Neighbor hates my chickens- will she do them harm?

[barqhorse85]

As far as the noise, they make something called a no-crow collar. It is mesh or fabric collar that you put around your rooster's neck. It limits how far the can expand their neck when crowing. This cause lower volume or 'strangled' crow but does not stop them from making regular chook noises within the flock. Their are different versions, padded, decorated, and different sizes for bigger or smaller birds. You could try that as a last resort. Otherwise I would tell her to mind her own business. It never hurt anyone to get up at 7:30. Her daughter's visit is temporary but your rooster lives there.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

This summer has been a time of reflection. I have listened to my third “oops” rooster Ted Baxter, crow and thought a lot about what I want to do. I have been feeling stuck.

We did make an offer on the foreclosure next door, but the bank rejected it because they got a sucker to offer full price! At first I was devastated because I’m afraid. Afraid, that we would get another horror show of a neighbor on the other side. In my heart I knew I had to find a way to let it go. So every day when I walk my dogs in the woods I do just that. My woods- this calm, peace and beauty- it’s all right here. There is no loud music beyond the symphony that is the snorting of the bucks, the gobbling of the turkeys and calls of the pileated woodpeckers. I listen to the joyful music of my youngest dog’s bell on her collar. It’s the twinkling that warns the deer to hide and reassures me that she is still close when I can’t see her. I hear the crunch of the leaves in the fall and the squishing noise that the mud makes beneath my boots in the spring. The quite stillness of winter where any noise travels fast through the open woods amplified for all to hear. These woods really belong to all, but I feel they are here just for me. So no matter what happens, I have this place of quietness and beauty for always. I am doing my best to focus on that.

I don’t want to be sad all the time anymore. I also don’t want to just sit in my house and worry about my world. Yes, the music goes on from Crazy Lady’s yard next door. Maybe it’s the 3rd rooster that ticked her off this time. But rather than sitting her obsessing about it, I brought my youngest dog Mimi to a couple of dog shows. What fun- a whole day where I thought of nothing but dogs! I forgot about Crazy Lady and the foreclosure on the other side. And Mimi got a Best of Breed ribbon at both shows! Granted, the competition was small. But I was told that I didn’t need to talk about that. My new dog friends told me that the rest of my competition was home on their couch eating potato chips and watching TV. So be proud of what I did, because I’m the one that trained my dog to behave and showed up. I like this dog show thing!

So after I had these revelations and accepted that I would not be buying the house next door, yesterday the potential buyer had the septic inspected. Turns out the whole system is toast. For those of you who are not septic savvy- no septic equals no bathroom! There are no sewer lines out here in the country! I talked to the septic inspector who lucky for me was a chatter box. Because of our high water table and close to the surface bedrock, they would need an engineered septic system. The old septic was done without permits back in the 70’s. It does not conform to today’s regulations so it must be completely replaced. His estimate was between 20 and 25K. This may kill the current deal on the house! And what it means is that future flippers are going to be VERY leery of buying the house. So all hope is not lost! If the buyer can come up with the 25K then she still may buy the house. She would be a fool to buy it…but hopefully she’s not crazy! So now I wait again to find out what happens. But I’m not staying here. Today I’m taking all the dogs to the lake, to swim and be happy!!

Mimi in her woods...

 

[desertrocks]

The exterminator guy just left. Let’s call him X-Guy. He tried to talk me into at least putting down "ZP Tracking Powder" which is Zinc Phosphide based. I guess you squirt the powder in the holes. Nope....I declined. No poison. He also said that based on the multiple rats we entombed over the winter and the number of holes we have a "good size colony." I was afraid to ask what that meant. I am also now afraid to set up my game cam. Do I really want to know how many rats there are? But X-Guy was really positive! “We’ll get ‘em,” he said. “It’ll take longer than with poison, but eventually we’ll get ‘em all.” His extreme confidence did make me feel better. I know that trapping alone is not the answer. I have to eliminate their food source, places to live and places to hide.

X-Guy LOVED my rat proof feeders. He wants DH to get them set up ASAP. He said the rats should be denied all food except the delicious scratch grains inside the 6 bait boxes he set that contain just a single trap each. 2 boxes are in the coop and 4 are on pathways that the rats are traveling on to get from the garden to the coop. I am a little nervous about taking away the rat’s food. I’m afraid they will go after my chickens again. X-Guy was surprised when I told him about the attack on poor Janet and the questionable deaths of Chrissie and Sophie. He couldn’t believe that a rat would attack a full grown chicken. “I’m going to have to research that,” he said. I told him to try “backyardchickens.com”. I know that my experiences with these killer rats are not unique!

I admit it. These rats are making me a bit obsessed. I think maybe X-Guy thought he was dealing with me as a Crazy Lady! But that’s because I love my chickens…and all my animals. Threaten them and you threaten me. I’ve taken to doing little things so I can track when the rats are coming in the coop. I put the bottle brush inside the small hole they are trying to make in the cement wall. If they pull it out I know they were there! I have a bread bag with a tiny piece of bread that I put in a bucket for them every morning and night. If they take it out and drag it behind the garbage can with the feed…then I know they were there! So for two nights these things have only been touched in the daytime. I hope I am right and they can no longer get inside my coop!

X-Guy also said that DH's idea of filling the holes with dry Plaster of Paris and small rocks and then running the hose in the tunnels was a good one. He said, "You guys are serious." I think he probably should have been able to tell that from the interior of my coop which is now covered in cans of spray foam, yards of hardware cloth and metal on the bottom of both coop doors.

But no Plaster of Paris in the holes yet X-Guy said...we want the rats to come out so we can trap them. I’m not supposed to touch the boxes until Friday and he told me to make sure I wear gloves to hide my scent. Why? It’s not like they’re afraid of me! I’m the one that feeds them! But they will get hungry when the rat proof chicken feeders go in and I’m going to make sure that the only food they have is in those boxes. Or if they really, really want sunflower seeds instead they can move over to Crazy Lady's house and live next to the bird feeders! I am on vacation next week. So if I have to spend it sitting on a chair in my chicken run throwing rocks at rats, so be it. Either way, my yard is no longer a free ride for rodents!

As long as it isn't something the birds are going to pick at if you mix a little steel wool in the Plaster of Paris it will kill the rats when they ingest the steel wool while gnawing thru the plaster. If rats are determined to get somewhere they will gnaw thru cement. We had them bad along the river, big ones and that is how we got rid of them without using poisons.

 

[Mac14]

This summer has been a time of reflection. I have listened to my third “oops” rooster Ted Baxter, crow and thought a lot about what I want to do. I have been feeling stuck.

We did make an offer on the foreclosure next door, but the bank rejected it because they got a sucker to offer full price! At first I was devastated because I’m afraid. Afraid, that we would get another horror show of a neighbor on the other side. In my heart I knew I had to find a way to let it go. So every day when I walk my dogs in the woods I do just that. My woods- this calm, peace and beauty- it’s all right here. There is no loud music beyond the symphony that is the snorting of the bucks, the gobbling of the turkeys and calls of the pileated woodpeckers. I listen to the joyful music of my youngest dog’s bell on her collar. It’s the twinkling that warns the deer to hide and reassures me that she is still close when I can’t see her. I hear the crunch of the leaves in the fall and the squishing noise that the mud makes beneath my boots in the spring. The quite stillness of winter where any noise travels fast through the open woods amplified for all to hear. These woods really belong to all, but I feel they are here just for me. So no matter what happens, I have this place of quietness and beauty for always. I am doing my best to focus on that.

I don’t want to be sad all the time anymore. I also don’t want to just sit in my house and worry about my world. Yes, the music goes on from Crazy Lady’s yard next door. Maybe it’s the 3rd rooster that ticked her off this time. But rather than sitting her obsessing about it, I brought my youngest dog Mimi to a couple of dog shows. What fun- a whole day where I thought of nothing but dogs! I forgot about Crazy Lady and the foreclosure on the other side. And Mimi got a Best of Breed ribbon at both shows! Granted, the competition was small. But I was told that I didn’t need to talk about that. My new dog friends told me that the rest of my competition was home on their couch eating potato chips and watching TV. So be proud of what I did, because I’m the one that trained my dog to behave and showed up. I like this dog show thing!

So after I had these revelations and accepted that I would not be buying the house next door, yesterday the potential buyer had the septic inspected. Turns out the whole system is toast. For those of you who are not septic savvy- no septic equals no bathroom! There are no sewer lines out here in the country! I talked to the septic inspector who lucky for me was a chatter box. Because of our high water table and close to the surface bedrock, they would need an engineered septic system. The old septic was done without permits back in the 70’s. It does not conform to today’s regulations so it must be completely replaced. His estimate was between 20 and 25K. This may kill the current deal on the house! And what it means is that future flippers are going to be VERY leery of buying the house. So all hope is not lost! If the buyer can come up with the 25K then she still may buy the house. She would be a fool to buy it…but hopefully she’s not crazy! So now I wait again to find out what happens. But I’m not staying here. Today I’m taking all the dogs to the lake, to swim and be happy!!

Mimi in her woods...

I'm so glad you have a place to get away to. I think that it helps us to appreciate little things even when our life is crazy.

 

[ah89]

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[Kukelekuu]

Anymore news?

Hope all is well!

 

[Justpekin]

Wow. I read through a lot of this thread and I feel for you. This lady is more than crazy. Who complains about noise and then plays music so loudly you can hear it in your house. I would record yourself in your house hearing the music and walk outside, as your recording, showing that it's coming from her place. This would be a good piece of evidence for court. I don't care if your rooster is loud. The loud music thing is crazy and harassing. Who wouldn't agree with you?! And take pictures of those trees. Before she cut them and after. Everyone knows they are a noise buffer. Who would cut them down if they really want to eliminate the noise? Another piece of evidence against her and her claim. hope things are going okay.
My neighbors are really close (when they are in their yard I can hear them talking, now that's close) and we have two pet ducks who get so excited whenever we are in the yard with them. And, they are LOUD. No complaints. But, then there also is their Grand children who are very loud screamers and yellers when they don't get their way. So, I guess we all just live life day to day here. No complaining. Watch out for each other when odd solicitors show up etc. like you said in one post why would a person spend her days causing someone else pain. I too can't figure that one out. Good luck.

 

[TheBeardie]

Yes, having that fence is great! It’s even greater as it appears that Meyer Hatchery has made yet another rooster mistake...that's 3 in 3 years. Oh boy. Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when I heard a very familiar croaking noise coming from under the Mulberry bushes. Below is "Mary"...Rhoda's counterpart this year. I have not yet changed Mary's name to be "Ted Baxter" because I am not 100% sure that Mary was the one doing the croaking-but I’m pretty sure since he/she is the only one out of 8 with a reddish comb at 10ish weeks! She/he is also significantly bigger than Rhoda. Rhoda was very small and took some TLC upon arrival. She just wouldn’t eat. So for a week I fed her 5 times a day, painstakingly putting little pieces of food in her mouth until she would swallow just a few. And I gave her lots and lots of sugar water. She perked up! I guess sometimes if you don’t give up on a chick, they don’t give up either. It was the same way with the little cross beak in the group of chicks I had the year my mom died. This was not just a minor beak cross, her whole face was deformed. She wasn’t supposed to be my chick, but I knew my friend did not have the setup to care for a cross beak. And I already had one, so I thought she might do OK. They could be friends. But a cross-beaked chick is heart breaking because you know that this chick will grow up to be a hungry chicken. She would be destined to spend her days trying to shovel chicken food down a tiny opening morsel by morsel. Plus she was white and I was scared a hawk would get her. So I brought a picture of this chick to the hospital when my mom was sick for the last time. She was very drugged and a little confused. She liked pictures she could hold and she always wrote who was in the picture and the date on the back. I showed her a picture of Angel and told her my dilemma. She looked at it and said clear as day, “You should keep her. Don’t forget to write her name and the date on the back.” So I kept her, for my mom. And I named her Angel. Even though I knew the little baby’s days were limited I decided to do for her the best I could. Angel held her own all summer. And every day that she lived felt like a victory to me. But then when fall arrived she just couldn’t eat enough anymore and I could feel what little body fat she had slipping away. Then in November she stopped eating all together. I brought her in the house and fed her mushy food. She made a huge mess shaking her tiny head and spraying the couch, the dogs, and my dad, just everything with goo. But I didn’t care. I just wanted her to live. But I knew she wouldn’t. And two days later she died in her sleep. But I’m glad I kept her. She wanted to live and I did my best. In the months after my mom died little Angel gave me such comfort. It was like just having her here made me feel like a little part of my mom stayed too, just to help me look after her. But I guess just like it was time for my mom to go, so it was time for Angel to go too. And it was also time for me to stop thinking every day about my mom in the hospital looking at a picture of my Angel. It was enough. So even though I pick my little peeps so carefully every year, really I never know just what I’m going to get. But I guess I need to keep them all because if I don’t I’ll never know what they were meant to teach me. Ted Baxter...or Mary? Awfully fresh for his/her age..walking right up to a mean chicken like Mary Anne! My Angel....I miss her...

I have a Cross beak too, although not that bad, little man is a silkie rooster I got as a little gray puff at the beginning of the year. At first I didn't see the slight tilt of his beak, then when 'Puberty' hit I noticed two things, the little puff I thought was a female was actually male and the crossed beak.

He was adorable when he was a puff!

This is him a few months ago with his brother.

 

[Cack-a-doodle]

Read the whole thread waiting for more news.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

So we didn’t get the foreclosure next door. At least I don’t think we will. The real estate agent was just removing the for sale sign so something’s up. I’m going to guess that the sucker they got to make the over-priced offer actually bought the house. But for some reason I don’t care. Spending too much money that I don’t have on a house just so I can knock it down and keep people away is stupid. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be able to smile and laugh and not feel guilty. I want to keep training my dog and showing her. I don’t want to fade away just yet.

Crazy Lady hasn’t bothered me with “boo” lately. She’s got teenage problems. Her now 21 year old princess daughter has apparently decided to act like she is 15. Yesterday I heard screaming coming from Crazy Lady’s mouth the likes I have never heard before.The kind of screaming that leaves your throat tingling and a small ringing in your own ears. And Princess screamed right back at her “Mommy”. Princess is still a Facebook blabbermouth and I can’t help but look once in a while. Apparently she’s taken up drinking is earnest now. Have fun with that. Maybe Crazy Lady is the one feeding her the alcohol…to make her weak and dependent. Princess still has no driver’s license or job. Her life is no better than the dogs Crazy Lady locks up in their crates all day.

Things ought to get interesting around here next week when the construction begins. Due to the GIANT snowfall we had last year and the rats that attacked I decided we need a covered outdoor run for the chickens. I just can’t “coop” them up for months again…especially now that there are 34 of them! So to add a large overhang to our chicken coop we had to submit requests to three…yes three town agencies-the health department, building department and the zoning department. But if we didn’t then you know that Crazy Lady would call the town!

The overhang will be wide open for now but built just the right size to fully enclose with sheets of plywood on the side walls as soon as the first snow hits. Then it will have a roof made of clear plastic corrugated roofing material. That way the peeps will still get light…but no wind! There will be ventilation right along the roof line on three sides, just 4 inches or so that is blocked off with hardware cloth. Then the plywood sides will attach underneath. This lovely plastic roof/ plywood square will be what Crazy Lady’s view will be out her front window. Hope she likes it! I know my chicken’s will!

The other reason besides the snow that my chickens need more space is the three rooster situation. Last winter since the girls were all cooped up they just couldn’t get away from the boys! The two boy’s favorite hens were not happy. And now we have three! Warren Harding is just a big baby. He hardly ever crows. He spends most of his day cooing at the girls and breeding as many as he can catch. He runs in terror from me…no idea why…but I’m OK with that because he is huge! Ted Baxter is turning out to be a beautiful little guy. He is five months now and is just beginning to question authority figures. Spock has nipped it in the bud. He stretches and flaps his wings at Ted Baxter while he walks and hops a little on his tippy toes. The message is clear. This is my space, my place, “Go ahead, make my day.” Then Ted Baxter runs like hell.

Little Ted Baxter is acting quite different towards me than baby Spock or Warren ever did. As I strolled past him yesterday morning he pecked me in the leg. Not hard…just a poke. I turned around and poked him right back on the top of the head! He took off running! But he just doesn’t get out of my way fast enough and this morning I caught him following me around! So I turned sharp and said, “BOO!” Then he high tailed it the other way. But I haven’t figured out of he’s just friendly or starting to get a little too full of his feather britches. Every morning I do give him special food, just like Spock and Warren get. They usually don’t eat the grapes or bread I throw just to them- they give it to the girls. But they seem to appreciate me providing them with something to share. Makes them have some clout with the ladies. So who knows? Maybe Ted Baxter is just going to be a friendly rooster…for sure he is a loud one!

Ted Baxter... 5 months and already almost as loud as Spock...and Spock is LOUD!



Spock and a very moulty Warren Harding. Spock's favorite girl Counselor Troy walks by....Spock gives Warren the stink eye!!