[Marches Farmer]

We too suffered with this at one point.  We tempted the hens into a shed with some corn and put up a notice at the farm entrance, "Found - Stray Hens".  The owners had to ask us nicely to get them back, which really stuck in their throats as they were very unpleasant people.  The hens also strayed into another neighbour's land but he had a Labrador that specialised in killing chickens and whenever he found a mangled one he'd hook it over their gate catch.   We all gave a sigh of relief when they moved. 

[Stereo]

You folks haven't got the farmer stylee yet. Neighbours are not a problem. Just deal with it.

Now, if hens are coming on your land and trashing your stuff then the owner has no reason to complain if the hens don't come back. I'm not going to advocate killing and eating perfectly good layers but to me, if it happens more than a couple times then the hens are yours. You can move them on to someone who will take good care of them. They will soon get tired of their precious layers vanishing. In the countryside, possession in a little more than nine tenths.

[chrismahon]

Was reading an old poultry book (1918) last week and it referred to this problem as 'trespass with serious consequences for the owner of the birds'. Didn't go any further unfortunately.