Sorry for the long story - but to give you some background into my issue:
My next door neighbor is a retired woman in her 60's that has made it her full time job to patrol the neighborhood. She calls the police "on my behalf" when the 4 year old on the other side of my house opens my mailbox, or runs his bike into my garage door when I am not home. She calls the city compliance department on many of the neighbors on our cul-de-sac for a variety of reasons...overgrown trees, parked cars(in use) leaking oil on the street, garbage cans sitting at the curb for "too long", neighbors house shingles "not matching" after fire damage repair, and when my rooster (that I can't have in city limits and was trying to find a new home for) started crowing, etc.
Our yards are separated by a chainlink fence, and my coop is in the back of my yard, where the back corners of our yards meet. Last year, I had a hen with chicks, and when the chicks would get through the fence links into her yard (when they were tiny) and not heed their mother's clucks to return, the Mama hen would get into the yard with them, until I saw them and went to retrieve them, or until she saw them and came to notify me.
There have been a few other occasions where my Americaunas have flown into her yard and scratched one of her bergenia plants to oblivion, which I offered to replace, and she said wasn't necessary since it was the end of the season and it would come back in the spring. I have since clipped ALL my hens wings and they haven't been in her yard in a looong time. I am home all day and keep a close eye on my birds, especially to avoid any issues with them and her.
Today, she approached my husband and told him she wanst us to replace a 30 year old Japanese Maple that is in her backyard because "last year she saw my hens up in the branches, eating all the bark off the trunk; and this year some of the branches did not leaf out." (The same thing happened to one of her maples in the front yard last year, and she tried to blame it on my kids climbing the tree and breaking one of the main branches. I realize this is a possibility, but my children are not allowed in the front yard without supervision, as they are small, and I am very attentive. I am certain they never climbed her tree or broke branches. We avoid her yard like the plague.) Because some of the 25' tall trees branches on the tree in the backyard did not leaf out, she says she "has to cut it down" and wants us to pay for it.
I am 95% certain my birds were not in her tree, and that they did not "eat" the bark. She would have been over here in a heartbeat to notify me if they were. I have trees and large bushes in my yard, and I have never seen any of my hens in any of them. We all have horrible squirrel problems, and my guess is it is the squirrels doing the damage, as they do quite a bit of damage in my yard and beds as well.
The reason for this post is to ask if anyone has ever had experience with chickens stripping bark off trees, and how often yours fly up into tree branches. I am ready to tell her off, but I know it will result in some type of action on her behalf that will be very tiring and frustrating on mine, as I've seen how she has dealt with other neighbors.
Advice anyone?
My next door neighbor is a retired woman in her 60's that has made it her full time job to patrol the neighborhood. She calls the police "on my behalf" when the 4 year old on the other side of my house opens my mailbox, or runs his bike into my garage door when I am not home. She calls the city compliance department on many of the neighbors on our cul-de-sac for a variety of reasons...overgrown trees, parked cars(in use) leaking oil on the street, garbage cans sitting at the curb for "too long", neighbors house shingles "not matching" after fire damage repair, and when my rooster (that I can't have in city limits and was trying to find a new home for) started crowing, etc.
Our yards are separated by a chainlink fence, and my coop is in the back of my yard, where the back corners of our yards meet. Last year, I had a hen with chicks, and when the chicks would get through the fence links into her yard (when they were tiny) and not heed their mother's clucks to return, the Mama hen would get into the yard with them, until I saw them and went to retrieve them, or until she saw them and came to notify me.
There have been a few other occasions where my Americaunas have flown into her yard and scratched one of her bergenia plants to oblivion, which I offered to replace, and she said wasn't necessary since it was the end of the season and it would come back in the spring. I have since clipped ALL my hens wings and they haven't been in her yard in a looong time. I am home all day and keep a close eye on my birds, especially to avoid any issues with them and her.
Today, she approached my husband and told him she wanst us to replace a 30 year old Japanese Maple that is in her backyard because "last year she saw my hens up in the branches, eating all the bark off the trunk; and this year some of the branches did not leaf out." (The same thing happened to one of her maples in the front yard last year, and she tried to blame it on my kids climbing the tree and breaking one of the main branches. I realize this is a possibility, but my children are not allowed in the front yard without supervision, as they are small, and I am very attentive. I am certain they never climbed her tree or broke branches. We avoid her yard like the plague.) Because some of the 25' tall trees branches on the tree in the backyard did not leaf out, she says she "has to cut it down" and wants us to pay for it.
I am 95% certain my birds were not in her tree, and that they did not "eat" the bark. She would have been over here in a heartbeat to notify me if they were. I have trees and large bushes in my yard, and I have never seen any of my hens in any of them. We all have horrible squirrel problems, and my guess is it is the squirrels doing the damage, as they do quite a bit of damage in my yard and beds as well.
The reason for this post is to ask if anyone has ever had experience with chickens stripping bark off trees, and how often yours fly up into tree branches. I am ready to tell her off, but I know it will result in some type of action on her behalf that will be very tiring and frustrating on mine, as I've seen how she has dealt with other neighbors.
Advice anyone?
