Official BYC Poll: Have Your Neighbors Ever Complained About Your Chickens?

[CreveChris]

Our acreage is homestead zoned no limits or restrictions and everyone has hunting dogs that make a ruckus a couple of times a day. Our Huskies are silent unless they're woo-wooing at us, so we had the opportunity to complain. Instead we gave the neighbors free wood privacy fencing to keep everydog out of sightline and cut down on barking.

Only two neighbors are close enough to hear Lucien, and one of them remarked his parents kept chickens snd he likes hearing a rooster crow.

With all the barking going on at times, I don't expect to hear any complaints. Plus the law is clear: move here and expect to hear rural ambience.

 

[CreveChris]

I live in a rural neighborhood. I'm the only one in the area that owns an incubator. I always hatch more chicks than I need and gift the extras to the neighbors. Never get complaints about my chickens.

This is a great idea! The farmer's market and feed store are great places to meet chicken lovers. I may advertise my incubator

 

[CreveChris]

I’m impressed by the poll results so far. So many lucky people with good neighbors! One of my neighbors made my life hell because of the chickens, before I even put any chickens in the coop! He was against chickens on principle. Against everything about them. Against animals in general, actually - he said animals other than dogs or cats were filthy and had to be kept far away from people Total nutjob, mean and aggressive.

Immediately thinking Golden State Killer vibes. I'm terrified of folks who don't like animals.

 

[CreveChris]

I have obviously run into that situation. I have since purchased a couple bordering lots to expand my homestead operation. I do my best to be a good steward, business person and neighbor. I have a very good relationship with my neighbors. Even the HOA committee leader.

The happiest day of my life here was buying thr acreage next door! Everyone wanted it for development, but we had the relationship with the neighbor and had plans to restore the forest and build and maintain trails. We made the deal with the neighbor and life is good.

 

[Ascholten]

The happiest day of my life here was buying thr acreage next door! Everyone wanted it for development, but we had the relationship with the neighbor and had plans to restore the forest and build and maintain trails. We made the deal with the neighbor and life is gooMan i wish

man i wish i could do that. they are tearing down rural all over te place re zoning pud, ldr etc, I never seen any for sale signs going up, just the aftermath of them tearing all the crap up, bulldozing the trees down etc when you KNOW it's going to be another FKN amazon warehouse, or BMW warehouse or Toyota or someone, or even worse UPS is expanding. Wish I could gab some property before it's too late A nice house back in somewheer w/o a hoa bs to deal with. Snag that, with some acres, sell the mcmansion i got now and move where I NEVER have to deal with nosy neighbors or any of that crap again. If I had it to do again id have got 10 acres, paid the 100 grand for it or however much, surround me with it and ut the house way in the back, and surround with the solar, there's my power and water gen via awc, plus a keep away from me barrier.
Oh wall, maybe Ill have to convince myself to move ONE Last TIME in my old age before I die off
aaron

 

[CreveChris]

man i wish i could do that. they are tearing down rural all over te place re zoning pud, ldr etc, I never seen any for sale signs going up, just the aftermath of them tearing all the crap up, bulldozing the trees down etc when you KNOW it's going to be another FKN amazon warehouse, or BMW warehouse or Toyota or someone, or even worse UPS is expanding. Wish I could gab some property before it's too late A nice house back in somewheer w/o a hoa bs to deal with. Snag that, with some acres, sell the mcmansion i got now and move where I NEVER have to deal with nosy neighbors or any of that crap again. If I had it to do again id have got 10 acres, paid the 100 grand for it or however much, surround me with it and ut the house way in the back, and surround with the solar, there's my power and water gen via awc, plus a keep away from me barrier.
Oh wall, maybe Ill have to convince myself to move ONE Last TIME in my old age before I did off.

aaron

Our state is booming and there are zero acres left for under $100-200K/acre in our area. We wish we'd bought more, but neighborhoods full of expensive houses are sprouting everywhere and it still can't keep up with demand. We are saving our virgin forest for posterity at this point.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

On the other side of the road from me is a gated community full of folks that pay big money to live there. With that mentioned, I do have a lot of compassion for the folks that don't like roosters but not enough to do without something that I thoroughly enjoy at my house. My flocks are right outside my bedroom so I'll hear them more than anyone. A while back I would occasionally hear a man yell out "SHUT UP!" after one of many crowing contests between my boys. I do have multiple roosters, including 3 OEGB roosters (this breed LOVES to crow the most, I believe). I always felt bad that he was annoyed but I wouldn't know what house he lives in even if I wanted to go over and chat about a possible resolution. I believe he has moved. If someone from the community approached me about my chickens or ducks, I'd be open to moving the flocks to the other side of the property. I would do what I could to help resolve any conflict. Life is too short for me to willingly participate in anyone being miserable.

 

[Thanera]

I was actually the complaining neighbor. We had neighbors who bought chickens thinking it would be a "fun experience for their children" yet they never took care of the chickens. The chickens were always out of food or out of water in the middle of summer. I found the poor creatures once nearly dying of heat stroke because they didn't have any water. The run was never cleaned and nothing but mud so bad that I swear some of their feet were rotting off from being constantly wet and in their own filth. They had a total of 14 full size chickens in a 5x5 area with a two roosters, as you can imagine it was a mess. Their coop was just a small part of a shed that they left open 24/7. They relegated the chickens to a back corner of their yard where they would never see them because they were behind a shed. Easily out of sight and out of mind for them. I spoke with the neighbors, I called animal control, yet nothing changed? Those chickens were both Lucky and unlucky that the run was just built out of chicken wire so often they would be able to escape and at least find a few places to dust bathe and have a little bit of a life, except that they would wonder if our neighbor's yard with a big beautiful garden or into other people's yards who have lots of dogs. Not good places for them to be. Luckily they must have given the chickens away or something and moved out recently.

Was I a bit of a karen? Maybe. I just really hate when people buy animals and then forget about them after they get bored with them. Not really a good lesson to teach your children.

 

[TOPChickens14]

I Get dogs bark too, but these hound bellow, all night and all day. They're like the Bumpusses from Christmas Story

My neighbor has a german shepherd that barks whenever she feels like so I think she's a bit louder than my hens are.

 

[TOPChickens14]

I was actually the complaining neighbor. We had neighbors who bought chickens thinking it would be a "fun experience for their children" yet they never took care of the chickens. The chickens were always out of food or out of water in the middle of summer. I found the poor creatures once nearly dying of heat stroke because they didn't have any water. The run was never cleaned and nothing but mud so bad that I swear some of their feet were rotting off from being constantly wet and in their own filth. They had a total of 14 full size chickens in a 5x5 area with a two roosters, as you can imagine it was a mess. Their coop was just a small part of a shed that they left open 24/7. They relegated the chickens to a back corner of their yard where they would never see them because they were behind a shed. Easily out of sight and out of mind for them. I spoke with the neighbors, I called animal control, yet nothing changed? Those chickens were both Lucky and unlucky that the run was just built out of chicken wire so often they would be able to escape and at least find a few places to dust bathe and have a little bit of a life, except that they would wonder if our neighbor's yard with a big beautiful garden or into other people's yards who have lots of dogs. Not good places for them to be. Luckily they must have given the chickens away or something and moved out recently.

Was I a bit of a karen? Maybe. I just really hate when people buy animals and then forget about them after they get bored with them. Not really a good lesson to teach your children.

Its so sad how some people just don't care for their animals.