Need wicked thorny barrier bush to keep neighbors animals off property

I'm posting b/c I know there are a lot of Aussies and Brits on this board that might have some good suggestions on this. In the states we have black raspberry bushes which are pretty viscous especially the canes from the previous year (those that are dry and woody) but I still have yet to find the types of "brambles" or thorny bushes/briars that I have seen in shows from England and Australia - you know the kind where if a sheep stumbles into them it is basically impossible to free themselves (have to sheer the wool off). I've seen pics where the thorns look like they are 1.5-2" long (~4-6cm) and these things grow THICK! Does anyone know what the name of the plant is and if they would survive a winter (zone 6/7)?

I've been dealing with my neighbors flock of chickens for over 3 months, they walk over 200 yards off his little 1/3 acre and surround my house cock-a-doodle-doo'ing from 3am till noon (there seems to be 3-4 roosters as they have a few breeds of chickens). When I told this guy about it he was like "so what do you want me to do about it..?" Well, maybe fence them in or FEED them??

I'm glad that they have started to wonder past my house into the farmers field (soy/corn) but they found a HUGE food source there with all the grain that is left behind during harvest. But the thing is, we have at least 3 families of foxes along the property line and they have been scratching/feeding about 30yards from an active den, so I'm guessing they will be dinner soon for some fox.

So I want to plant some border plants next summer and allow them to grow and grow and grow (I never use the property on their side). It is lined by some evergreens and then about 100ft of grass between the trees and their property so there is plenty of room to be filled with thorny bushes!

Are there any other plants, shrubs, bushes, etc that will work in this situation?

I was also thinking barberry but they aren't very stiff, though they may be once dried. Any suggestions?

I have a huge barberry bush that certainly keeps me away. The branches are pretty stiff, too, so I suspect there may be several species, some of which present a better barrier than others.

Plant some chicken wire trees.

Problem is they will just run under any bushes and everyone else will get scratched instead.

Why are you so passive with the neighbor?

Tell him to keep his animals on his own property, they are clucking at your house at 3am, or call the county, or kill the chickens.

Shotgun blasts at 3am will be more annoying.




But multi floral rose is pretty ba

a reply to: DigginFoTroof



Pyracantha hedging plants | Firethorn

www.best4hedging.co.uk...

Very pretty and lethally prickly

Don't know about keeping chickens out but wild roses will eat you alive. I have had them in front of my shop and they are man eaters. Left alone, they will create one hell of a barrier but you would have to plant them fairly close to create the barrier you want in a year or two. How about just putting up a fence? That sounds like the logical option to me.

www.thetreecenter.com...


Like it says in the description, unwanted visitors will NEVER push through a needlepoint holly, they grow very well and fast.
I can attest to their sharpness as an HVAC service tech running into them often working on outdoor condensing units.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

wild razor wire ???

or gorse ????????????????

ETA - citation for people wondering " wtf is gorse " ??

cite

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

With the fox den issue, it sounds like the issue is going to take care of itself for you.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

You want wicked, try using Gorse, nothing gets through that, well maybe rabbits. Don't know if it grows in the States.

Another pretty good barrier is Hawthorne, looks good too.

Gorse

Can be a pest but easy to control if you maintain it.

Ya know what tastes like chicken?

Chicken......

The neighbors will fix the issue or you will get tired of eating chicken.

Not sure where you're located but Bougainvillea dwarf might work if you're in the right climate for them.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

www.viviansnursery.com...

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

If you were my neighbour and your bushes hurt my animals, you would be responsible and I would sue the # out of you. I'd probably make your life miserable too for pulling that, as a neighbour.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I don't know how well it would grow wherever you are but when I lived way down south we used Pampas Grass. Once it matures and thickens they weave into each other and the blades will cut you- if you can even get through it! Only bad thing about it is snakes like to nest in it at the bottom, but animals cant get through it!

Pampas Grass

At first a good fence would seem to take care of the problem-but not the early wakeup call.

Invest in some traps and donate the chickens; quietly.

Perhaps consider your own early wakeup call in the form of lovely hard rock blasting in their direction; Wako style.

Maybe then your neighbors will be able to "understand" the problem.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

It's not really a stickerbush but holly works.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

heh. hose them.

www.wikihow.com...

Or, since you now have an extra supply of chicken, have a bbq.

You can try Spanish Bayonet plant also.

large breed dog. Feed him some chicken, then show him the correlation.

Win win. less feed, healthy pet, less chickens. Wait, that's a win, win, win.

Plus you get a new buddy. wait, I can't compute the wins here........

Do you live in a rural area?

My little rural homestead is quite remote. Yet it is very common to find my neighbor's livestock grazing on my property. Goats, cows, horses, donkeys, ducks, chickens, peacocks, you name it.

The word is out, because even the wild critters call my place the playground. I don't have the back fenced, because there is 120 wooded acres back there. Half the time I leave the gate open, which doesn't stop them even if it is closed.

Luckily, it doesn't bother me, and my neighbors know that my place is the first place to look when their critters go missing.

I might add that I have five Huskies. Their prey drive only kicks in when something runs. Otherwise, they find the critters totally uninteresting.

Blackberry bushes, don't stop much of anything in my experience, except me. No luck with bougainvillea either. Both just seem to work only with people.

Hardware cloth with metal stakes. If you don't like the look of the hardware cloth, plant shrubs in front of it -- no thorns necessary. This is from Lancaster, PA, so all should grow easily for you:

7 great shrubs for hedges

No need to be cruel to the chickens who don't know any better... although apparently none of the adults in the picture know how to do any better either.

a reply to: network dude

blinks - no just NO

do NOT encourage domestic dogs to eat chickens

you will end up with a dog thats either dead - or facing a massive vets bill - with bits of bone fragment all the way from its tongue to its arsehole