Hearing tomorrow, all of our neighbors and 10 others are against our coop. Any tips?

[Christin]

Sorry; I did not mean for you to take it as being aggressive; I was just trying to give a new way to look at the problem and possibly just have everything ready so you do not have to make it a long drawn out process.

 

[detz]

This is from a year ago in our town:

Quote:
My rebuttal thus far.

Quote:

 

[matt44644]

How many neighbors and others are against it total?

 

[detz]

We're not 100% sure since we don't have all the info but the Board of Health person said all of our abutters (5) plus 10 people in the neighborhood. What frustrates us is nobody has said anything to us and we're pretty sure only one or two of them (older guys with no jobs ) actually rallied the others behind them that otherwise would had no opinion.

 

[SizzleQueen]

I just think this is pathetic.. not you, your rude neighbors.

All I read was excuse after excuse after excuse.. just because they want to cause drama for absolutely no reason at all. Everything they have pointed out, could be avoided.. and as far as the noise thing goes.. IM SURE nature itself makes more noise than chickens do... Ugh, thank goodness I live on top a mountain with the nearest neighbor a mile away... Im so sorry you are going through this!

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

All of your neighbors don't want you to have chickens in town, right? Now you want to go before the board and force them to endure your desire to have chickens? If the town regulations don't specifically allow you to have chickens I'd tell you to go pound sand. There are places for livestock, apparently all of your neighbors don't think livestock need to be in your neighborhood.

Good luck with your fight, but I'd not hold my breath were I you.

 

[Percheron chick]

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Anyone who has been near a commercial chicken operation and/or visited a local farm where chickens are kept, have undoubtedly experienced some unpleasant scents. This is true even if the coops are cleanly regularly. Scaling the size of the operation (6 to 10 chickens) to fit a ¼ acre lot does not change this fact. Keeping chickens in a neighborhood where house lots are ¼ acre or smaller raises concerns for the neighbors in general and especially for abutting neighbors. In the case of --, bedrooms are less than 30 feet from the property line.

Concerns include:
Chickens can smell bad and may attract flies. The dominant wind direction on Melrose Ave is WNW (April through June) & NNW (July through September). This would direct any scent toward 33 Melrose Bedrooms & backyard.
Responsible waste management.
Spilled chicken food can attract rats and mice.
The hen house may encourage local predators including foxes, skunks, weasels, and fisher cats.
Noise – Hens also make a racket. Chickens squabble all day long, and plenty of cackling usually accompanies the activity. Admittedly, hens are not as noisy as roosters, but with the lot size being ¼ acre this will be without question a problem for abutting neighbors.
Ignoring these concerns would be irresponsible and would have quality of life ramifications for abutting and non-abutting neighbors.
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Thank you.

Your presentation must address these points of concern. Have a well thought out answer for their concerns. Take the fire out of their complaints.
Re the salmonella concern, Yes chicks are a source of salmonella and have recently (last summer) been in the news. That's because people did not handle the chicks properly. You should not nuzzle chicks and everytime you handle them, you should wash your hands. Basic hygiene. If they had just washed their hands properly, that probably would of been the end of the story. Any animal and human feces is a source of salmonella contamination. You are more apt to get food poisoning from food preparation than the neighbors chickens. Litter box? Reptiles are also a source of salmonella.

For them to imply that the impact of 4 hens is the same as a commercial egg laying facility is nuts. You are talking in excess of 10,000 hens plus replacements (maybe another 5,000). There is a reason that those places are out in the sticks.

Have solid #s of how far your chickens will be from said bedrooms,

Sound, A clucking hen can reach 60 decibles or about the same as 2 people talking in a normal voice. Normal hen sounds are inaudible at 25 feet. Normal daytime neighborhood sounds come in around 50 (no dogs barking, lawnmowers...) Take that!

 

[Curlyginger]

I also live in Massachusetts (quite near Westford, actually). What town are you in?

 

[detz]

I also live in Massachusetts (quite near Westford, actually). What town are you in?

Wilmington.

Here is my "speech" in case anyone is curious and maybe someone else can use tidbits. I think I've made educated valid points to every concern.

Quote:
It pisses us off that they went behind our backs to all the neighbors to rally against us without even a knock on the door. We've been nothing but nice to these people, the least they could do is come talk to us.

 

[Imachicklvr2]

If you are on good terms with your neighbors you might try talking to them about your plans for keeping your chickens such as how many you plan on keeping, that it is not going to smell like a commercial chicken farm because they are not going to be hundreds crammed into a little space, your plans for maintenance to insure there are no odors (assure them that you don't want odors near your house either), that they not at risk of being exposed to salmonella unless they are handling the chickens or their poo, etc. Anything that addresses the fears they seem to be harboring.

On the CDC website there is an article about Salmonella being linked to backyard poultry. The article could be helpful to you because not only does it link the outbreak to one particular hatchery, it also states how you can avoid getting it, such as washing your hands after handling your birds or being in the area they live.
Here is the link, the outbreak is considered over. http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/live-poultry-05-14/index.html

As far as the allergies go, it would be great if you could talk to an allergist and find out if you having chickens, however many feet away from the neighbor's house they would be, would constitute a problem for a person with allergies. I used to work in a pet store many years ago, and found it was not uncommon for people to have an allergy to bird dander from their pets. Most of them just used a HEPA filter near their birds' cages and were able to cope. I do not see how chickens on your property, could cause someone in another house issues.

AND...if they insist and end up depriving you of the right to raise healthy chickens that lay nutritious eggs then they need to provide you with organic eggs, from pastured hens on a regular basis, buy you the organic compost they are depriving you of (that would have otherwise been free) and provide you with a non-pesticide form of bug control.

It is only fair, right?

edited to add link