How to approach neighbors

[Acre4Me]

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

Not all poisons will affect other animals. The bait stations will keep the bait for the rats. Once a rat is poisoned, it will go home to die-typically underground. Do some research on poison baits bc there are several and they have different ways of acting and some are metabolized by the rodent. Rendering them harmless to any critter that eats the rodent. Typically poison is going to be necessary to erradicate rats. They can be a serious problem.

 

[Snooky doodle]

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!

Nice neigbors can go bad really fast if you start telling them what to do on their own property-right or wrong.You've only been there 3 months? You knew the coop was there before you bought the house.Good luck with this one-been through the "neighbor from hell" routine many times. Just trying to be a realist here,not a jerk!

 

[AntiqueB]

Is there a reason why they have the coop so close to your yard? I purposely placed mine as far from neighbors as I could, so the noise would be at least somewhat mitigated.

The neighbors should also be worried about the rat problem. If the rats are trying to get into your house, they're also likely trying to get into the neighbor's. Perhaps working on a rat solution together would be helpful, as well?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You might maintain some goodwill, health permitting, by offering to help them relocate the coop to a place less obvious to code enforcement.

You said "West Coast" in your location, and I'm not going to pry further, too much respect for your person to do so, but southern CA is still having trouble with vND, and enforcement remains a priority in some of the areas. Further, property values climbing as they are, all over the nation people are reporting Chicken owners (allowed by code or not) in effort to protect their property values (a decision them may regret come tax time). So even if you don't report, if its visible from the street, its only a matter of time till someone does. At which point, you will likely take the blame.

 

[Tawanda84]

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.

In perspective, we just had a plague. Not rat-driven, but a real concern. Press for rat-traps. Disease is real.

 

[Brooks_]

Disease is real

Germ or terrain?

 

[clickchicks]

Not all poisons will affect other animals. The bait stations will keep the bait for the rats. Once a rat is poisoned, it will go home to die-typically underground. Do some research on poison baits bc there are several and they have different ways of acting and some are metabolized by the rodent. Rendering them harmless to any critter that eats the rodent. Typically poison is going to be necessary to erradicate rats. They can be a serious problem.

Just be extremely careful with this. Even the supposedly "safe" anticoagulant rodenticides absolutely do leave residual in the gut of the rat and not all rats go peacefully into a hole. Its very possible for a chicken, cat, or other pet to eat a poisoned rat and get secondary exposure. The EPA did a risk assessment that discusses this more here:

https://www.lexissecuritiesmosaic.com/resourcecenter/EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0955-0764.pdf

Snap traps are extremely effective and are all that I will use.

It sounds like the neighbors are willing to work with you, which is a good start. Moving the birds both to comply with the city code and to be neighborly is in their best interest.

Saying that I will also state that they are likely not wrong in saying the rats were already there. If you live in a big city (I do too), chickens or not, there will be rats. Years before we ever got birds we had a horrible rat infestation. No on else on our block has chickens, but they do feed wild birds, leave out trash, and no doubt leave out other pet food that attracts them.

The rats have for sure scoped out my coop, but I keep my feed in a metal trashcan at night and never throw out food on the ground that I know the birds will not immediately eat. Anyone with "city chickens" should consider adopting that strategy, for their neighbors and their birds.

 

[KaseySnow]

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.

I second RatX.
There is no risk of secondary poisoning as it is not really a poison. It is basically a very dense grain food with certain enzymes in it that block the thirst receptors in the rodent brain, so they dehydrate and go into a coma down in their holes.

The most effective way to use it is to actually spend a few nights intentionally feeding the rats a food that they like (sunflower seeds are a good choice) at a "feeding station" of your choosing. In your case, I'd plop a wooden board in the middle of their highway, as you call it, and pour seeds on it every night until you notice them cleaning the table of seeds regularly.

Once they get used to eating nightly from the feeding station, pour a bunch of ratX on the station instead and just sprinkle seeds on top so they trust it as a new food. You should only need to do this a few nights in a row before you start seeing less and less of the food being eaten at night. This means they are dying off.

Pro tip: wear gloves when touching any sort of rat trap, feeding station, or bait so that it doesn't smell like humans and warn them off.

Here is a helpful video explaining the product and best practices for using it: