New Roosters Crowing all night, and some Hens no longer laying eggs!

[RPClark]

Our houses are about 75' apart, and the coop is about 75' from the back corner of their house where their bedroom is. Our bedroom is only about 60' from the coop on a second story and I can't hear the rooster at night, and the neighbors on the other side of our barn about 300' away can't either.

I really want to become a hatchery with 2-3 coops and about 500 birds all told, but this neighbor is trying to rob me of my livelihood by squelching my ability to have roosters. I've already paid for a survey to prove the property line so I can dispute the area the birds were poisoned in.

We do use a heat lamp at night, but I have no other heat out there so the neighbors will just have to deal with the noise.

They wrecked some grass and mulch around a couple trees and a decorative arbor, their dog poops in our yard. seems fair to me.

A hatchery within 75 feet of the neighbors' house? The hatchery doesn't exist yet, so the neighboring house was there first by default. From your perspective, this neighbor is trying to rob you of your livelihood; I can understand and agree with the neighbors' perspective that you're taking the enjoyment of their existing home by allowing your birds to range their property and damage their landscaping.

It sounds to me like the chickens are only the flash point for other, bigger problems between neighbors in this case.

 

[Beekissed]

Hi!

I have a couple of problems currently with my flock and I wanted to see what everyone's advice was.

First, we have seven 1-1/2 year old hens which have been doing a great job with egg production, until the last few weeks. A few weeks ago, our young roos came into their voices and one or two of them is crowing all night long, from 11 or midnight right through till the sun comes up. We also have several other younger hens we introduced to the flock as chicks with these roos and their egg production is going OK.

my issues are two - first, my neigbors are complaining about the rooster crowing all night (we're both zoned agricultural and the town has no noise ordinance except for dogs, so legally we're fine) but apparently they wake them up several times a night for the last few weeks and they are just telling us about it now.

Also, we free range our chickens and they go into this same neighbors yard (despite the fence we installed) and trash their mulch around their trees and they managed to scratch their lawn bare back in November. The neighbor raked up his mulch beds and spread grass seed with fertilizer on it, which my chickens ate a few weeks later.

Now, 5 of my 7 older hens aren't laying eggs and I think it's because my neighbor poisoned the chickens. Can I sue them for losses from poisoning my chickens?

Do I even have to do anything to address the noise issue, or tell them to move if they don't like it?

From reading this post and the additional posts that show no regard for your neighbor's property or their rights to a quiet night, not to mention your extreme inexperience with anything to do with chickens, I'm doubting your plans to have a hatchery will come to fruition.

It's your responsibility to keep your animals on your side of the fence. Period. If you don't know why older hens stop laying in the winter and think it's due to poisoning by your neighbor, you have exactly zero experience with chickens, so how in the world do you plan to raise them to sell? That you don't know why your roosters are crowing all night is another indication of your inexperience....same with how to keep your chickens on your side of the fence.

A good neighbor and a good business person knows enough to create good relationships in the area if they wish to do good business there. What you are doing is creating hostilities, making false accusations and being irresponsible....in short, you are giving all flock keepers a bad name. It's just such things as this that cause people to attempt to change the zoning of certain areas that have always been zoned as agricultural.

 

[TalkALittle]

If I was your neighbor I'd be eating chicken dinner every night and not feeling the least bit guilty! Contain your birds on your property. If you have tried but they still roam, TRY HARDER. My guess is the neighbor might be a little more tolerant of the rooster if they didn't also have to deal with the damage done by your wandering birds.

 

[Isaac 0]

Our houses are about 75' apart, and the coop is about 75' from the back corner of their house where their bedroom is. Our bedroom is only about 60' from the coop on a second story and I can't hear the rooster at night, and the neighbors on the other side of our barn about 300' away can't either.

I really want to become a hatchery with 2-3 coops and about 500 birds all told, but this neighbor is trying to rob me of my livelihood by squelching my ability to have roosters. I've already paid for a survey to prove the property line so I can dispute the area the birds were poisoned in.

We do use a heat lamp at night, but I have no other heat out there so the neighbors will just have to deal with the noise.

They wrecked some grass and mulch around a couple trees and a decorative arbor, their dog poops in our yard. seems fair to me.

Chickens don't need heat especially at night.Turn the heat lamp off and they wont crow easy as that.

 

[Goros]

Ok so I have to come clean, and apologize.

I"m not the chicken owner, I'm actually the neighbor whose yard got trashed. The person in question is a member here, and I posted what I did to get a general feel for the response of the farming community in general, and specifically the hobbyist or small business owner.

For the record, my dog doesn't roam or wander, and the only time she's ever pooped in their yard it was always cleaned up immediately. There are 2 neighboring dogs on the other side that roam and poop wherever they like.

We never had a problem with the chickens ranging in our yard until they trashed the mulch, and when we brought it up they said they would fix it, and didn't. For weeks. And it proceeded to happen 3-4 more times over a month, to the point where I had to spread grass seed. If you've bought grass seed in the last 5 years, you know most of it has a starter fertilizer in it, or a special coating to hold moisture, or both.

We have proof in writing we told them when the grass seed went down, and we also have proof in writing that they were notified a month later when the chickens trashed our lawn again and ate all the seed that was placed, and again trashed the mulch beds. The nail in the coffin for us was the last 6 weeks or so being woken up multiple times a night, and we just dealt with it till our breaking point - when our 3 year old told us he's been coming into our bedroom every night because he can hear the rooster. We can too - and some nights are better than others, but for the most part it's 4-5 nights a week that one or both or all 3 of us in the house wake up from it. Their 3 roosters just came of age, and well....I'm not moving just so I can sleep at night.

We were accused in writing of everything in my posts, as I believe my neighbor is in the beginning stages of justifying a lawsuit against us as they have publicly posted about ordering a survey, erecting a fence, and building a hatchery on facebook.

I appreciate everything you have given feedback on, and any advice is appreciated. We have ordered our own survey and are preparing to lawyer up to defend ourselves. The last straw was today when they posted on facebook 2 pictures of the loudest rooster decapitated with a message about "having to destroy a bird because of noise, hope you're happy".

Yes, i realize we've now entered the realm of insanity.

The worst part is, i doubt they killed the right bird. They took the one out that they already had up for sale for being mean and loud. There are 2 other roosters, and we have recordings (i set up a camcorder to record all night in the dark from 8pm-6am) and will continue to do so.

They continue to escalate while we don't respond at all, we've been neighbors over a decade, and close friends at one point, but the drama and issues that cling to them have caused us to distance ourselves in recent years.

Yes we have dated/timestamped photo evidence of everything to counter every claim made against us, and libel isn't outside the realm of possibility depending on where this goes.

Why can't people just be normal?

 

[Beekissed]

When you figure that out, please let me know.

I feel for you....neighbor trouble is an age old problem and it never seems to get resolved rationally by both parties, always seems like one side is totally fruitloops and the other side can't even make sense of anything, let alone try to stand up against crazy. I think it's a good idea to document everything as you are doing, a picture~or video~is worth a thousand words.

If you can do it or afford it, erecting a nice, very tall privacy fence on the side between you and this neighbor may go along way towards muffling noises and keeping them out of your sight and you out of theirs. To keep chickens on their side, you can string a tight wire or even strong filament about 6 in. above the top of your fence to keep the birds from being able to reach that surface when they fly up. You might also explore ways to further soundproof your side of the fence in order to muffle noise even further.

Good fences make good neighbors in many ways...even when they aren't so good, when you don't have to see them or hear them, it can be a good thing.

I wish you success on this thing and want you to know that good farmers or livestock owners do not pull this kind of thing on their neighbors...they keep their animals at home and they don't deliberately cause their neighbors misery with excess sound, though most working farms are noisy at any given time depending on what is going on over there. These people aren't farmers, they are just some people who don't know anything about chickens, trying to keep some chickens. Don't let them give others who are raising chickens a bad name.

 

[Goros]

Hey, so....it gets better.

So I was right, they killed the wrong rooster. 3am and our 3 year old comes into the room complaining that he can hear it OVER THE FAN WE PUT IN HIS ROOM.

He's farther from the coop than we are.

good times.

 

[centrarchid]

This is a contentious issue that likely has stress factors beyond the chickens having a role. Opposing parties trolling each other and trolling for support across the internet is not going to promote improvement. Efforts need to be local with people closer to the situation that can more accurately asses what is going on and where need be apply real pressure to make improvements if a party or both parties are not willing to do so voluntarily.

 

[laura29532]

I agree, you seem to think they should just shut up and put up..think beyond this childish behaviour," dog vs chicken" ,think about your animals safety first.!!
I'd suggest penning them up or maybe a higher security fence between yours and their yards..a fence would be better than a feud..animals don't know any better, that's up too you..you may have a legal stand but is it worth the safety and health of your birds..
It's your obligation to keep your animals on your property not theirs..fix the problem for your birds not your neighbours..they have a right too, it's their property that's getting damaged, you might find yourself in small claims court for the damage your chickens cause..is it really worth the troubles.? Do you really want to add even more birds just to lose money..some people had rather take their frustrations out on innocent animals, are you prepared for that kind of loss ? Try to figure out a way to keep your birds on your property..it's not your neighbours problem.!! Free range does not include their property..

 

[centrarchid]

I agree, you seem to think they should just shut up and put up..think beyond this childish behaviour," dog vs chicken" ,think about your animals safety first.!!
I'd suggest penning them up or maybe a higher security fence between yours and their yards..a fence would be better than a feud..animals don't know any better, that's up too you..you may have a legal stand but is it worth the safety and health of your birds..
It's your obligation to keep your animals on your property not theirs..fix the problem for your birds not your neighbours..they have a right too, it's their property that's getting damaged, you might find yourself in small claims court for the damage your chickens cause..is it really worth the troubles.? Do you really want to add even more birds just to lose money..some people had rather take their frustrations out on innocent animals, are you prepared for that kind of loss ? Try to figure out a way to keep your birds on your property..it's not your neighbours problem.!! Free range does not include their property..

You have been trolled into something where you are not scrutenizing all information presented by the OP. Read through all the post and you will see what you did above is not appropriate to the situation.