How to approach neighbors

[chickenloverfromafar]

Any suggestions on talking to my neighbor about moving their chickens away from next to our house? We live within in the city limits of a large city (that has a specific chicken ordinance requiring coop and run to be 35 feet from neighboring property). Their chicken run/pen is up against the property line/fence which is less than 5 feet from the side of our house.

I really like our neighbors (we just moved in 3 months ago) and I am in complete support that there are raising chickens next door. I even love the little squawks of the hens and they are really cute. After we moved in we discovered that the nightly rat problem has been serious and concerning.

We also discovered that they are not abiding by the municipal code. I am not interested in turning them in, but have to talk to them first about the situation.

I want to raise chickens of my own, but my current small lot does not allow me to keep any chickens because I can't meet the ordinance, so it will have to wait...

How would a non-chicken owner approach the situation of asking them to relocate the chicken pen away from our house and in a manner that reduces our home's exposure to the nightly rat traffic (the rats keeps trying to get in our house by roof, by crawl space and any way they can enter) plus conforming with the municipal code?

I want to keep good will and the developing friendship with our neighbors and I also want to enjoy our city home without rat infestation (yes, we have been diligently working on exclusion of rats, which cost quite a bit to have taken care of) and the odor that wafts in the breeze.

How do I approach without offending, but also having them cooperate/willingly follow the city ordinance? I don't wish for them to get rid of the chickens, just to relocate them appropriately. They DO have a very large yard.

All the things I have seen on how to raise chickens always addresses abiding by municipal ordinances and I am just surprised they placed the chickens so close to our house - essentially ignoring the ordinance completely.

It makes me anxious to have the conversation because I don't know how they will react and I know how much people love their chickens! Any kind suggestions will be appreciated. This is NOT in the country and is an urban neighborhood in a very large city.

 

[Brooks_]

That's a tough one. Even moving my coop 10 feet would be a task. However you do it, stress that you like the chicks...just not that close.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC.
It bothers me that you find yourself in this predicament.
Have you considered making a video of the rat traffic and noise? That would be a great first step.
"Hey friendly neighbor with the adorable chickens that I think are great, except for their nightly visitors! Will you just look at this?"
Then suggest that it would probably be best to try to move the coop and run to a different location further from the property line to avoid a code violation.
And THEN suggest they join our site and post to the Coop and Run Forum to ask for suggestions on how to move their setup, improve their chicken husbandry practices and eliminate the rats!

 

[Acre4Me]

You have every right to approach them as they need to relocate the chickens further from your home AND/OR take care of the rats.

Have they been friendly so far?

how do they feed the chickens? If they leave feed out - they need to bring it in, put it in a metal can for the night. If not, then they need to buy a treadle feeder. Do they toss scratch? Maybe they can feed scratch from a feed pan, so the scratch isn’t left over for the rats. You can put out poison bait stations in your yard/next to coop. They are inaccessible to other animals. Rats go to die in their holes, little risk of another animal getting poisoned.

Good luck. Most people don’t want to be told what to do, so it’s a find line to walk, even when you are in the right.

good luck.

 

[chickenloverfromafar]

That's a tough one. Even moving my coop 10 feet would be a task. However you do it, stress that you like the chicks...just not that close.

We will definitely start off with we like you and are in support of you having chickens and can you help us out here...

 

[chickenloverfromafar]

You have every right to approach them as they need to relocate the chickens further from your home AND/OR take care of the rats.

Have they been friendly so far?

how do they feed the chickens? If they leave feed out - they need to bring it in, put it in a metal can for the night. If not, then they need to buy a treadle feeder. Do they toss scratch? Maybe they can feed scratch from a feed pan, so the scratch isn’t left over for the rats. You can put out poison bait stations in your yard/next to coop. They are inaccessible to other animals. Rats go to die in their holes, little risk of another animal getting poisoned.

Good luck. Most people don’t want to be told what to do, so it’s a find line to walk, even when you are in the right.

good luck.

Yes, the neighbors have definitely been friendly. We did talk to them just recently.

They do bring their chickens into their coop each night and seem to care for the girls.

Apparently , they have had the chickens in this location for about a year. The house was vacant up until four months ago, so I think they were hoping nobody would say anything about the proximity.

They seem to hang the feed in cans from the trees above, but the feed seems to spill and the chickens definitely scratch around - that seems to bring the rats to this particular area.

They say this area is know to have rat problems so they don't believe that the chickens are bringing the rats, but we are stressing the proximity.

They are willing do a temporary relocation of the chicken run to see if things improve, so that is some progress.

They have stated that they are hoping we will not use rat poison in bait stations because of secondary poisoning of birds and such - which I totally understand - but rat problems are no joke, so we may need to resort to bait stations.

Anyway, thank you for your response!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Yes, the neighbors have definitely been friendly. We did talk to them just recently.

They do bring their chickens into their coop each night and seem to care for the girls.

Apparently , they have had the chickens in this location for about a year. The house was vacant up until four months ago, so I think they were hoping nobody would say anything about the proximity.

They seem to hang the feed in cans from the trees above, but the feed seems to spill and the chickens definitely scratch around - that seems to bring the rats to this particular area.

They say this area is know to have rat problems so they don't believe that the chickens are bringing the rats, but we are stressing the proximity.

They are willing do a temporary relocation of the chicken run to see if things improve, so that is some progress.

They have stated that they are hoping we will not use rat poison in bait stations because of secondary poisoning of birds and such - which I totally understand - but rat problems are no joke, so we may need to resort to bait stations.

Anyway, thank you for your response!

There is a rat / mouse “poison” that will kill the rodents but does not pose a secondary poisoning risk. RatX or MouseX. You can buy it at most hardware stores or online. And as far as having chickens that close to a property line is just plain inconsiderate.

 

[Acre4Me]

You posted this thread before didn't you. Why start a new thread asking exactly the same thing? Did you not get the answers you were looking for?

It appears, when looking at OP past posts, that they posted this question in a Silkie thread. Posting here is the more appropriate thread, so that is what they did.

 

[Chicalina]

I checked back and saw that so deleted my post.

 

[chickenloverfromafar]

It appears, when looking at OP past posts, that they posted this question in a Silkie thread. Posting here is the more appropriate thread, so that is what they did.

Yes, I posted in the wrong place 1st time around. Found the right spot and posted it there, but couldn't figure out how to remove my initial mis-located comment