Neighbor threatening to trap birds

[McChooky]

Free ranging 80? chickens can be challenging with close neighbors when you don't have a fence.My chickens stayed in the yard until the ground got so dry and my electric fence quit working but I'm in the process of installing a bigger grounding system.

 

[Robert Kazlauski]

This one's a long one folks, but

TLDR; nosy neighbor is pissed we won't turn our horses out where she can see/watch them and has started baiting our chickens across the road, calling animal control, and is now threatening to trap and sell/remove/give them away. We are in a rural ag zoned area, no ordinances exist about chickens because we are unincorporated. What can we do?

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I live in a zoned "Ag/Rural Residential" area in extreme North East Indiana on 12 acres. I have birds that free range during the day and go up at night in a barn set back atop a hill over 400ft from the road. My closest neighbor is directly across the street. Keep in mind, we are all acreages separated by tracts of land punctuated with state land and 3 large lakes. The neighbor in question has the smallest piece of land at 6 acres. I'm second smallest with 12. Everyone else is 30+

"Someone" had been coaxing my birds across the street and from there they have began foraging for grubs and beetles etc in the pine litter at the edge of her property. Every time we see them over there, we run them back across and have done everything we can to encourage them to explore the back acreage rather than go across the street. Their food and water sources are all back that way. All of their enrichment items are back that way.

The neighbor across the street has been brought eggs and baked goods and we've done the good neighbor thing as best we can. We managed to keep them happily back there for MONTHS, trained with all kinds of goodies and clickers etc (smart birds, aren't they?)

Que the drama that started this month. Recently, she came across the road to announce her displeasure in the fact she "knows we have babies (foals)" and we don't turn our horses out in our front paddock so she can "watch and enjoy them" as we prefer to turn them out behind the barns where the summer grazing is better. We explained that to her. She didn't like it. We more or less nicely stated that the horses aren't on public display and that the front paddock was being used as a riding arena so horses won't be back out there for any length of time.

A week later she's called Animal Control saying we've abandoned the horses and locked them in a hot shed and she "knows its true because they're not turned out up front anymore where she can watch them" verbatim on the report. ACC said that we, of course, are under no obligation to turn them out where we don't want to.

Two days ago we caught "someone" throwing bread out on the edge of their property... again... and a handful of the birds now forage over in the pine litter again. We made it known we knew it was her when she came over yelling that she had to chase the birds off her property while we were out in town and politely asked her not to undo all the hard work we put in to keeping them on our side of the road. We also explained that the largest fence we can legally build in front of the property is 4' and chickens can easily scale a 6' fence without much drama and WILL do it if she's feeding the little feathered cuisinarts. She didn't like that.

Yesterday we came home from the county fair to a letter from the Sheriff's Department where they crossed out "Dog Owner" and wrote in "Chicken Owner" in the "Dear Dog Owner" portion of their canned letter regarding at large dangerous and barking dogs... How that applies to chickens, your guess is as good as mine and because we got home after the deputy got off shift, we're now waiting for him to come back on shift today so we can talk to him. I have combed through our county and state ordinances - nothing exists about chickens having to be fenced in. Most of our neighbors have free range non-fenced chickens and when they cross a road, or stand in the road, we slow down and/or encourage them to go back across the street.

Anyway... Neighbor this morning called at 6am to wake everyone up and announce that she is going to begin trapping our birds and giving them away/bringing them to the humane society if we don't rehome them or permanently lock them up. We have informed her that she has announced her intention to steal our animals and we will not be tolerating that, nor will we be tolerating her on our land as we have video evidence of her in our barn and walking our property. She was pretty irate to hear that we have cameras and tried saying it wasn't legal - we all know it is, and none of them point at her property in any capacity. They monitor our porch (Ring doorbell), the barn doors, the horses' stalls, the tack/supply area, and then down the drive from the barns so we can see what vehicles pull up the driveway.

What can I do here? This woman is just miserable.

I dont understand why she wants to see or watch your horses. Does she legitimately like them and enjoy seeing them?

 

[Bonnieboo]

I agree with Bananabread, a lawyer letter is what you need.
It's well worth contacting your local solicitor's office and finding out what your options are. Lawyer letters usually do the job especially considering you have video evidence of her trespassing.
Wishing you success in solving this incredibly difficult situation.

 

[Love Donkeys]

I would put up poultry fencing to keep them on their property and off the road. Then clip the flight feathers of the chickens on one wing only. The clipping of the flight feathers on one side throws the bird off balance and they won't be able to fly over the fencing. We did it to our Muscovy Ducks all the time to keep them grounded.