How to get a chicken to stop crapping on your deck.

One of the down sides to having chickens is the poop. Yep, if you let them range, they're going to crap a lot.  It's like having 16 small dogs at times.

Throw scraps off your deck and after a while they'll start to associate the deck is the magical place where all food comes from.  Especially the good stuff like bits of t-bone steaks and red cabbage.

(Yeah, that's what I thought too).

So anyway, in the process of going on explores looking for food on my deck, they have a tendancy to crap there.  It makes going in and out the door interesting - kind of like a treasure hunt. 

Or walking off a plank.

Gene finally discovered the one thing that will keep the crap off the deck.

The yellow broom. 

No, not for sweeping (well, that too), but when a grumpy glass man swings it around his head and it makes a "woooosh" noise (and it flies out of his hands and hits the house), the chickens freak OUT *bwaaaaack* and will run until they are out of breath and can run no farther.

Which is about 50 feet.

Then, leave the broom on the steps and the dirty little buggers will never approach the deck again.

So when you visit me, you'll have to jump a broom.  But be happy because that means you won't have bird crap stuck in your favorite pair of sketchers.