My Pests are Two Pretty Little Golden Comet Pullets-Neighbor's Chickens

[bobbi-j]

Yesterday, we were leaving and while on the main road out of our little area, we were forced to stop for her two pullets in the road, who are obviously headed from her property to the undeveloped woods across the street from her. I'm betting some other folks who don't feel the same way about chickens as we do might target those poor little pullets with their vehicles. Then, later my DH saw them pecking in the grass of the neighbor on the other side of me-our three properties sort of meet up in the pointy end of a pie wedge at one location-well, those two do and mine is backed off up into the wedge a bit, hard to describe, really. So, she isn't keeping tabs on those birds, not at all, just like she said she didn't.

Between us and that other down the mountain neighbor is a barely discernible road, overgrown with grass, more like a leafy tunnel than a road, and it's predator highway. In fact, years ago we smoked out a fox's den in the pipe going under the road, which was about 225' from my main coop. She accused us of killing the fox to every person she spoke to for years, probably still is. Well, it was on my property, my fox, dang it, but no, we did not shoot the mama fox she was FEEDING. A fox will come out of that leafy tunnel of a road and snatch one of those pretty, friendly little pullets and she'll have no idea what happened to it. I'm sure I'll get the phone call. I still don't think they'll last through this winter.

I agree - I don't think they'll make it through the winter, either, but what can you do? Your hubby helped her with her coop, and after that, what else is there? About all you can do is keep your gate shut to keep them away from your flock and hope that when their time comes it's swift and relatively painless instead of freezing or starving to death. And pray really hard that she has no desire to replace them once they're gone. I think keeping your gate shut is good for another reason, too. If they did have the opportunity to adopt your flock as their own, and she looked out window and saw them with your flock, you'd surely be accused of stealing them.

 

[speckledhen]

I agree - I don't think they'll make it through the winter, either, but what can you do? Your hubby helped her with her coop, and after that, what else is there? About all you can do is keep your gate shut to keep them away from your flock and hope that when their time comes it's swift and relatively painless instead of freezing or starving to death. And pray really hard that she has no desire to replace them once they're gone. I think keeping your gate shut is good for another reason, too. If they did have the opportunity to adopt your flock as their own, and she looked out window and saw them with your flock, you'd surely be accused of stealing them.

I agree with everything you said. It kills me because they are sweet little hens and I hate that they will probably die before the end of the year. If she got them from a particular local feed store I know, no way I want them near this place-I just reported it to the state for having sick birds "free ranging" inside the store among the customers and other crimes. As much as she's complained about them being too much work, I doubt she'll replace them; at least, I hope not.

 

[jtn42248]

The only bad thing about all the animal protection laws that have been passed around the country recently is that they always exempt livestock. Why people should not be required to provide a safe and comfortable life for ANY animal, fish or bird that they take under their care I don't know.

They say that responsibility is the ability to respond and I guess that some people are just not able.

 

[speckledhen]

If she had a better suited property for them or perimeter fenced her lot, free ranging them would be fine. She has a chain link fenced area for the little dog (which it does not stay in) and she should have put the coop inside that fence at least. She is too close to other neighbors, me who has chickens and don't want hers near mine, and the other guy who didn't opt to get chickens and shouldn't have to put up with them in his yard. If his dog gets out to run as it has done in the past, her birds are toast.

 

[speckledhen]

I thought I was going to get "the call" today. As it was becoming dusky (we were out going from coop to coop doing the second worming sessions), I heard her calling to them to come home. Earlier, I heard the neighbor's dog on the other side of me barking and running, obviously not in his backyard fence. The birds have been in his front lawn area, which is probably 350 ft from his house to the road, all grass, scratching around just within the last week. So, if the dog gets their scent or sees them in his yard, I fear it's all over for her poor girls. I'll probably hear about it from the dog's owner first, him thinking that the dog got one of mine. I'm not sure he even knows she has any chickens.

If she'd just put them in the chain link fenced area she has for her own fat little dog, who has finally been taught to leave them alone, maybe they'd stay put back there, but she has this idea that animals must run free.


ETA: I asked DH to go to our driveway gate to see if he could tell if she found them and apparently, she did because he saw them on their roost bar.

 

[speckledhen]

I have an idea that I may have more trouble from this neighbor than even her chickens. She told my husband that her daughter and two more grandchildren were coming to live with her. She has a little approx. 500 sf cabin, plus a tiny bathroom addition that is connected to the house by a walkway, plus a 12x16 storage shed she built to house her Persian rug, plus a little storage building. So, where are these folks going to live? Where is the grandson who is already living with her sleeping anyway? Well, I think I got my answer. She had delivered and set up yet another storage building, one of those vinyl sided sideways rectangular ones. I think she's going to put them in there. Those are not legal housing, for cripes sake. I have no idea how old these additional grandchildren are.

The one she put up is like this one, but with blue vinyl siding like all her buildings have. I haven't seen the front of it, but if it's living quarters, as I suspect, it probably doesn't have the roll up door. Neither the 12x16 nor this new one are on a permanent foundation and I know her septic system was made for a one bedroom home and not suitable for all those folks living there long-term. I just hope the "kids" don't start invading my space.

 

[chickenneighbor]

Wow, that's a bit concerning in more ways than one. I know you get below freezing where you are; do those buildings come insulated? I haven't known chickens for long, but my first thought was whether she'll even remember she has them when the kids come, they're already neglected too much. Maybe the kids will take to the hens and look after them.Maybe she bought another rug, and it gets its own building, too! Actually, that might make a pretty cool coop!

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, that's a bit concerning in more ways than one. I know you get below freezing where you are; do those buildings come insulated? I haven't known chickens for long, but my first thought was whether she'll even remember she has them when the kids come, they're already neglected too much. Maybe the kids will take to the hens and look after them.Maybe she bought another rug, and it gets its own building, too! Actually, that might make a pretty cool coop!

I don't believe they come insulated, no. I'm not sure of her intentions, but her putting that up on the heels of the announcement of new permanent residents at her place that is too small to house even one more person makes me think this is where she intends for them to live. Chicken coop, yes, human habitation without a lot of tweaking? Nope. And I'm betting the county may have issues with it if they find out about it. And it's very visible to the main road coming into this little area.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, sadly, they barely made it to a year old, or maybe not quite. When DH was trekking to the mailbox today, he found piles of feathers and a trail leading into the woods across the road. He had to go tell her and her grandson that she'd lost one of the two hens. The kid wanted to go running into the woods with a BB gun, which DH said was a monumentally bad idea. DH then hiked into the woods looking for more evidence. About 100 ft from the road, he found more feathers, one wing and finally, her head, and had to go back and tell the lady that her hen was, indeed, gone. She and the grandson were both in tears. But, she lives in a very bad place to free range, where several gravel wooded roads come together, no fence to even slow down a fox or coyote, which is what we think it was; certainly, it was not a domestic dog, not eating the prey like this, though we have plenty of roaming dogs in this county.

This video shows the trail, starting from the road where the feather trail petered out back to the original strike point. The leafy tunnel at the end I show is where I think the fox came from, not the gravel one that is the road up the hill to my driveway. It is very secluded, easy traveling for deer and predator alike. That leafy tunnel that doesn't even look like a road is one border of my property and runs behind the pens attached to my main coop, though there is a 10' section that is a garden in the very back of the pens so that they don't actually butt up to that road and a predator would have to go up the embankment to the perimeter fence, climb that and end up in the garden area, then climb another fence to be inside either Isaac's or Atlas's pen. I've seen those Comet hens go so far down that road as to get right behind Isaac's pen, quite a gamble. Today, they lost, unfortunately.