My neighbors car is our predator.

[KKatknap]

Geez you guys. A little harsh. Suggesting a fence across the front, ok. A few of you beating her with a 2x4 about it seems not-so-much.

To the OP...

I'm very sorry you lost your hen, and especially sorry you had to hear and see it. I'm also sorry you came here for help and sympathy and got the crap beat out of you. Not ok.

 

[Penturner]

Me and my peeps. That sounds almost exactly like what my brother and I did when I was about 15 years old. we lived about 13 miles out of town on a dirt road that served as access to houses that where on 20 acre parcels. since there where only about 4 or 5 homes on that road we very seldom saw any traffic. there where actually two ends to the road so half the people reached their houses from one end while the rest came from the other direction. We new every car and every person that lived on that road. But there was a car that did not belong to anyone that lived on that road that would come racing through every day. and I mean racing. I suspect this guy was doing 60 MPH or more on a dirt road. you could watch his car start sliding side to side from loss of traction so he had it pegged right to the limit of what the car could handle. we knew it was just a matter of time before someone got hit getting their mail or something. For a time we started waiting by the side of the road and yelled at him as he went by. this did nothing but encourage him.
I started thinking that something unexpected in the road might startle him and make him think twice about how close to out of control he was. I thought about placing 2x4s across the road but thought they would be visible from to far away to be startling. I then starting thinking about how something could be thrown in the road as he approached. but also realized we would be blamed if it was obvious that we threw it in his path. I was not willing to risk the life of any of our animals by calling them across the road in front of him. then came the day my dad told us to put up a martin house near the garden. as it happens as we where lifting the house up on the end of the pole we lost control of it. well almost. and it almost fell back to the ground. It was enough to hatch an idea. what if we lost control of that martin house. or something like it out near the road that just happened to fall across the road. and all this just happened to be right when this guy was coming down the road. A few days later found me and my brother beside the road with a 20 foot 2x4 standing on it's end. staring up the road. we did not have to wait long. we waited until we thought he was at about the right distance and let go of the 2x4. I don't really recall but I think maybe one or the other of us gave it a little push in the right direction. but it fell straight as an arrow across the road from ditch to ditch. Everything after that was sort of super slow motion because it was at that very moment that it accoured to me for the first time that with the road blocked. The driver of the car had only one path of solid ground to drive and avoid hitting the board. that was our driveway. and that happened to be where we where standing. I still think that our driveway was the drivers first reaction because at first he aimed the car in that direction. But i also think he then saw us and tried to turn the car in the other direction. the effect of this maneuvering on a car that was barely maintaining traction in the first place was immediate and drastic. Have you ever stood just feet from a car that is rolling and somersaulting through the air? About all I can remember of it is that it is awfully hard to breath for a long time. I'm not sure but I am pretty sure my heart actually stopped for an hour or two. and there is this real powerful concussion like thing that goes on and makes it really hard to hear for a while. Then maybe that is only the effects of the shear panic that set in.
When it all settled down there was not much left of the car. the driver was no longer in it but was in a field across the road standing up. He was not hurt but had been thrown from the car. I was certain we where going to jail. I think we should have dropped the board just a little sooner. anyway we had to call an ambulance because we where certain the guy could not be okay. calling an ambulance meant the Sheriff would be coming along also. Much to my surprise soon after the paramedics said the guy was okay. the Sheriff started writing tickets. for things like not maintaining control of a vehicle and stuff like that. we never where asked what we where doing to drop a board in the road. never really got asked much of anything except where we okay. not even the driver ever acted like he though we did it on purpose. I'm not sure he even really remember exactly what happened. all he knew is that he was standing in a filed looking at a pile of metal that used to be his car.

 

[A1 Steak Sauce]

Quote:
Ditto.

We're not "beating the crap out of" the OP. She came here on a pity trip trying to blame someone else for something which is HER fault, not the drivers. If she kept HER chickens off the road, this entire problem would have been avoided. I mean really. And I'll leave it at that.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Ditto.

We're not "beating the crap out of" the OP. She came here on a pity trip trying to blame someone else for something which is HER fault, not the drivers. If she kept HER chickens off the road, this entire problem would have been avoided. I mean really. And I'll leave it at that.

I agree 100%!

 

[RM44]

I sure hope my post didn't come off as "beating her up". I certainly didn't intend that. I was just offering a suggestion as to why maybe the driver didn't want to come up and talk to her. I know that I personally would be a little irritated if I drove down the road every day dodging chickens, and then one day almost wrecked trying to avoid one. I hope I would have stopped simply because I know how people can get attached to their pets, but perhaps this neighbor wasn't even a "chicken person". I'm not really a "dog person" (although I own 2). The neighbor may a) not understand how much the chickens mean to her; and b) might actually be irritated that he/she has to dodge chickens on the road. That's all I meant by my post.

 

[agnes_day]

i would worry more about the guy who makes people wreck their cars on purpose to teach them lessons..that is scary.

 

[bluey]

It's kind of amazing how much common sense has abandoned us these days.

Roads are for cars, not chickens.

 

[dianneS]

First of all my chickens, both of which were hit, were along the SIDE of the road, not IN the road. My chickens are never in the road, nor do they ever CROSS the road. They just scratch in the grass along the edge of my lawn, on my property.

If drivers would go the speed limit, PAY ATTENTION as people behind the wheel of the car are supposed to do, and mind the warning signs, it would be very hard to hit anything on this road at all.

If I see even a opossum by the side of the road, I slow down and keep my eye on it in case it decides to come out in my path. I would never swerve into oncoming traffic for a opossum. We have no oncoming traffic on this road. We have a 1/4 mile straight stretch of road in the front of our property and you can see if there is any oncoming cars, well ahead of you. In over 20 years of driving rural country roads, I have never hit an animal in my entire life.

Bottom line is, this woman was just not paying attention. My hen did not dart out in front of her, she was scratching away at the edge of the lawn and this driver just ran her over. She didn't swerve until after she hit her. She didn't skid her car off the road, and she didn't swerve so much that she endangered her own or anyone else's life. There is also an alternate route that people can take and not have to use our road. I will be curious to see if this woman drives by here any time soon, or if she starts taking the other road?

As I said before. This is my neighbor, we're all supposed to get along around here and my real issue is the fact that she didn't stop! Very neighborly.

We used to have kids playing in the streets all the time in my old neighborhood. I got really sick and tired of stopping and waiting while they finished their baseketball game before letting me pass through. I guess I should have just run them over?

But thanks all of you for the lectures.

 

[nzpouter]

are you serious....? side, middle, no difference, they're not in your property, stop complaining and look after your animals better.

 

[dianneS]

I guess its okay to just disobey the speed limit and not have any common courtesy toward your neighbors then?