Neighbor threatening to "take out my roosters"

[Kathryn4629]

It's a myth. Guineas (nor any other bird I've studied/watched and tested with) do *NOT* eat ticks. As far as I can tell, *nothing* eats ticks. Go on and test it yourself. Get some ticks off a friends dog and drop 'em in front of a guinea, chicken, peacock, whatever...every one of those birds will either walk away or sit there and look at you dumbly wondering what it is you want them to do. When I did this exact experiment, numerous times during a couple of years, with the exact same results - the ticks being *not* eaten - I finally was able to get rid of those useless, noisy guineas and have been at peace ever since. Besides, guineas are *very* aggressive towards chickens and will constantly chase them from eating areas, dusting areas, etc.

A good guinea, is either a dead one or one that stays in New Guinea (or wherever the darned things are from)!

Interesting. I know that my tick population has gone down around here since I have two roosters that are now (last 3 months) officially free range. As in they dont go in a coop at night, they now LOVE sleeping with the sheep, and dont really get much chicken feed

. These guys look beautilful and eat bugs all day. They now even stay out in the rain to pull worms, and have stated chasing the robins off.

The reason why I think that they are eating ticks is because I have been building fence in a pasture that that chickens never go and I just pulled 5 out of my hair and lots more crawling all over my clothes. YUK!!

 

[Kathryn4629]

Well the neighbor had been behaving himself lately but today he just HAD to say something again...

He came to the fence line (stayed on his side of property) and, well... Was first of all shouting at me to get my attention because I was wearing headphones. Then started out by saying, and I quote... "YOU LIED TO ME" This is really not the way to start off a conversation with anyone!! He said I lied about my pasture getting eaten by my horses. He even said that no animal has been on the one pasture for over three weeks. Well all I can say is have you ever heard for rotational grazing???!!!! Seriously!

Long story short all I said was, "thats to bad you feel that way" and turned around, put back on headphones and continued to pull weeds in the garden (for the next 3 hours I might add) and I have no idea if he said anything else.

I think that he was told that the roosters are fine and legal by the humane society, so he needs something else to dwell on. What a sad life, I kind of feel bad for him if that is all he has to do. Well, maybe I dont feel that bad for him. lol.

He sure is missing out. I dropped off eggs, radishes, and a lettuce mix to my other neighbor today. He likes to mow my grass for me, I think he feels bad that I dont have a riding lawn mower. So they get lots of free eggs and produce.

 

[Sprinkles212]

He sounds like a grumpy personality. I have read this entire thread and it looks like you have come a long way and are more confident now. I'm sure it's refreshing to have at least one nice neighbor too!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Well the neighbor had been behaving himself lately but today he just HAD to say something again...

He came to the fence line (stayed on his side of property) and, well... Was first of all shouting at me to get my attention because I was wearing headphones. Then started out by saying, and I quote... "YOU LIED TO ME" This is really not the way to start off a conversation with anyone!! He said I lied about my pasture getting eaten by my horses. He even said that no animal has been on the one pasture for over three weeks. Well all I can say is have you ever heard for rotational grazing???!!!! Seriously!

Long story short all I said was, "thats to bad you feel that way" and turned around, put back on headphones and continued to pull weeds in the garden (for the next 3 hours I might add) and I have no idea if he said anything else.

I think that he was told that the roosters are fine and legal by the humane society, so he needs something else to dwell on. What a sad life, I kind of feel bad for him if that is all he has to do. Well, maybe I dont feel that bad for him. lol.

He sure is missing out. I dropped off eggs, radishes, and a lettuce mix to my other neighbor today. He likes to mow my grass for me, I think he feels bad that I dont have a riding lawn mower. So they get lots of free eggs and produce.

Glad to hear things are going well for you. I think your response was just perfect, be polite, then ignore. He'll give up when he can't get a rise out of you. He is rather pitiable, but that doesn't mean you have to like him!

 

[Kathryn4629]

He sounds like a grumpy personality. I have read this entire thread and it looks like you have come a long way and are more confident now. I'm sure it's refreshing to have at least one nice neighbor too!

I do feel like I have come a long way with how I am dealing with him and other people. My new motto for dealing with him is to keep it short and sweet. No need to argue with someone like that!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

This is sounding great,...good job.

 

[ladyrsanti]

You win! Another point for the good guys! He probably found out through the other neighbors that you were giving them stuff for being nice and realized he can never be that person and will never get goodies. Bet he's jealous Okay, maybe not but it's nice to dream.

I used to tell myself that my neighbor hated me because she was jealous of my gardening skills. It made me feel better while she was bullying me. One of the first things she did, before calling the township ordinance office on me, was to come to the property line and comment on my new veggie garden and say, "I used to have a garden. Before I realized what a waste of time it is." One of the FIRST things she ever said to me too! Well, ooooooooookay then, none for you! I gave canned peaches and salsa to my other neighbors just for being great people. Funny thing is, next year, she started a veggie garden and it failed miserably because she never went outside to tend it (she was in her 60's and grossly overweight - she even got knee surgery at one point so she could continue walking which never kept her from keeping her yard looking like a golf course but priorities, right?). Anyway... glad we've moved. Though... she did call the township a couple weeks ago and I got a certified letter in the mail about noxious weeds and tall grass on our old property. The lawn service that mows that yard EVERY OTHER WEEK (she probably hates us for it too) does a crappy job but for the cheap price, it's more than adequate. It turns out that I only need it mowed once a month and she reported us the very day that the lawn service was scheduled to come out so the officer saw it before it was mowed and it was a little tall I hear. The ordinance officer laughed when I called her to explain and said she must have just missed them, not a problem. She wasn't even going to go out and check. Again, nothing happens. I win... except the neighbor probably thinks we scrambled to get it mowed for her :\ But I still win.

 

[ignatz]

Interesting. I know that my tick population has gone down around here since I have two roosters that are now (last 3 months) officially free range. As in they dont go in a coop at night, they now LOVE sleeping with the sheep, and dont really get much chicken feed

. These guys look beautilful and eat bugs all day. They now even stay out in the rain to pull worms, and have stated chasing the robins off.

The reason why I think that they are eating ticks is because I have been building fence in a pasture that that chickens never go and I just pulled 5 out of my hair and lots more crawling all over my clothes. YUK!!

Heh heh...it's an impossibility to 'know' if a tick population is down because of the birds being out. Do the test and you'll see.

Also, the chickens aren't actually chasing the robins off...if they catch one, they'll tear it to shreds and eat it. Chickens are omnivorous...if they can catch it, they'll more than likely try to eat it.

Now, it may be possible they'll eat a tick if they're not getting filled up on chicken feed, which means they're forced to forage to get/stay full, but I still won't put money on it. I got a rooster who doesn't get to eat the feed as much as all the other birds as he's 'number two rooster' and number one kicks his butt often, so he stays away from the coop quite a bit. I'll try the test on him as I know he'd sure like to eat more than he's getting now, heh. (he's destined for the freezer anyway as soon as I get all the other chores done that a gimp (two crushed discs) can't do too well on his own - gotta cut and split more firewood at *least* another 3 cords, gotta put in the pipe and chimney stuff for the wood-burning fireplace/heater, repair windshield wiperbushings for crossmember and almost all the wiring on the truck, keep the yard mowed and the pasture bush-hogged, spread the hay from the coop on the areas of the pasture that are having bad runnoff, keep the coop cleaned and fixed up with hay on the floor, need to repaint the house badly, figure out where our new dog is getting out of the fence and fix that too, etc)

 

[Gifa]

LOL... Your response was so perfect... Essentially a "Wah Wah WAAAAHHHH... LOL! " response. Nice.

 

[chickenreferee]

Well its a rainy windy day so I am doing house work... so I will post a couple of pictures.


Horses in the back pasture. Property makes an L kind of shape.

This one you can see the two "front pastures" this was 2 years ago, so there is still quite a few weeds in there. White horse is in the neighbors small field.

The start of the coop remodel. Stripped everything out of the shed, and started over. It was obviously dark and gloomy in there for the chickens before.

After: Elevated roosts, ramp to get up there. Nest boxes on the right, you can get eggs without having to go in. Feeder that I made on the left, holds 50lbs of feed. Door separates the front of the shed/barn, for feed storage and right now it holds all my fencing stuff and other tools.

Inside the chicken area. Young birds are in there right now. They are ages 3 weeks- 5 weeks. Big girls are divided between two small mobile coops for now. Dont ask how many chickens I have right now, lol. The answer is way to many!!

The sheep!! These are the twins that are bedded down in there shed that is attatched to their night time corral.



My first coop. still works great.

Ok ok I am done now. It was nice to think about nicer things for a moment.

Just wanted to comment on how lovely your property is! I'm glad that most of the drama seems to be under control now, or at least you are more confident and feel better about things, even if the jerk is still being a jerk.
One day, before I die, I hope to move out to Wyoming and be able to live the farm life the way you are....might have to drive on out to WA too- beautiful country! WOW!