My neighbors car is our predator.

[schellie69]

sorry for your loss,

I would talk to the neighbor maybe she did not realize that she actually hit the bird of if she hit something else clear the air so their are no mean feelings. maybe putting up a short chain link fence by the road will help keep the chickens further away then the edge, I would be very upset that the neighbor did not stop and understand that you do realize that free ranging the birds comes with some risk of predators with 2 legged or 4 legged. hopefully you can figure out a way to keep the girls away from the edge of the road and still let them free range. hope you don't lose any more chickens.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
The impact could have very well thrown her to the side of the road.

If she waves and smiles everytime she sees you in your garden I seriously doubt that she purposely tried to hit it. She may very well be upset with you that your roaming chicken almost caused her to go into the ditch.

 

[dianneS]

Quote:
I agree. I appreciate the constructive advice. We are re-thinking our approach. I would like to get a chicken tractor and I need a separate bantam pen. Those bantam hens are the ones who wander like wild birds.

Its interesting to me that this forum has changed a lot. When I post a health or breed question, even cute pics or a story. I only get a handful of responses anymore. But post something controversial that gives people the opportunity to slam you and lecture you and you get five pages of responses.

Yes, this forum has changed.

 

[Me & My Peeps]

Quote:
Ok, well now that we have exhausted this topic and have resorted to name calling, because some people cannot articulate their thought's any other way - I will add one more comment and then I'm done with this thread.

The OP stated that her ONLY problem was that the driver did NOT stop and do the honorable thing by acknowledging that she hit her chicken. There were OTHER facts there like constant speeding up and down the road, denial of knowing she hit it and then having a blase` attitude about by saying " I didnt have the gas to drive back and tell you. I had to get to my aunts and give her some meds." (if 3 minutes was THAT critical in administering meds, WHY wasnt an ambulance called?) She obviously had NO concern over what she hit.

The comments about the car crashing from the guy running into the street was to illustrate the importance of being in control at ALL times of your vehicle and if you CHOOSE to speed, then just be glad it was a chicken that got hit and not a child. Posters seem to think that the drivers behavior was "ok" because it was a chicken and not a child. But, had it BEEN a child - everyone would be tying a noose for this woman because she "shouldnt have been speeding". So the message that got sent say's "it's ok to speed and not be in 100% control of your vehicle, as long as something expendable like a chicken is the only victim".

Most people just leaped over the original point and opted do dissect all the secondary information, and make it all about the injustice of the driver having to swerve to avoid a chicken. Should the OP be responsible for losing the bird? Absolutely - and I am sure that as this is being scrutinized, she is considering a fence right now.

Last year 5 streets over from me, during 4th of July - 2 kids (ages 10 + 15) were in the MIDDLE of the street lighting off fireworks. The cloud of smoke was so thick that you couldnt see through it. A young driver sped through the smoke, thinking it was just fireworks. Turns out the 2 kids were in the middle of the smoke and 1 got killed. The young driver got manslaughter and 15 years because he didnt exercise good judgment and drove through the cloud. It was a "choice", just like speeding. Were the kids WRONG for being there in the street? Absolutely, but in the end it IS what it IS. The driver took a life. Whether or not he MEANT to, does not matter.

Thats all from me on this one folks. I enjoy a debate just as much as anyone but, once the name calling begins, I know im no longer conversing with people about chickens and that it's gone to another level.

I wish everyone well..................

 

[hipeatall]

This makes me think of the poem by Robert Frost, Mending Wall...
Good fences make good neighbors.

 

[ranchhand]

"Your friend is a TOOL is name-calling? Who knew.

Me & My Peeps, I don't know you, but I think you are picking the wrong bits of the thread to take offense from and overreact to.

DianneS, I agree that BYC has changed a lot. I have one social thread I check in on occasionally, other than that it's all about chickens. I have stopped looking at alot of the cute threads and stories because I cringe at chicks being "my babies" and hens "giving birth".

Your thread is one I can relate too, and I hope my suggestion that you and the neighbor clear the air soon was not offensive or construed as attacking you. I have raised chickens a long time now, and have found that they will get into the wrong places when given the opportunity. Not only that, not everyone sees chickens as valuable animals.

 

[Katy]

Yes, I agree this forum has changed.

It has went from being a raising chicken forum to a very social forum. That is fine to a certain extent, but for someone coming on to actually find info on raising backyard chickens....not pets..... there is a whole lot to wade thru to find that info.

Anymore you can't disagree with anyone, or say what they did might not have been the best thing for their chickens without them coming back and saying they're being attacked because not everyone agreed with them or they didn't get the response they hoped. If you don't attach a line of kissy face icons to your post they think you're being mean.

The OP is upset that the driver hasn't come and apologized......Maybe the driver of the vehicle is waiting for the OP to come apologize to her for her chicken making her swerve and about hit the ditch.....after all she was in her car driving down the road and isn't that where a car should be?

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
No offense...but personally living on a nice long straight-away...many kids like to use it as a drag strip. i can not even let my kids ride their bikes on the road for fear they may be hit. We call the police, but we are in county and Okanogan County is the largest in the state, 14th largest in the nation. Our county officers have to cover all the county and by the time they get here it is hours.

My husband has done a few similar things, including running one of the kids down on his motorcycle - meaning - after the kid went by my house around 80 mph (it is a 35 mph street), hubby jumped on bike, followed the kid home. We happen to know the kid's father. Hubby told kid either he slowed down or daddy would be told and if that didn't work, there would be sugar poured in his gas. The kid slowed down - at least past our house. Yet another time, a problem kid driver, whom hubby had not been able to track down, came roaring up behind hubby while hubby was driving pick up. Mind you kid was in car not far off road, husband in big tall truck. Kid was right on hubby's bumper. Well, in the middle of the road was a big rock that had rolled off the side of the hill, on a corner, kid could not pass. kid was too close, hubby went over the rock. Kid hit the rock and tore the entire bottom of his car off - transmission, exhaust, you name it. Totalled the car.

There are more examples of what huby has done to try to slow down kids on our road..I won't waste your time with them. But why do we do this: Because I want my kids and my neighbor's kids safe. A kid will dart in front of a car just as fast as a chicken, if not faster. We had two kids drag racing up a windy/twisty hill, on our road, toward a blind corner, as soon as the kid in the wrong lane hit the top of the hill - mind you this is a blind corner and anyone coming down would never had seen him and he could not see over the crest at the top - he lost control and slamed his car into a tree on the wrong side of the road. If I had been driving down this very spot of the road with my kids - we would have most likely been killed. Or my neighbors, or my parents...doesn't really matter who. Fortunately the kid was okay, but the $80,000 car that "daddy and mommy" had bought for him was totalled. Yes you read that right $80,000.

Do what you gotta do to keep your road safe. Go for it. But stay safe in the interm. Wrecked car is a small price to pay compared to the loss of a family memeber because someone has not following the rules of the road.

Sorry, just my opinion.

 

[PhilErvin]

post removed for language and flaming

 

[chickenofthesea]

can this thread be locked already? I'm taking my own advise and steering clear.