard visitors and we feed the birds (and squirrels by default). We get bunnies, songbirds, chipmunks, and very seldom deer. I think these chickens belong to someone a street or two over and I’d really prefer they be back home as they are driving my dogs crazy.

Over the last week they’ve begun laying flat underneath a feeder - are they going to start laying eggs? I’m so nervous about drawing in rat snakes and more birds or prey and endangering the songbirds and my smaller dogs. I understand the safety of cover and lots of bugs to nibble on back there are the draw - most of our neighbors are really into lawn care and having everything perfectly manicured and we try to be a little less disruptive to the non-human beings that also live around here.

What are the health and safety risks of having a random brood of chickens hang out in my backyard? Thanks in advance. Here are the ladies taking a break this afternoon for tax.