almost lost my hens! Thankfully I can keep them now.

[chickencutie]

So i had 13 chickens, 2 roosters and 11 hens. all of our neighbors except one family all enjoyed the crowing. (people told us they liked it so its not just my imagination) This one family asked us to get rid of the roosters. we had hatched the roosters and apparently they didnt get the fact that we cant control what gender they are and they were very rude about it. Anyway, it took us about a month to find a home for the boys. (im sure many of you know how hard it can be to get a rooster a new home and we couldnt bear to eat them). well yesterday, my dad got a phone call from our township, saying that a complaint had been put against our chickens... after we had taken the boys to their new home!! We were told that in Bushkill, only 4 chickens per acre were allowed and that if a formal complaint was written, we would have to get rid of 9 girls. (the guy also said that he really didnt care if we had more than the limit, but it was his job to enforce the law if they complained again) I was absolutely furious and even had the idea of buying speakers to hook up to my ipod and play the crowing noises all night just to be annoying. Especially when these people have a small girl that likes the crowing and the parents purposely antagonized the roosters to get them to crow for her... hypocrites. So today my dad went over to talk to them about it, wondering if the complaint was about the crowing or about the chickens in general. Thank God they said they didnt care about the hens. (when asked why they filed a complaint after we had gotten rid of the roosters they had no answer... whatever) So luckily they wil be staying with us. This past day was so rough, i really love my girls and i take good care of them. I would have so upset if they would have had to go. But anyway I just kind of felt like ranting abou this becasue these "neighbors" just really upset and angered me. I'm 17 and I can act more mature than they did in this situation. (except the ipod idea, that was kiddish but kind of a good idea lol)

 

[hcppam]

Glade it worked out.

 

[chickencutie]

thanks me too

 

[Nicole01]

I'm so glad it worked out!

My neighbor is threatening another neighbor and I if we keep a rooster. First she said she is sending her dog over to eat them(semi jokingly) then she says she's contacting the police if she hears the faintest crowing, she hates all roosters. We are allowed roosters. They can only crow from 7am-10pm without getting into trouble. I personally want a rooster myself, but my hubby says no. The rooster across the street is a very soft crower. We can only hear him when we are outside! I love the crowing! It's funny, my pullets are louder then the rooster across the street.

Sorry about your neighbor.

 

[chickencutie]

yea roosters are pretty cool.

i'm sorry you cant get any. My boys Hercules and Clifford Jr. were great. they were very tame, never attacked anybody and really werent that crow happy. and our coop is fairly soundproof so i honestly dont think they heard them at all. we didnt let them out til about 9:30 for that reason. sorry if they werent up by then.

i'm a teenager and ive never slept past ten! so im pretty upset with these people. actually theyre being illegal over there too. First off they trespass into our other neighbor's yard to dump their grass clippings, and they dump it in a stream, which is an illegal dumping area where i live. the guy also sometimes decides to ride his VERY LOUD motorcycle at 5am. so im pretty sure thats worse than having 9 more chickens than allowed. stupid people...

i havent talked to them for the past few days. i purposely ignore them. but im just so happy i can keep my children (at least for now).

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

neighbors can be such a pain, you just gotta out smart em....listen, it took me awhile cause I'm a game hen through and through, but (before I moved and surrounded myself with acerage) I lived in a workers class neighborhood (with trees and all) and one neighbor would walk her dog to my mailbox and pee on the flowers..every single day..I had a chihauhau and prayed for inspiration, one day I saw her walking down the street, heading toward me, and I picked up my dog, all 4.5 lbs and skipped merrily to the mailbox and pretended to get the mail while her dog (poodle

) dropped a biscuit on my lawn.....oh my goodness I said, pretending to be mortified, the woman gave me this big grin, I continued, Oh, my! Honey, I wouldn't let your dog walk on that lawn (as I pointed to a pest control spray sign - that I had swiped from a friend) I spray for everything, I don't even let my precious walk on the grass, as I kissed my mean a chi hau hau on her big apple head,(and my dog looked at me like - what are you takin bout-precious what-she was so mean) I said, if I were you I'd wash her legs and feet off real good, that stuff is pure poison/murder..ha ha to see that smile fall off her face was like maple fudge with pecans melting in my mouth. I never saw that woman and her fu fu again.
Ha Ha Ha isn't that funny?
The point being, when you are mad about a transgression on what you believe is right, Jesus will inspire you to solve the situation...and believe me, he is the ultimate judge. Just give yourself time for the smoke to clear from your ears and ask the Lord, how do I win this fight?
If I lived in suburbia still and wanted alot of chickens, I take a dozen eggs to the offender (they don't have to be your beautiful hens eggs-any egg will do)
and say, I know it;s been alittle noisy lately,(I got rid of the roosters I;m so sorry, but I don't want you to be upset, please accept these, as my chickens are laying too many right now,(since the roosters were here) and I'd like to have other people enjoy them) Get my drift? What could it cost? 2 .50$ If they take the eggs BAM you win, they loose the right to complain. you win, I mean, you WIN and what could be better than that!
Listen, I've fought a few wars in suberbia and code enforcement being such a tough job, they just want you all to be happy really, and they will rat out on the complainee so fast in not so many words..it probaably wouldn't take that much to find some infraction on your pests, let me know..if ya wanna look for some stuff. Believe me nobody complies 100 %. On another note, though, roos are a pia even in the wilds with many many acres, I don't want anymore roos, and counting the ones I have that are starting to crow...we can hear the muffled er er er a errrrrrrrrrsssss in the coop /Fortunately there is only one and he doesn't know to shut it up boy.at 5 am..even way out here, roosters aren't allowed in city limits (town, residential, ) unless somebody wants chicks, then ok, but not for too long or it will make the papers and you will have to appologize in black an white..GOD I love WV.

 

[laceynoelle]

Im glad you got to keep them!! Congrats. :] I dont think the Ipod idea was that childish. If I had to get rid of my hens because of somthing like that...well it doesnt really matter how old i get, bring on the loudspeakers. ^^

 

[chickencutie]

i like your thinking.

when i told my friends during lunch they were all for it. I totally would've done it too. i fight fire with fire.

 

[chickencutie]

Achickenwrangler#1- thank you very much for your post. I was really upset and I did pray and ask to let me keep them. Yay that I can! I know the Bible says "love your enemies" and I dont hate the people; but I was brought up on old fashioned values and my biggest pet peeve is when people cant be civilized and neighborly about a small issue. I mean, when they came over to ask to get rid of them, this lady was super angry and pretty rude to my mom. I have always been nice to them and they always were nice back but now they're getting pretty wierd over there... but its a good idea to take a dozen over to them. we have a ton of eggs. I dont know if theyll accept them (they seem against the backyard chicken thing) but its worth a shot. so thanks

and that story was awesome. totally just made my day.

 

[citychickx6]

WOW.
Some people can be so poopie to each other. I am glad that in my neighborhood I have recently found out that almost every other house has chickens. This morning someone was singing, rather loudly, the egg song. Not one of mine (still too young) but it was nice to hear a happy hen.
I am glad it worked out so you can keep your hens.
There are all sorts of people who want to be able to do what they want on their property AND want to be able to tell others what they can do on THEIRS. I say let them move into an HOA neighborhood.