help! neighbor against us having chickens due to fears..

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

Tuli
If your neighbors fear is only of a raccoon & rats, maybe you can educate her that if her dog is outside, and she has food & water out for it, that will attract a coon & rats also. If a coon can eat without any effort, it will do that first, before killing anything.

Just assure her that you will take precautions to make sure that their is no food left laying around to attract these critters. And if any show up, you will be willing to trap & dispose of them.

I assume her dog is of a small breed, and she should be concerned about its welfare, just let her know you intend to be a responsible chicken owner.

And offer her eggs when your hens start laying. Make sure she knows how good fresh eggs are for you, instead of the old store bought ones.

Jean

 

[V Chic Chick]

I can't really say anything about my experiences with coons, given that we don't have them, but we haven't seen an increase in rats since we got chickens. Just make sure that there isn't food left scattered on the ground, and keep sacks of feed in a metal dustbin, with a strong metal/rubber lid. Our metal bin stays in the garage (which has holes big enough for a man to climb through) and we have never seen evidence of a rat around there.

Every house / garden has some form of mice, it's just when their population gets out of hand that we start to notice. I haven't seen an increase in the number of mice around.

But, it's my understanding that coons are nocturnal, and so shouldn't her dog be inside / locked in a kennel at night, especially if it's small enough to be carried off by a coon?

 

[Tuli2007]

Thanks for all your replies. I should have mentioned that my neighbor's dog is a big husky type who'se caught squirrels and such before in the yard. I still think it's quite unlikely that a coon would come into her yard just because they're around, but we're going to put up a 6 foot fence in that section of the yard to keep her from having to look at it all the time and to make it even less likely that a coon would head in that direction. We'll be vigilant about keeping the coop clean too. We were able to get enough signatures from our neighbors without her permission, so we'll get the permit anyway. I just hope she accepts things and moves on, as I'd prefer a cordial relationship. She's not a nasty person, just very particular, especially about her dog. I doubt she'll take eggs, but I think we can keep things civil. Shooting raccons is not an option, as I live in the city, but I'm hoping prevention will take care of things.

 

[ginnie6]

I would be more concerned about her dog getting into your chickens. I recently lost a whole pen of EE's to 2 huskies. The 3.5 fence would definitely be 6' and forget the chicken wire. The huskies tore thru mine like it was nothing. My pens are now all covered first with chicken wire and then with 2x4 welded wire. I also have about 10" of welded wire on the ground around all the tractors so nothing can get in under them easily. Makes thema little harder to move but its worth it to keep dogs out. I slept in my truck next to the chicken pens for 3 nights hoping those blasted dogs would be back. I was ready for them if they did come back. we haven't had raccoon problems in quite awhile. At first though we did. They will kill chickens. We had one that climbed the side of the 10' wall to get in a little opening at the roof. It then drug the chicken back out the same way. We couldn't figure out how anything got in or where the chicken was till we found the scratch marks going up the side of the coop and feathers in the woods.

 

[sundance]

We live so far back in the woods that i tell everyone we have to pipe the sunshine in, and in the 5 years we have lived here i have never seen a racoon, or possum, However i have seen chipmonks and hedgehogs, but we leave them alone and they leave us alone. Ask her if you get rid of your chickens is she gonna get rid of her dog. a pet is a pet and yours happens to be chickens. As for rats, we have a "barn" cat, and have only seen the rats she has caught. Thats why i live in the woods, i hate nosy neighbors. ::

 

[kelli120]

That's why I keep my German Sheppard near the coop because we have fierce racoons. So far I have seen them in the neighborhood attacking garbage cans, but I have yet to see any try to come in the back yard because Truck goes crazy if he hears the slightest rustle.