As I think that privet leaves will be poisonous to the hens, you could always advise your neighbour of this.

Hens can, and will, peck at anything so far as I am aware privet is not toxic to them. At the end of the day it is the neighbours responsibility to ensure that his/her hens can't eat toxic substances.

even if it isnt toxic perhaps suggest that it might be. hopefully the neighbour will take steps to put wire netting up.
hope you twoMG & BA arent going to fall out :o)

What us... nope

glad to hear that :o)

i have hens in the garden and as can c from my pics ,i dont find them to caurse damage, they eat slugs, snails, and weeds. not notised them pecking my hedge or plants. so may be there is not enogh food to keep them busy. i sumtimes pik weeds as well or give them veg peelings ,bread cakes wot ever . u cud surjest this to her ,may b she does not no. and put chicken wire up. or you cud get sum as well they make great pets. dont think ur haedge will suffer.

Christina you allow hens to wander where they will in your garden, flowers, fruit, veg. and all? I am surprised you have a garden left. Hens will eat anything and are extremely destructive. Either you have such a large garden that the damage they cause is minimal or you only have a couple of hens.

I remember when the nursery I was working for decided a flock of chickens would give them the proper rural air. What a nightmare! The damage, mess, and lawsuits never ended. We found out that they didn't likeartificial grape or cherry flavors, which helped take care of the damage to ornamentals, but our veggie sales suffered until we finally sent them packing to a small farm. Whew!!

I seem to remember that NP had a problem with hens too...

moon grower lol i have 3 at the moment but did have 7 , i cover all my veg up but they go up on the bank and eat the weeds , i let them out wen it rains and they eat slugs and snails . dont find them distrutive really . they quite funny and follow u around. they not out 24/ 7 or the dog wud have em . but she is the 1 i have to watch being a pup lol ..

Cristina do a google search on the Eva Balfour method of rearing hens - does not take up a lot of space if you only have a few of them and ensures that your plants do not get eaten. When you say you 'cover up all your veg' do you mean in a cage or somehow else. Easier to contain the hens and grow the plants free!

yes i no but they r rescue hens so were caged most of there life ,i have closhes over stuff, that i think they wud eat and to protect from morarding insects lol. they not out every day as they have a 14/ 10 run . but u get better eggs if they get sum greens and every 1 says they r the bees knees. i find they dont touch any thing else

The Eva Balfour method contains them within an area but not indoors, basically you have a small area that they go into all the time and from there they go into one of two areas. You have them in one area for a couple of weeks then close the gate to that one and open the gate to the other one. This allows the grass etc. to regenerate and is the way we dealt with a flock of some 20 bantams when we did have hens. As you already have them in a run the easiest thing to do is pull a load of weeds for then and throw into the run every day, oh and chuck your slugs and snails in there too.

lol yes i do that allready as well but better they hunt out thr own slugs thy can find them better thn me i think ,but yes i no wot u mean.

Each to their own...