You asked so - Yes. I think your are wrong - you've convicted/accused/made assumptions about them committing a crime. You got any evidence? Nope - speculation on your part there.
You even called the "authorities" a.k.a. Animal Control to investigate. They deem all is well and no crime committed. Bet those neighbors really enjoyed THAT visit.
You don't want to be "that neighbor" but you sure are coming across that way.
I actually think I see what you may be getting at. You were first annoyed at the crowing. A peek around and you thought ahhh...Animal Control will take care of this problem for me. They didn't. So now you are either venting, just trying to stir up more trouble/build some type of "case" with your own evidence to present back to/go to and argue with Animal Control/County(?) so you can have them revisit. Your wanting to arm yourself with some evidence that Yes indeed these people are planning on committing a horrific crime - see BYC People said so!
Maybe it's not just the roosters that annoy you - could be the kids, the noise these folks are making during coop building, the people themselves, you were enjoying that property being empty....who knows?
Did I get any of it right? I bet I did, I'm actually pretty darn good at this stuff
Here's how to fix it if you are really that concerned. Get some cold bottled water, coffee and a box of doughnuts. Go over there about an hour after they have started work on building. Tell them you've heard them working hard the last week or so, took a peek and wanted to come take a better look at what's going on. You brought goodies for their break. Start a conversation aimed to actually forge a neighborly relationship, you might like it.
Just My 2¢
Actually - no, that's not how things went at all. Allow me to clarify. The chickens showed up on Sunday (a week ago) and were very loud, immediately. You couldn't NOT notice the roosters crowing; they are 30 feet away from my living room and crowing non-stop for hours daily; there were also construction noises going on that day from what I could hear. On Monday I went over to see just how many chickens there were, saw the enclosure they'd constructed, and then because I literally had no idea, I looked online and made a call to learn if there were any regulations about number of chickens or roosters in residential areas here because it's never really come up before, and nope - there are not for this area. Hence I didn't call Animal Control or anyone else, because as far as I know they are NOT breaking any laws. That was Monday. Sucks for me, as it's been continually super loud and relentlessly so, but oh well. And I did intend to chat with the new neighbors and see what their plans are, as soon as I encountered them in the yard or on the street. In the meantime, when I mentioned to friends that I had new loud chickens next door and that they were mostly roosters and only one hen - multiple people asked me about if I thought they were for fighting and I dismissed it immediately. It's quirky to have roosters instead of hens around here, but there could be any number of reasonable explanations for that choice. I guess?
I took pictures of the chickens on Monday - visible from my back yard through the fence - because frankly I don't know anything about chickens and wanted to send a picture to friend to confirm those WERE in fact roosters not hens.
I heard roosters all day, all last week, all the daylight hours. Nothing to be done about it, so no I didn't call anyone. I didn't go back and take another look until the roosters were super loud and agitated on Thursday evening around 7pm; they usually quieted down by then each day, but that day they were crowing louder and more frequently for quite some time. It was also 95 degrees that day which is much hotter than usual around here, and I was a little concerned since they'd been out there all day. I went over to my fence and that was when I could see that the one rooster - tethered just 2 feet away from the fence so very clearly visible - seemed to be in distress due to the short tether, and specifically this is how the conversation went when I saw one of the kids in the backyard playing nearby:
Me: Hey there, can you loosen the tether on this one's leg? It's wrapped up and he's stuck.
Boy: These birds are mean, though.
Me: Sure, but they don't deserve to suffer, right? That string there is wrapped up around the chair leg and he can't walk or put his leg down.
Boy: Well these are roosters for fighting.
Me: Oh. Okay.
The next day - Friday - I contacted Animal Control to ask them to investigate. It felt like a reasonable concern given how long those roosters had been tethered outside in the heat all week, and based on what the boy had specifically said. If he hadn't said "fighting roosters" I wouldn't have called Animal Control at all. I haven't been back over there to take a look since I called Animal Control.
Animal Control didn't come out until yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon - their truck was driving down the street as I was driving away - and I do not know what they have determined to be honest. My hope is that they said something to the neighbors about more humane care and called it a day. I sincerely hope that I *am* wrong, and that I owe my neighbors a huge apology. I was just not prepared for someone to just come out and say "these are roosters for fighting", you know?
I was honestly hoping someone here could tell me some plausible reasons for having multiple roosters in a small residential yard, when what little I can find online says specifically NOT to have multiple roosters in smaller areas because they WILL fight each other and it will inevitably end tragically for one of the roosters. ? There are tons of people with hens for eggs around these parts - really, tons - but I've never heard of anyone intentionally choosing several adult roosters on purpose before. It's a first for our neighborhood for sure.
And that's how events unfolded. No, the kids haven't been annoying me (or anyone?) and I haven't even seen the adults in the house since they moved in, nor heard them either (until chicken arrival day). If someone says they intend to 'fight animals' I take those comments seriously. Time will tell, I guess.
Thanks to the folks who gave me their honest opinions, I do appreciate it.
Suspicious indeed.
