Neighbor threatening to trap birds

[tlcmurphy]

I believe Robert Frost coined the phrase “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Sorry you have to put up with this
.

 

[BlueBaby]

If she want's to see a horse so bad, tell her to buy one.

 

[Folly's place]

She has one, harrassing the neighbors!
Mary

 

[FrostHollow]

Definitely document everything you can and try to record any verbal interaction whether on phone or in person. Someone with legal knowledge can inform you what's allowed about recording someone in your state.

Doesn't this woman have animals of her own for "entertainment"? With 6 acres she's certainly got room for something?! And with that much area, she doesn't need to feed the "wild birds" right across the road from you, assuming that would be her excuse for throwing bread out there.

Also, has she always had such a nasty attitude or is it getting worse from something else? (moving your horses from her view isn't a good reason) How old is she and does she have family living there? Perhaps a family member should do a wellness check on her?

As for the ugly factor, how about some safety barrier fencing right across the yard from her? Might scare the chickens back AND give her something to look at...

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So... We attempted to be friendly when we first moved in by bringing baskets of fresh goodies to the neighbors and introducing ourselves and explaining that we'd bought the property to be our family horse farm and would have chickens/ducks/turkeys/guineas etc as well as horses and eventually sheep and a couple head of cattle as the kids are in 4H and have projects etc. She seemed "fine" but was quick to tell us everyone in the neighborhood's business so we knew she was a bit of a Karen.

She's in her 60s, lives with her boyfriend. Grown children have barely any contact with her. She's known in the area to be a PITA and a constant complainer. She herself has 2 geese and one hen. She keeps the geese confined in a VERY tiny pen that is maybe 3' x 3' and then the lone hen is locked in a large dog cage under an overhang. I know she throws corn and stuff to the wild deer in the area and it's caused the deer to be VERY brazen and quite prolific in numbers. We don't hunt, she doesn't hunt, none of the neighbors hunt. It's an issue.

I told my hubby today that we should put up a line of that fencing just to piss her off until we can install something permanent. We're looking at a minimum of $6k to properly fence and gate the front 600ft of property. Even still, the chickens can easily leap over a fence. Then what?

She has been officially trespassed as per the sheriff's department as of this morning. She actually then followed up with the fire department when we were burning brush by telling them the house was on fire. This woman is unhinged.

 

[Bananabread]

Not sure the relationship but I would consider going over there to discuss with this person directly what may be going on. Possibly there is something else at the bottom of this....did you recently modify a tree line? is there some separate issue they're resentful over and holding it against you? A direct conversation may help said person realize they are being ridiculous.

That said, I agree, you need a fence. Along a property line with acreage, that doesn't sound cheap. I have no experience with this. Maybe there are deterrents you can put up that will make the chickens nervous to travel in that direction? fake owls? hawks? all just guesses. I don't know.

The last consideration would be to see if you have any lawyers friends who can help draft you a "lawyer sounding letter" about you doing everything you can to prevent your chickens from crossing the road but harassment and threats will not be tolerated. If you could find a way to video said person coaxing your chickens...that would work great to scare them off from doing this again as it clearly would demonstrate they are creating this melodrama...

ultimately...good luck!

 

[ksbkeys]

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?

----

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.

She sounds like she may be mentally ill. As much as is possible, I would consider locking them up temporarily for a few weeks and putting up a fence. Hopefully your neighbor will become bored and move on to a new issue with something other than you and your chickens, etc. My question is why now? Has she suffered a recent loss or recently retired? She may be jealous of your situation??? Maybe ask her why she is picking on you and your chickens. Ask her what is the matter. I would also let the local authorities know of her threats and that she came on your property. Definitely keep the cameras and footage.

We have a difficult neighbor who has made our life difficult at times with other issues but thankfully she is just a seasonal person.

 

[SourRoses]

I wouldn't worry much about the chickens jumping the fence when their needs are met and there's plenty of space on your side. They're flock animals so if most of the members are stopped by the fence, any who do get up / over are going to end up fretting that their buddies aren't with them.

Temporarily, you could run the no-climb wire itself with t-posts for $600-$800 based on prices I've seen on Amzn. Then have them utilize the wire when your permanent, attractive fence is installed.

One thing I would be observing, is the behavior of your rooster(s). Once they've got it in mind that a place is promising feeding ground, they can be the instigator on your flock returning. Breaking his habit can change the behavior of the whole flock. If necessary, penning him up temporarily will keep the hens nearby, or even replacing him with a new roo are some options if this can't be solved..
When people garden or just have different property conditions, the ground can be damper and foster more bugs. So, making a regularly watered, even muddy, area where they can forage is a good encouragement.

My hunch is that this lady is throwing the bread for other wildlife. Maybe for the deer or for birding or something. So, she's getting bent out of shape that your livestock are eating it and thinks she no longer has to tolerate it because she didn't get the view she wanted. As annoying as that is, you still have to protect your chickens and other animals from her and any other human predators that come along.
With horses I would not be comfortable having people able to enter my property without an immediate response. Livestock guardian dog, maybe?

People can be so awful towards horses to get back at the owners. I once had a woman try to legally seize my horse because of a family member's unrelated financial dispute. The seizure law was meant for board / veterinary debts, but she thought she could twist it. And she dumped all the paperwork on me days before Christmas, it was awful.
As soon as we got to a lawyer after the holiday, he cracked up and set our minds at ease. He said, "That's like if I said, 'You owe me $20, I'm taking your sports car.'" and it wasn't even my supposed debt.
But there was a further complication in that the property where I was keeping my horse was in the legal care of this woman (she didn't own it or manage it directly, but some situation with multiple heirs and it being broken up from a larger parcel that used to be a zoo). I found that even without a sane case, that property laws would allow her to keep resident animals on the property. When we inquired, the police informed us they consider all such situations civil matters and would not intervene. Thus, my horse would be under her control until we'd made it to court.

Well, I wasn't going to let that happen, so we arranged transportation for him. Wouldn't you know, but somehow word got around to this influential woman, and she showed up to try to stop us. I ran with my horse onto the trailer (he was such a good boy!) and we drove off, but she had managed to block the front entry gate down the road with her golf cart. Our driver got pissed, leaped out, and pushed her aside enough that he could stomp on the carts gas pedal and pull on the wheel, then he ran beside the cart until it was on the side of the road. We weren't expecting any of that, but he jumped back in and took off. We were free of that awful woman, who my mom always referred to as "the wicked witch of the west".

This is to say, be extra careful of your horses. I've heard so many horror stories...

 

[Folly's place]

Yes, game cameras positioned on your property, great plan. So sorry you are going through this!
Mary

 

[Yardmom]

A fence may reinforce the bondries for your chickens no matter what type of fence it is. On the other hand if they don't see it as a bondry, a wobbly fence that the chickens can not land on top of would be better than a solid fence. Obviously you will want to consider what you want your property to look like, but as far as being functional welded wire or even chicken wire would work for detering the chickens from crossing the road.

 

[McChooky]

Camera's and fences are mandatory for peace of mind if you have bad neighbors. When she can't physically come onto your property anymore without breaching your fence on camera it will take the fun out of harassing you because she knows she'll go to jail.