Brahma Chicken5000
Araucana Addict
I'm knew to BYC but I've been reading threads for the past 2 yrs since I got chickens. A little background of my chicken keeping I got 5 light brahma hens in the summer of 2015 and 1 turned out to be a rooster. My jerk neighbors didn't talk to me and called the health department on me and I had to rehome my beautiful rooster Marcy (His full name is Marcel). That summer I built a knew run that was 8 feet wide by 12 feet long and then I got 2 leghorns & a splash anduluasion all hens. A couple weeks later I got a hen (a Cornish Cross who I named Eleanor) that was saved from slaughter, she must have been only a month old but she weighted 5 pounds already. That winter the leghorns attacked Eleanor so badly that I thought she would die, but thankfully after 2 weeks living indoors and some blue spray she started to recover. I built Eleanor her own coop w/ a 2foot by 6 foot run and I got her to black Silkie hens. Well 1 of those hens turned out to be a rooster and Martin (hen name was Martha) started to crow. Again my jerk neighbors didn't talk to me and called the health department on me. A month before this happened I was composting on MY property between my house and my jerk neighbors' house. The same day that the health department showed up at my house I was in my backyard relaxing with my chickens and my jerk neighbor confronted me. He said that the "smell" & the "noise" that my chickens made was bothering him and his family because they like to sleep with their windows open at night and the "noise" & "smell" from my chickens bothered them. Well I told him that my family slept with our windows open and we didn't smell anything (I would clean up their poop everyday). As for the noise I told him that the hens cluck after they lay an egg which is usually between 10 am and 3 pm when he IS NOT home! But he wouldn't relent and I decided that the best thing to do was to rehome 8 out of 10 of my chickens. I kept the one saved from slaughter and her bantam friend. Also the jerk from the health department said that she wants the town to license chickens. It's legal in my town to own as many chickens as you want but no roosters. So to avoid going to court I rehome 8 of them. The silkie roo went to a park with other animals, my 4 light brahma hens that I raised since they were 3 days old went to a really good family friend who has been raising chickens for over 10 yrs, and the 2 leghorns & anduluasion went to my family friend's friend. That Saturday I was in my front yard with my 2 remaining chickens and my jerk neighbor was coming towards me and my mother told him that if he had anything to say he should talk to her and not me even though I'm 18. My jerk neighbor said that he wanted to apologize for the way that he had talked to me. My mother asked him if he noticed that we had rehomed 8 of our 10 chickens? And he said that he didn't. It took so much self control not to yell out: I guess you couldn't smell it heat a difference! On Monday he sent a letter saying that he didn't mean to make me get rid of my chickens he was just worried about the compost because his son loves to dig in the dirt. It would've been great if he actually said that straight out but he just called the health department on me. My dad went over and told him that we accept his apology. I did not accept his apology because when I got back from rehoming the 8 chickens my Cornish Cross, Eleanor was walking around the big chicken run and calling for her friends. It was so sad that I started to cry. She did this for 2 weeks and then she fell into a depression and stopped foraging in the yard and she passed away while I was on my graduation trip. My parents told me she had passed when they picked me up from the airport and I started to cry. They buried her for me. Eleanor's friend the black silkie hen went broody on bedding because she was sad and I rehomed her the next week. I believe that Eleanor died from depression because her flock mates were rehomed. So that's my story. I'm taking a gap year out of the country. It this coming March I'm going to build a knew 6 foot wide by 8 foot long coop and get 6-7 female laying chicks and 2 female Cornish crosses that I will save from slaughter.