Neighbor hates my chickens- will she do them harm?

[TheSitcomGirls]

This is Spock:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/777222/this-has-to-be-a-rooster-right/10

And yes he turned out to be a Golden Campine rooster. At almost 6 months of age he is pretty loud now. My house is 100 ft from the coop and with the windows closed I can hear him when he crows, in or outside of the coop. It is not loud enough to wake me up. He crows when the sun comes up...8 times. Then again at 7:30 when I let him out, then usually two or 3 more times during the day- 8 times per event almost always. He seems to be gentle so far. Plus he makes me laugh and I'm keeping him! I lost both my parents this year to cancer and sometimes Spock is the only thing that makes me laugh.

When I decided to keep Spock I told all my surrounding neighbors to come to me if there was an issue and I would try to do something about it. I live in a rural area on 26 acres. I am zoned for Spock, actually I could have a building with 1000 Spocks if I wanted to! But I just have 23 hens and Spock. They have a coop inside a stone building with an attached pasture area about 100' by 100' that is fenced with a 6 foot fence on 3 sides then 5 foot on the horse pasture side.

Up until 2 weeks ago no one had complained. But my crazy neighbor whose house is 150 feet from Spock's coop did do various things to try to annoy me instead. I ignored her. Then she went and complained to the town. They ignored her. So then she finally complained to me in person. Told me I needed to lock my rooster in the coop because her daughter (20 year old...) was going to need to open her window at night in a couple of months and 7:30 AM was too early for her to be awakened. No please....just a demand....this after she had been purposely annoying me for the very difficult months after my father died. So I said, no. Spock's coop is 125 feet from your house. Their fence is 15 feet from your property line. Spock can be here and he goes outside at 7:30. She said, "But he is really loud." And I said, "Yes he is, bummer huh?" At first I did feel bad, but then I realized that she had tried to torture me for months and I was not going to reward her going to the town or just her bad behavior in general!

Two days after she complained to me she put up a string along her property line and then put several bird feeders as close as she could get to my coop on her side. Presumbly to draw the skunks, possums to my chickens or whatever. But their coop is like Fort Knox-nothing can get in. But I am still concerned because her crazy behavior does seem to be escalating.

Has anyone had a neighbor whose behavior escalated to the point of them harming the chickens? I bought a couple alarms that are for driveways-the kind that will chime in the house. I am going to hook them up to chime if the coop doors are opened. That should protect my chickens at night. I am a very light sleeper and the chime with wake me up but not my husband! Any other suggestions on coop security for hostile neighbors?

Spock at 4-1/2 months....

 

[ChickenLegs13]

In addition to extending her & her princess the courtesy of absolute disregardment I suggest you put a fence next to her property and put a pair of braying jackasses out to pasture.

 

[dandrews1971]

If she thinks its noisy, you should get some guineas. Say, maybe.... I don't know.....30 of them.....lol

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

Everybody has their own way of dealing with things.... for me I guess I'm dealing with the loss of my parents and the stress of Crazy Lady by writing about it all. My mother was a children's book author. She always encouraged me to write...I used to love to write stories about my animals. Pages and pages... my mother and I reading and editing them together. Since she died two years ago I haven't been able to write anything. Every time I tried it's been too painful. Writing about my rotten, evil, spoiled, controlling, nut job of a neighbor has made me feel one step closer to normal. It's made me want to write again. Thanks to all who read and feel that it does matter. It's almost like Spock wasn't a mistake from Meyer Hatchery... he was a gift from my mom.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

I sat for a while and tried to come up with my best response to "is this story of me real." I started this thread over a year ago because I was scared. I wanted to know to if anyone had experience with the extent that people would go because they were annoyed by someone's chickens. I have so missed writing since my mother died. Writing this has been a healing experience for me. So many of the people who have written back have made me smile or validated my fears. I lost both my parents in the same year to cancer. That pain is indescribable. They were a big part of my life. Crazy Lady was a HUGE distraction from my grief. Cancer leaves you powerless....it is horrible. But with the encouragement of so many people here I did keep Spock and I kept Warren too! AND I got my goats!!! I gained back a little bit of the control over my life that cancer had taken from me.

Regarding Warren Harding...he is another oops from Meyer Hatchery. I had found him a home but my DH encouraged me to keep him...so I did! He is not on purpose!!

Yes, it is crazy...but it is all true. Here's a little full farm pix! My new fence and barn in the distance. Believe it or not...the choice is yours!!! But realize that sometimes there is nothing more unbelievable than real life!

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

Thank you for all the encouragement. I needed that. I would love a donkey and some guineas...but they would actually drive me crazy as well! "Princess" you summed it up ChickenLegs13!!!! That's a perfect description. Spock is loud Whoops! And sort of piercing! But if it is dark out he doesn't crow. But I have read about some other roosters that crow all night. I am just lucky (knock on wood) that he doesn't do that. But he is also a single rooster with 23 hens and he is still young. The dominant hens beat him up just enough to keep him in line.

I never considered that she was trying to lure my chickens to her side. I guess she doesn't realize that almost all my chickens have at least one clipped wing except the fat ones who can't fly anyway! I do have a game cam in the woods. I like to see what is running on the trails when I am not there with my dogs. I will move it up to the house tonight! My coop is stone...built as part of a giant barn from the 1940s. The barn fell down I think in the 80s, but this little building remains. I think it was the milking parlor. It's not movable!

What has she done to annoy me? When Spock crowed she went outside and blew one of those air horns at him about a dozen times. Not only did he crow through it but he continued to crow for a half an hour. She never did that again. Then a few days later she walked her 6 month old GSD up and down the property line as close to the chicken fence as she could get. Of course the dog barked at the chickens. I caught the tail end of it when I went to see what all the fuss was about. Poor Spock freaked out and crowed for an hour and half. She never did that again either!

Then she also waits until I go outside and cranks up awful music as loud as she can. This went on for weeks until other neighbors complained to her about the noise. A couple years ago she began storing her trash cans and debris right on the property line. I told her it looked bad-did she have to store it there? She told me not to look at it. Sigh...so I never complained again...keep the peace. So a couple of weeks ago she parked a a two foot high trailer in the garbage spot and went out and bought four more cans. She piled all the cans on the trailer so that is the first thing I see every morning.

She had extremely bright spot lights installed on the front (second story) of her house and keeps them on from dusk until midnight or so. She has them pointed at our property. That one backfired as the lights only go as far as the chicken coop and probably help to keep predators away. However, it is blinding if you look in the direction of her house which I try not to do. She has 1/2 dozen or so other lights on outside as well. It looks like you are driving by a prison! I had Lyme disease really bad in the past and she knows that bright lights actually causes my eyes to hurt. So I have to be careful to avert my eyes and not look directly towards her property at night.

A year and a half ago a troubled child in our neighborhood set a fire and almost burned down our horse barn (among other things he did). I went to her and asked her to make sure that if the kid was in her yard to please supervise him as this was not the first fire he had set and I was concerned he might set fire to something else. "Princess" of course was friends with the fire setter. She told me she wouldn't supervise him. I would just have to deal with it. He was over there frequently, wandering around, sometimes when she wasn't even home. It caused me a lot of stress for over a year. Luckily no other fires were set and those people have since left about 6 months ago.

She attempted to enlist the help of other neighbors against me...but that backfired. Two of them (there are only 3 other houses) made a point to come and talk to me and tell me that they liked my chickens and Spock didn't bother them one bit. She is too afraid of the guy who lives across from me to talk to him. But I'm not....and we get along fine. So because they supported me (one of them is 80 year old widow) crazy lady told her husband he was no longer allowed to plow the 80 year old widows driveway. I told my neighbor not to worry...I would do it for her instead.

And the fence issue....I would love to put up a 10 foot high fence so I don't have to look at her. But I decided not to. She wants a fence, then she can pay for it. I am done being bullied!!!

 

[Blooie]

Thank you for all the encouraging words! Spock is the best. June 5th is the date of the Zoning Commission meeting where we apply for our 8 foot fence zoning exception... and where all the things she has done to us become public record as part of our application!

DH called the police as soon as he got home when he saw how upset I was. A nice state trooper came and the music was still cranking. He was sympathetic and after he talked to DH he said he was going over to issue them a written warning for disturbing the peace. He said that it would be on file at the State Troopers office. We will pick up a copy for the Zoning commission meeting. He also said that the next time he comes out (if) he will give them a citation for disturbing the peace. After he left... they turned up the music again for like 10 minutes. I made a note of it in my "music log". But I am not playing that game. I imagine that what they will do is play games with the music now.... but the trooper gave me his direct line and told me to leave him a voice mail if they played it again. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. I don't know what is going to happen now. But I do know that tonight... it will be quiet.... except for Spock! (I hope).

Oh... and the neighbor from across the street who complained to me about crazy lady's noise (told me she loved my rooster) drove by after the trooper left and waved at me so enthusiastically I thought she was going to crash her car.

What a coincidence! I waved so enthusiastically at you that I almost fell off my computer chair!

 

[Blooie]

I brought up this whole thing after our last meeting while we were all standing around visiting before we left.....without exception every member of Planning and Zoning, my fellow Town Council members and the mayor were appalled by the conduct of your local officials. What you are zoned for takes precedence over everything - including (and especially) complaining deranged neighbors. The recommendation I would make, after talking to them the other night, would be to contact your state Senator or Representative from your district. A nicely worded letter very briefly touching on what has been going on in the way of the music harassment, the rocks, etc, followed by the unprofessional conduct of the officials when your property was inspected - including bringing a child along - and a copy of the zoning regulation that you quoted here, then a request for someone from his/her office to contact you would not be out of line.

Be sure to stress that you are not asking them to become involved in a neighborhood pi***** contest, just that you want clarification of the zoning regulations and your responsibilities under those regulations. You also want cited the precise statue and/or ordinance that was used to make the final decision on the variance for the fence you wanted to install in order to appease your neighbor, because the decision was made without that being clarified for you. That sentence alone will go a long way - it shows that despite being within your legal rights you were making every effort not to let things escalate to this point and that you are determined to remain within the law. You may not get a response, but elections are coming up and they know it full well. One unhappy constituent can result in dozens, if not hundreds, of votes lost. And even if you don't personally receive a response, you can bet your last chicken that those involved in the vote will.

Unless you want it to be over, just over. In that case, you can still put up a surveillance camera like everyone suggested, because I can 100% guarantee you that even if you end up giving Spock up, she will continue. If you are not specifically aiming it at her property, but primarily at yours because you "suspect you've had some vandalism", and it happens to have one small part of the frame that picks up your trouble spot, you can and should use that. You have a right to protect your property and belongings, including your animals, and that would be the sole purpose for the camera - if it catches her in the act of something you got it on video despite not having it aimed at her.

I wish there was some way to help. It probably does you no good to hear that there are Commissions and Councils who take their jobs very seriously and would not allow themselves to be manipulated this way. That's exactly what they were - manipulated. They should be ashamed and I hope that when they are running for re-election you make it clear to every voter you know that these people are not in anyone's corner but their own.

 

[BigECarter]

I've seen some crazy stories over the years. The Chicken Chick has been going through something similar, and as a popular blogger I am sure her story checks out.

The craziest/most unbelievable thread I read was on a home building bb. A mistake by a realtor snowballed and was not caught until after the home builder finished building their house on the wrong lot. The actual owners of the lot were unwilling to work a deal (or were unhappy with what was offered). I'm not sure how the situation resolved, but I do remember seeing a news organization covering the story.

Bottom line, the OP has provided pics. Neighbors and code offices are notoriously difficult. I choose to believe the story.

I suggest people give the benefit of the doubt and continue following, or should move on. I see no point in dragging the OP through the mud based on speculation. If someone does some research and finds something out of whack, take it up with the moderators.

 

[Pyxis]

I forgot they take their newborns away. But I'm sure there are people out there who'll have the time to formula feed the calves, then when theyre full they let them go back to play with the mother. If I had a farm and wanted milk that's probably what I'd do.

My roosters run away whenever someone comes close, but youre right maybe the kids should at least be 10+ years old to be safe.

I'm already getting messages from people on here who want me to fly them all over the US. But ideally I can find some people not too far by so I can drop them off and visit them once or twice a year. I want them to only be used as pets or breeding so I'm thinking of having whoever wants them pay $40 each, then after two years if they show me updated pictures or video of them, then I'll give them back the $40 for each one they took off my hands. Most people won't love an animal as much if they just got it for free.

I'm really sorry, but you're not going to find anyone who'll take you up on that unless your roosters happen to be top show quality birds, which I doubt they are. You might find someone who'll take them for free and give them a good home, but you won't find someone who'll give you $40. Why would they, when they can just hit craigslist and find another one for free? I'm sorry to say this, but this is a part of chicken keeping. Roosters aren't like cats and dogs where each sex is equally wanted and desired. Roosters are loud, big, and having too many of them leads to stress and injury for your hens. They cost money to keep and they don't lay any eggs to give back. As many roosters as hens hatch, and only one is needed for every ten hens. Doing the math, it's easy to see that nine out of ten aren't going to be able to get a life with a flock. It's part of responsible flock management to accept this, and I personally would rather know that my birds lived a good happy life and died a quick humane death at my hands than dumping them somewhere or giving them to a shelter that's just going to put them down after a while when they don't find a home. Already by living with me they've had a happier, more natural life than those that are raised in factory farms that you buy in a supermarket.

Also, I wouldn't get your hopes up about being able to visit them. I might consider taking in a rooster, but not with that stipulation. I don't need it hanging over me that now I need to keep this person updated about the bird, and let them traipse onto my farm, where I practice biosecurity, so they can visit a rooster that I was just trying to give a new home to and is now instead a pain in my butt. If you give them to someone else, they no longer belong to you. You don't get to dictate what that person does with them, and you don't get to demand that you get to see them. I'm sorry, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. I would very quickly decide on taking someone else's rooster the second someone asked this of me. If you really want your birds to have a chance of finding new homes, you're going to need to lower your expectations a lot. There's an endless supply of roosters looking for new homes. Sorry if this post comes off as harsh, I'm just trying to show you the realities of keeping chickens.