Neighbors Complained to Town about Rooster Noise!!!!

[puglady]

Hi everyone,
Here to vent and get your input on a letter I'm writing to the town.

The Background:
In our neighborhood each home has between 3-5 acres and we are in zone B, residential/agricultural. Between our home and the complaining neighbor there is about 50 feet of wooded area and the homes themselves are about 250 feet apart. The neighbor emailed me yesterday morning saying that my rooster had kept her up ALL night and complained about it. It was a LIE and I caught her in it. The previous day I had noticed my rooster had an injury and had brought him into the home to recover in a dog crate in the "woman cave" with me. He was not feeling so hot and did not crow all day. I fell asleep on the couch 15 feet away from where he was (oops

). The sun came up around 5:15, the rooster was feeling better and woke me right up by crowing in the house

. I know for a fact the only time he crowed that morning was for about 5 minutes when he woke me up. My family can sustain this for me. I checked him over, decided he was better but needed to recuperate more and put the crate with him in it on our porch for a few minutes and then in our shed (food and water of course!) to isolate him. When the neighbor emailed me that he had kept her up ALL night I pointed out the above facts to her. She then backpedaled and told me she heard him at 5 and not all night however then complained that a couple of weeks ago they had been woken up at 1am by him. All of my chickens are cooped up at night. The coop is approx 125 feet away from their home through the 50 feet of woods. I have heard him crow during the night in the past so it is possible that they have heard him as well.

I called the town this morning to speak with the building and code enforcement official to clarify regarding noise ordinances as he had previously stated to me that there weren't any. The neighbor had called him yesterday to file a complaint. (Apparently we do have a vaguely worded noise ordinance, you cant be loud enough to affect the neighbors enjoyment of their land.) He was just in the process of putting a letter together for me regarding the complaint. This is my FIRST complaint letter although he states he has had other complaints. The town had never made me aware of any noise complaint either verbally or in writing. I did let him know that if the town was issuing a warning letter it was my intent to enact the NH Right to Farm Act to protect our back yard farm from nuisance noise complaints. I tried explaining what this was however he didn't even really want to hear it. According to him that was "above his pay grade". Apparently I will need to file an appeal of some sort.

To make matters even more difficult for me I JUST received 6 Cream Legbar Girls and 3 Boys from Greenfire Farm for next years breeding program. I've got lots of $ tied up in it! If the town decides I can't have roosters due to the noise its going to stink.

I am in the process of putting together a letter to the town regarding this and would LOVE some input.

Heres the letter as it stand so far:

Dear Mr. xxxxxx,

I am informing you of my intent to enact NH RSA 432:33. I have enclosed a copy of RSA 432:33 for your review. Per our conversation we are being issued a letter of complaint regarding poultry noise for the first time today, August 16, 2012. As we have been poultry farming for well over a year, have maintained a rooster the entire time and there has been no significant change to this we maintain that we would be covered under RSA 432:33. As proof of length of time I have enclosed a copy of the coop permit which was issued July 11, 2011. Prior to July 11, 2011 our poultry was kept in temporary housing.

The NH Right to Farm Act does take precedence over municipal ordinances. We have attached for your review the Town of Chichester Board of Adjustment Minutes 11/02/2005. We would refer you to page 4 of the minutes in which the board acknowledges this. I have also enclosed a copy of a case from The State of New Hampshire Supreme Court, Number 2099-0749. This case is pertains to NH Right to Farm Act RSA 21:34. In this case the NH Supreme Court finds that the NH Right to Farm RSA takes precedence over the Kingston New Hampshire noise ordinance.

It has been our ongoing practice to keep between 2 and 3 breeding age roosters as well as up to 25 younger roosters. Roosters are critical to our flock for protection, fertility and food. It is our intention to keep roosters in our flock at all times for these purposes. It is our ongoing practice to coop all of our poultry at dusk and release them to free range in the morning.

Despite our flock being protected from noise complaints by RSA 432:33 we are open to reasonable suggestions to help ensure the peace in the neighborhood.

I appreciate your review of this matter.

 

[aggiemae]

If it were me I would make a few recordings of the actually crowing recorded from the edge of my property closest to the offending neighbor just in case this goes anywhere but otherwise ignore the entire thing and wait to see what the town does. If you are permitted to have roosters I doubt that your neighbor can do much about NORMAL and EXPECTED rooster activity including crowing.

Your neighbor knew the zoning when he/she purchased the property so don't put any more effort or worry into this than you need to.

Good luck!

 

[puglady]

Thanks Aggiemae, I'm trying to keep my chin up here. Its the night crowing thats bothering them and no one really wants to loose sleep but I know its in a roosters nature to crow at night as well as during the day. I'm not sure if they were really informed by their realtor that they were in an agriculture area and what that might entail. When they purchased we did not have the chickens however it has been well over the year now required for protection by the RTF act and as such I should be covered.
Roosters are allowed here however apparently not rooster sounds!

I realize that I'm probably much more sensitive to this now that I have spent so much on high quality beeding chicks, 3 of them being boys.

 

[rikithemonk]

There are stories every few years of people fighting a city or home owners association only to loose their home. The most recent that comes to my memory is the woman with the condo that had a front yard garden. There was no law or rule against this and she felt she was in the right. After fighting the Condo association and racking up fees and legal bills they began proceedings to take her house. She was stunned and was quoted as saying the the condo association lawyers didn't do anything when she tried working out a payment plan with them.

When I was a teen, an old woman got behind on her homeowners association fees after her income was halved due to the death of her husband and the end of his retirement benefits. They fined her till the fees were so high that they could take the house. The police came to her home and held her as movers unloaded all her belongings onto the curb. A radio station got a hold of the story and the local morning zoo broadcasted what was happening. A doctors office and a law firm stepped in. She still lost her home, but they paid the fines and set her up in an apartment. She lost several belongings because people stopped and took several things because they were sitting at the side of the road.

I could go on and on with examples but there is really no point.

Look honestly at your neighborhood. I dont care how its zoned. Is it residential or is it farm land. Are there farm animals. Emu, horses? or is it a residential area that just happens to have space between neighbors with typical homes having the "leave it to beaver" grass lawns. We all have to be reasonable. Perhaps it your neighbor that needs to wake up and realise she is living in a farm area. Perhaps its you needing to deal with the fact that your not living where chickens crowing at 5 AM is common sense.

Like it or not, what you do from this point on ward WILL affect with your city managers will think of farmers and Chickens in the future. your actions will determine if your city embraces chickens or bans them.

choose wisely.

Riki the Monk

 

[puglady]

I live in a rural community with many small back yard farms in the surrounding neighborhoods. The neighborhood that we live in has fairly new homes built about 5 years ago on farmland. Respectfully I DO care how its zoned as how it is zoned pertains to how it can be used. If it was not zoned this way I would not have moved here. I was the first in my neighborhood to have chickens and there is now a second person. The town line runs through my other neighbors yard on the left. Just cross the town line I can hear the roosters on one farm once in a while as well as the neighing of horses on a second farm. If someone moves into a neighborhood that is zoned both residential and agricultural and crosses their fingers that none of their neighbors will take advantage of the agricultural opportunity THEY are in for a big shock. IF they had filed a complaint within the first year of us having the rooster(s) my neighbors may have had a leg to stand on. As they waited well over a year my small back yard farm is now covered by the NH RTF act. I am super frustrated that I am educating the town on things they should be aware of. The towns answer to the complainant should have been that they were unable to issue a warning letter as the flock is protected from nuisance complaints such as noise and smell under the act. Ugh.

 

[flewdacoop]

one thing i can tell you that may help is one the wood line facing the complaints house i would put up a 8ft privacy fence about 20 feet long and that will help stop the noise from traveling and when and if you go to court on it you can say you took time and money to help try to fix the problem they were having by putting up a sound barrier. i have nothing but hens and my neighbor has one rooster about 125 feet from my bedroom window and when i am inside i have to listen to hear him crow. so yes i would do recordings from outside your house and from inside your house and infront of their house, just to be safe

 

[puglady]

An interesting suggestion regarding the fence as I see it on the highways all the time to help with noise. Along with my flock I have been raising and selling hatchery chicks this season to pay for the new line of GFF chicks for next years breeding program. They were just paid for and came in as a split order this week and last week. I might be able to do the work ourselves however as a stay at home mom fencing is not in the budget at this time. Maybe in a month or so after selling more chicks. Thinking about it, it would actually look kind of funny as we have a very old hand build low stone wall running along the wood line just a few feet from the coop. Very pretty and picturesque however would do nothing to deflect sound. It would look funny to have an old stone fence in front of the wood fence and be very hard to put the wood fence in due to the tree roots etc. A wood fence would not fit in the space between the stone wall fence and the coop and still allow enough room for the coop doors, clean out etc. There is a HUGE tree where the fence would need to be if I didn't tear down the stone wall. I would HATE to tear down an old stone wall such as this one in order to put in a wooden one. Also I sort of feel that as I am covered by the RTF act if a neighbor wants me to do extra unrequired work to my coop (soundproofing) or to install a sound fence for their benefit the financial burden to do so should not be on us. I would be open to them paying for the materials and us installing them. Not to be a jerk but perhaps as the RTF act would be on our side on this one the simpler solution would be for them to sound proof their bedroom wall that faces the coop.

 

[flewdacoop]

i can see what your are saying but in your defence if you have to go to court and they see that you tryied to fix the problem it would go alot smoother. also you could put the fence above the stone wall and make it a old rugged fence i think it would look good and also make a great sound barrier.

 

[coolcanoechic]

Let me know how you make out. I am interested in case my neighbors complain.

 

[puglady]

Its interesting. I stuck up for myself with the town rep and quoted the NH RSA to him. I also sent info on a NH supreme court case and Chichester selectman minutes supporting the NH RSA. They have put sending the letter on hold now while they review this. I think they didn't know the state laws even though there's a ton of agricultural zoning in town.