Managing Flock = Managing Neighbors? (Resolution in Post#21)

[bobbi-j]

Well you say you've never really spoken to the wife. Speaking as a neighbor who has felt isolated from most of my neighbors, this makes it really, REALLY easy to not appreciate something that they do/something of thiers. She may not like the rooster by the simple fact that she doesn't know you and it brings in an unfamilier sound that she feels she shouldn't have to put up with. Being familier, even a little familier, with your neighbors and knowing that they care about you can make a huge difference.

What I suggest is that you go over and talk to the wife. Tell her that you know the rooster bothers her, and that you wish to resolve the problem without getting rid of him, because you and your family love him so much. Don't bring in the fact that you may legally keep him, as this could cause her to go on defense. When do you let your rooster out of the coop? If it's earlier than when she gets up in the morning perhaps that's why the rooster bothers her. I know I get grouchy if I don't have enough sleep, and with 5 children she could be quite stressed already.

This - I think going over and showing concern for the wife's feelings is a good idea. If it is the fact that he's crowing at 5:30 and waking her up, that can be remedied.

 

[Life is Good!]

Our rooster (who is not legal, but tolerated with the three other illegal roosters in our neighborhood) starts crowing at 5:15am.

We've insulated the coop, created Ft. Knox, and in cooler weather keep the windows in the coop closed until we get them up at 8:30am. While I've heard him crow before 8:30am, at least if he's inside the coop, it's more muffled and sort of sounds like a weak alarm clock. In warmer weather, I keep the window closest to the offended neighbor closed until we get them up. So yes, it's louder - but their a/c system is louder than my rooster!

Our neighbor with the Harley w/o a muffler who roars off to work at 7:10am every day - now THERE'S a noise for you. Grrrrr. Or the garbage truck blasting through the neighborhoods with squeaky/squealing brakes....yeah that gets under my skin as well. But there's absolutely nothing I can do about either of these - my rooster, I can try to quiet down.

Our rooster 'defends' his turf by crowing - at the wind, at the robins, at the neighbor's horses - you name it! If he feels at ALL threatened, he crows. So if you explain this fact to the kids, perhaps they'll understand. Most dogs do the same behavior - they bark at intruders/threats - roosters cannot bark!

Good luck. Personally, I'd keep your rooster - perhaps try to shut him up indoors as long as you could in the am. You might ask if the neighbor has little ones who still nap....and offer to shut him up during naptime (if schedules allow). But really - if a rooster crow from 60' away awakens the napping child - then they've got SO many other issues! (BTW, we just yesterday finally met our last of 8 neighbors, and we've lived here 15 years. My how time flies!)

 

[RedDrgn]

If his first crow is at 5:45, maybe the real issue is your roo waking her up? We, too, were 100% in the right legally (they called the county animal control, who came over and said we were fine, they needed to move). Nevertheless, to be good neighbors, we started putting him in the garage at night and letting him out no earlier than 7:30 am. Things have been much, much better with the neighbors. He crows quite a bit all day, but taking care of the morning wake-up calls solved it.

I'm hazy on that point myself. I mean, he mentioned that he started crowing at 4AM, but that's just not true beyond that one morning (which was my fault for being paranoid and disturbing him). Trust me, I'd know, because their run is built into/under our second story front porch and at the farthest point in the run, no chicken is more than 25 feet from my bedroom window. I didn't argue with them, though, I just restated that when I had asked about adding a roo that I was very clear that he WOULD crow and it COULD be at ALL hours. That's when he went into the "well, but they can hear him". Ok, but is it loud? "No, but they can hear him." And I can hear their dogs barking, but I've never raised a complaint about it. :/ I thought about putting him in the garage (which is right under our bedroom and where he spent his quarantine time). It wouldn't bother us, but my husband and I are typically out of the door and on our way to work no later than 6:30AM on any given week day morning. So we'd have to set him loose in the run before that. I'll see what today brings - my husband is planning to speak with this neighbor again today to see where they stand at this point.

Well you say you've never really spoken to the wife. Speaking as a neighbor who has felt isolated from most of my neighbors, this makes it really, REALLY easy to not appreciate something that they do/something of thiers. She may not like the rooster by the simple fact that she doesn't know you and it brings in an unfamilier sound that she feels she shouldn't have to put up with. Being familier, even a little familier, with your neighbors and knowing that they care about you can make a huge difference.

What I suggest is that you go over and talk to the wife. Tell her that you know the rooster bothers her, and that you wish to resolve the problem without getting rid of him, because you and your family love him so much. Don't bring in the fact that you may legally keep him, as this could cause her to go on defense. When do you let your rooster out of the coop? If it's earlier than when she gets up in the morning perhaps that's why the rooster bothers her. I know I get grouchy if I don't have enough sleep, and with 5 children she could be quite stressed already.

You do make some very good points on that, but going up there to talk doesn't mean she'll be around. In the past, whenever we've been up there, she's nowhere to be found. Either it appears that no one is home, or it'll be the husband and kids we see/talk to. Even our other neighbors, who've been around much longer than either our family or the one who doesn't like the roo don't even know her. Her husband was president of our HOA (and I was the vice prez at the same time), so we've worked together and did well, but she never came to any of the meetings, nor to the community events. Another neighbor mentioned that she might have a social anxiety issue or something; I don't know. The only thing that I can think of is to somehow bring up to her husband that we'd like to meet her to and then go from there? No no, I'd never throw out there that we have every right to keep him like that. They know that, because the husband said it to me when I said that the only thing we could do was get rid of him if it was going to be a problem. I mean, I'd bring the feathered bugger into a kennel in my bedroom if it'd solve the problem, but since it went from mornings into "do they really crow all day?" I'm not sure where to begin. I won't keep him isolated like that, because he was miserable and so much more mouthy when he was alone - probably because he was bored to death.

Sigh. Doesn't sound like he crows much at all. And if the issue is just that they can hear a rooster crow at all, well, that's sort of tough, if you are legally allowed to have him. Gosh, it's ONE rooster, for cripes sake! Sometimes, I jokingly would want to say I can hear their kids screaming, too, but I don't ask them to get rid of them, LOL. Really, kids make much more noise when they're playing than one rooster when he crows a few times.

Oh, my DH and I have said the exact same thing to each other numerous times over this past week. They have two kids, but their yard is the meeting place of 5-7, total, on fair weather weekend days, and they make quite a racket. We've never complained, because we truly don't mind. They also have two big black labs (that escape and roam the neighborhood regularly), and since we've got security cams on our house and can view them remotely, whenever we see them out, we'll let them know. If we're home, we'll help coral them back home. And when the kids are all out playing, that's when he will go into crow mode...like non-stop psycho crowing, and if we don't keep him and the girls in the run or keep close watch, he'll try to run right over to THEIR property to do it. We've never let him get that far, but that's what he tries to do...he really takes offense to children's voices. At that point, it breaks even, because the noise levels are consistent on both sides and we'll end up corralling and herding him to the opposite side of our house for a time out.

 

[RedDrgn]

Our rooster (who is not legal, but tolerated with the three other illegal roosters in our neighborhood) starts crowing at 5:15am.

We've insulated the coop, created Ft. Knox, and in cooler weather keep the windows in the coop closed until we get them up at 8:30am. While I've heard him crow before 8:30am, at least if he's inside the coop, it's more muffled and sort of sounds like a weak alarm clock. In warmer weather, I keep the window closest to the offended neighbor closed until we get them up. So yes, it's louder - but their a/c system is louder than my rooster!

Our neighbor with the Harley w/o a muffler who roars off to work at 7:10am every day - now THERE'S a noise for you. Grrrrr. Or the garbage truck blasting through the neighborhoods with squeaky/squealing brakes....yeah that gets under my skin as well. But there's absolutely nothing I can do about either of these - my rooster, I can try to quiet down.

Our rooster 'defends' his turf by crowing - at the wind, at the robins, at the neighbor's horses - you name it! If he feels at ALL threatened, he crows. So if you explain this fact to the kids, perhaps they'll understand. Most dogs do the same behavior - they bark at intruders/threats - roosters cannot bark!

Good luck. Personally, I'd keep your rooster - perhaps try to shut him up indoors as long as you could in the am. You might ask if the neighbor has little ones who still nap....and offer to shut him up during naptime (if schedules allow). But really - if a rooster crow from 60' away awakens the napping child - then they've got SO many other issues! (BTW, we just yesterday finally met our last of 8 neighbors, and we've lived here 15 years. My how time flies!)

How did you go about insulating your coop? Granted, when ours is in the coop, it's muffled and not so bad. Also, our coop is no more than 150 feet from the nearest property boundary (which is NOT with the neighbor who's complaining). Additionally, and this is the part that kills me, his crows (when he's in the run) sound worst when you stand on our front porch. It's because of the reverb we get off of the other half of our property. We've heard him crow from every neighbor's property and it's soooo much better because, excluding one neighbor, they don't experience the reverb. The neighbor who does get the reverb effect loves him and was the one who kept asking why we started a flock without a rooster when we first got chickens. Go figure.

But again, my DH and I are gone by 6:30AM on most days. On rare occasion, my DH is there until 7AM. I'm out of the house as early as 4:30AM at least once per week, though usually not until 5:30AM, and he doesn't crow at me (not since day 3 of having him) despite the garage door, car, and light. So that complicates things a bit, though I am planning to purchase an automatic coop door today. And oh yeah, we have a neighbor two doors down with a crotch rocket motorcycle that he regularly fires up and revs around 7AM on weekends. We've got the big loud garbage truck and its chatterbox workers who go through around 6AM on Tuesdays. 4 out of 5 of the homes within 500 feet of our property boundary are multi-dog households, so there are few hours of any day without any barking going on somewhere. There are lots of kids and some obnoxious teens with ATVs who like to race around the area (especially when school's out in the summer). Did I mention that we live on a mountain and clearly hear the train horns down in the valley? There are LOTS of sounds, and most are louder than our roo.

Their two children are 6 and 8 and both are in school, so we don't have to worry about disturbing naps (one blessing, at least

).

 

[la dee da]

Wow, It sounds like you've already tried everything reasonably possible! The only other thing I can think of is planting some sort of evergreen shrub or living fence-type plant to help keep the crowing from reaching her. I'm starting to wonder if she has an issue with something other than the rooster. This is a strange suggestion, but perhaps she's offended that the rooster crows at her children while they play, or that his crowing causes her to feel like she's living on a farm. All the other noises you mentioned aren't unique to a farm, but a rooster crowing is gernerally thought of as a farm thing. The automatic door opener is a brilliant idea and hopfully it'll prevent any problems with other neighbors. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Keep us posted and good luck!

 

[micareli]

TELL HER NOT TO COMPLAIN OF "FARMER' WHILE EATING, OR WITH HER MOUTH FULL....

 

[ButchGood]

I'm a little more "crotchety" than the rest of the BYC members on this thread. I would have shrugged my shoulders and said,"Sorry" and that would have been that. As for those kids harassing my livestock, well I gotta a crossman 760 bb gun, with about 5 pumps, not enough to break the skin but enough to sting that little a....buttocks. The kids in my neighborhood know how I am, and they still come visit and come see my animals. They even want to help. Their is always that one person in the area, that no matter what you do they will find something to complain about. They are not happy unless they are miserable. I call them Drama junkies. You cant please everyone, so live your life, do what you want in your own backyard as long and don't take others rights to do what they want to do in their backyard. Now if you get an angry mob at your driveway, Then maybe you need to make some changes.

 

[RedDrgn]

Wow, It sounds like you've already tried everything reasonably possible! The only other thing I can think of is planting some sort of evergreen shrub or living fence-type plant to help keep the crowing from reaching her. I'm starting to wonder if she has an issue with something other than the rooster. This is a strange suggestion, but perhaps she's offended that the rooster crows at her children while they play, or that his crowing causes her to feel like she's living on a farm. All the other noises you mentioned aren't unique to a farm, but a rooster crowing is gernerally thought of as a farm thing. The automatic door opener is a brilliant idea and hopfully it'll prevent any problems with other neighbors. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Keep us posted and good luck!

There is greenery between us, and lots of it. Granted, said greenery is only about 50-60% leafed out, but it's there. We've got bittersweet vine on the outside of the run that we keep neatly trimmed so that it looked nice and provides plenty of shade for the chickens in the heat of summer. We've also got large stands of coneflower plants that will be about 3.5 feet tall once their up and quiet shrub-like. Then there are numerous trees and underbrush on our property, and lots of overgrown brush/shrubs on theirs...all between the rooster and their house. I'm hoping that helps a bit once it all grows back in for the summer and will let them really get used to his presence before it all comes off again in the fall.

You're right about the rooster = farm mentality. Everyone who hasn't seen our property thinks we do live on a farm, solely because we have chickens a two veggies gardens. You may be right that she feels that way, and I mentioned that to my DH since he's only working a half day today and planning to go talk to them when he gets home (to see where they currently stand and what we may be able to reasonably do to improve the situation...we haven't heard anything from them for about a week).

Thanks, and we're trying. We're just trying to strike a balance between being "that" neighbor who is generally regarded as the community pain in the tail and a doormat who always bends to everyone's elses will, if at all possible.

TELL HER NOT TO COMPLAIN OF "FARMER' WHILE EATING, OR WITH HER MOUTH FULL....

While I agree, they have not yet accepted any food from us (though the offer's been made a few times), so we don't really have a leg to stand on on that one.

I'm a little more "crotchety" than the rest of the BYC members on this thread. I would have shrugged my shoulders and said,"Sorry" and that would have been that. As for those kids harassing my livestock, well I gotta a crossman 760 bb gun, with about 5 pumps, not enough to break the skin but enough to sting that little a....buttocks. The kids in my neighborhood know how I am, and they still come visit and come see my animals. They even want to help. Their is always that one person in the area, that no matter what you do they will find something to complain about. They are not happy unless they are miserable. I call them Drama junkies. You cant please everyone, so live your life, do what you want in your own backyard as long and don't take others rights to do what they want to do in their backyard. Now if you get an angry mob at your driveway, Then maybe you need to make some changes.

I wholly support and condone your attitude...I just need to train myself to live up to it! No complaints regarding us and our activities have ever come from anyone in the neighborhood. This is our first, which is probably why we're being sensitive about it.

While I'd sometimes like to sting a few backsides with a BB gun or slingshot, I'm sure that would not help this situation in the least.

Their dogs, on the other hand, when they come running over to our place...

 

[micareli]

I'm a little more "crotchety" than the rest of the BYC members on this thread. I would have shrugged my shoulders and said,"Sorry" and that would have been that. As for those kids harassing my livestock, well I gotta a crossman 760 bb gun, with about 5 pumps, not enough to break the skin but enough to sting that little a....buttocks. The kids in my neighborhood know how I am, and they still come visit and come see my animals. They even want to help. Their is always that one person in the area, that no matter what you do they will find something to complain about. They are not happy unless they are miserable. I call them Drama junkies. You cant please everyone, so live your life, do what you want in your own backyard as long and don't take others rights to do what they want to do in their backyard. Now if you get an angry mob at your driveway, Then maybe you need to make some changes.

Absolutely love this post....... we have 10 acres, in the course of 3 miles on our road we have only 10 houses (11 counting us) on this road, 2 of which I have never seen any activity at so neighbors havent been an issue

 

[karlamaria]

Five years is a long time to have never met the gal, I would go over introduce your self and be neighborly. Really, bake a cake, invite her over for coffee, and begin the process of knowing your neighbors truly. I know, she is a recluse, guess what? So am I ! But I made it an effort to speak with my neighbors when I moved in, told them I was there if they ever needed anything, and that I believed having good neighbors was importantly to me. Yep, during the holidays I even send cookies and treats to there doors. Down the road now 6 years my neighbors trust me, and at times I send eggs to them if I have extra's. My next door neighbor was a real poop, he and his wife were not happy when we moved in, and no matter what I did they would not be Friendly. I decided it was ok, my kids played, just as usual, and we were kind. One day he cut my hedge down almost to the ground ( yep he is right next door and he has a chain link fence and on the other side I have a beautiful lilac hedge. While at work he cut it down to about 3 feet to the ground, it was 8 feet tall! I talked with him, and I decided I was mad, but it would grow,it did. The next year he did the same thing, this time I had a registered letter from my land lord telling him he was not only destroying property, but that he was introuble. My neighbor was livid at me. But you know what, I smiled and told him that I was still here in case he needed me. Ok but in the mean time I prayed for him, and his wife. That same year, his wife went into the hospital , 5 days later he did to. Both died with in a week this was 4 years ago, I have never had another next door neighbor as the daughter left it as it was and to this day it's still empty ( prayer lol ) neighbors can be a blessing or a curse, this man was a curse, but I was determined not to let him bother me, to this day I'm glad I never fought with him. I'm also glad the rest of my neighbors are cool with my birds and all is well. But my story is really , try to go to her, make the effort, try and try, and see if you can at least be on speaking terms and let her know you are there. Make her a nice cake, give her personally a dozen eggs, not him but her. Show her you care. You never know she may be quit nice. And with that you may be able to break through and she let you have the rooster with out strife.
I have always been taught, it's best to get along with the human kind, peace even if it means giving the rooster away. my neighbors are all arond me, I do not have the luxury of having lots of land, I'm blessed with a back yard and small front yard. But the key was to go to my neighbors and let them know me, this way if there ever was a problem, they and I have talked and this makes it harder for them to be angry over anything lol. The eggs make them happy to.