Neighbor filed a warrant against me after she saw me with a camera yesterday!

[kallan]

First off, I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. I can't imagine going through this with my chickens and goats. I thank my lucky stars that I live in the country and my only neighbors are family and their a 1/4 mile away.
I would think that you could take as many photos as you want as long as it is on your property.

I agree that a game cam would be very benefitial OR even this : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C9KOWA8/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I have one that I used for watching my goats while at work, you can watch on your phone in real time and snap pictures.

Have you gotten any authorities involved? It seems like this person is unstable and wouldn't have problems hurling rocks at you or your family.

I haven't gotten the authorities involved yet because I am supposed to get our electronic equipment back this Friday. My husband and I went over last night since they would not answer their phone. The husband said he was busy and he would bring it over later. My husband is a softie and thought this would be okay, even though we were inconvenienced by police earlier in the day with the summons, etc. We waited for over 2 hours and then finally called and his wife answered the phone and said her husband would bring our equipment over on Friday. As soon as this is resolved, I may make the hour trip to get to the county and file a complaint about the rock throwing in case things escalate. My chickens are stressed and I am for sure. It's funny, this guy moved here from Maryland and bought up the land here and he actually built my house first in '95, then another and finally the one he resides in. I wish he had researched the zoning first. I have too much invested to move and am worried about what they may do next. I also have an 8,000 gallon koi pond with a dual waterfall that could be tampered with, etc. I need to be cautious.

The officer suggested I get a protective order...not sure about this.

Yes, these rocks could have endangered me or my chickens. My chickens were shut up in their coop, I believe, at the one instance. I don't know about the new rocks I found. I should pursue this and file to make a strong statement that this violence will not be tolerated. I did photograph the rocks lined up on their fence just now.

 

[Going Quackers]

I think you need to find out what your zoned and then go from there, if your allowed those chickens/rooster etc then you not violating laws.. 4 acres? that is a fair bit of space there... so you used a communal fence area? just trying to sort out how close these birds are to them.

 

[kallan]

Yes, the husband suggested we attach the run to his fence which is behind the shed I am in the process of dividing into two coops for hens only. They were onboard for this prior to me even acquiring the chickens.

I have two small coops at present that are functional, but not very pretty which are joined to two separate small runs that house the hens and the Swedish Flower Hen roo which they want gone. If I ever need chicks I can breed elsewhere. He did crow this morning around 4:30am, then again at 5:30am and each hour after that until I let him out at 7:30am. He is so large it would be difficult to move him in and out morning and night. I cover the coop with a tarp, but may try a blanket for now. I would like to hatch out a few of his hens before giving him up, but we'll see if I have time for that.

It is so despairing.

 

[sepaditty1]

Wow! I would immediately file a noise complaint about the radio at the pool. Let them see what its like to have your rights questioned!

I have wonderful neighbors who have never said a word about my (5!) Roosters. If anyone ever did I would politely point out that I hear their dog barking every time I go outside.

As for the rocks? Vandalism is illegal. Get them on it. You can't be harrassed just because chickens maake noise.

 

[lgrems]

Record the loud horn, music etc.....get the day and time of disturbance. Get the camera and game cam. The guy is unstable, no telling where he is willing to go. I would try to move the birds away from his fence line, just increase he stoops to poisons.

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

Wow, it's hard to believe that neighbors can be like that, I'm so sorry that you have to go through all of this. I would also suggest that you take pictures of the rocks where they landed and any damage that happened from each rock, That way it's not "just a plate of rocks", but a progressions of pictures from the line up on their secondary fence to your coop, and damages.

 

[yellowsnapdrago]

Just wondering how things are going? Any up dates for us?

 

[kallan]

UPDATE: Today, an animal control officer paid me a visit, but not about the chickens. I've lived here for four plus years and there were so many feral cats on the property that I would have them neutered, vaccinated and released....probably 35 or more. Some disappeared, but I still have seven that stay close to me on my property and I don't consider them feral anymore. The neighbor, Vickey Snyder, the same one that took out the warrant for noise...rooster, filed the complaint. It is so ironic, because I loaned her two cages to trap cats and raccoons a few months ago that she was complaining about then. I need to see if she ever actually took these cats in. I know she told us that they caught a raccoon in my trap and they shot it and she had to clean it up and it bent my wires badly from firing at such close range. I never let her borrow my traps again. The animal control officer was very nice and all he could say was how beautiful my place was...and it is!!! At the end of the conversation though, he did mention I should trap my cats and surrender them to be on the safe side. Having these cats has kept the ferals at bay. I could not kill them and I know more will take their place if it is ordered. Somebody needs to educate these officers that say things like "didn't you know that cats are the number one carrier of rabies"? Ignorance breeds ignorance.

Zoning seems to be in my favor....agricultural village and I can have as many roosters as I like, the Bedford County Planner sent me a zoning map, etc. I guess it will be up to the judge now. A small portion of my back property is zoned R1....low density residential, but I don't use that part...just woods. I did not retaliate by filing charges against them because I think that what they have done to me will speak for itself when we go to court. The husband returned some of the sound equipment back to us and I mentioned that they had really frightened my birds by hurling rocks at my pen and all he could say was they were driving me crazy, like he was justified. Does fear make hens have rubber eggs? Several hens have been laying them lately? The fog horn has stopped for now and the loud music, but he is still swearing and banging things at the rooster, who is a beauty, and I will not give him up without a fight.

Any thoughts on how to proceed from here on out?



" It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, won't you be mine, could you be mine............"

 

[seventreesfarm]

We had a neighbor like that. All nice and friendly when we moved in so he could try to 'advise' us on how to cut the grass, what animals they didn't like, not to trim our trees etc. Turns out the guy was a crazy angry freak. There had been renters in our place for like 20 years and this guy bullied them about animals and fencelines and such. When we moved in he tried to keep doing that. When it didn't work he got hostile, including throwing rocks and dead gophers over the fence (among other things).

We tried the being nice route, but all it did was make him think we were pushovers. His wife was kind of abused and drank a lot and one day she told us he was fixated on anything we were doing and always spying on us. We talked to the sheriff and they told us to document everything. We triple checked that we were zoned for agriculture (rural residential in our area) and then we looked at harassment laws. I was about at the point where I wanted the #@% to come in my yard so I could manage a self-defense claim, but instead we wrote up a nicely documented cease & desist letter and hand delivered it. Basically stating that we had documentation that X,Y & Z laws were being broken by the harassment, that the sheriff's office had been notified that we were documenting his actions, and that if this didn't stop the next step would be civil and criminal action.

About two days later a for sale sign went up in front of their house. I'm betting his wife just wanted him out of there before he got them into worse trouble.

Anyway...be aggressive or at least assertive with this neighbor. Sounds like you've done your research about zoning, and this guy is committing criminal acts. It might be worth the $250 or whatever for an hour of lawyer-time to get a letter drawn up, or look around online for a template you can use. But document everything and take action to protect your household. Don't bother with being polite. This neighbor has already demonstrated that he means you harm. He's not going to quit unless you can make it more painful for him to keep doing it than to stop.

 

[seventreesfarm]

Here's a blog post I did in mid-neighbor-hassle mode. You might get a laugh out of it - http://seventreesfarm.wordpress.com/2006/06/11/this-time-like-we-mean-it/