Picky one neighbor suing for smell

[michelle44106]

I have a neighbor, who acts like law,by calling cops non stop, and is going to send me in jail. She would call police , if any dog accidentally got loose, if children play in my yard, said on my behalf. Another neighbor got two dead trees, and Called non stop, and yells at city clerk, and gets her way, for the new trees be planted. She told workers of neighbors to stop the machine. Because it was loud to her. She is so nosy, everyone knows her, and one other neighbor saw her twice, that she bought stuff from store, use it, and try to return it, and she got her way.
She used to complain to me and husband any time she saw us, about rabbits, squirrels, and the weather, before we have chickens.
After we have chickens, she is constantly at us. She took lots vedios, and pictures of my yard.
We used to have no fence, so they did go every where, and caused trouble, then I fenced them. But then they learned their way to come out .we are constantly improving.Last summer, the chickens learned to dig tunnel from the near by veggie garden and out. And we did not find out for a while, thought other reasons. Then we were out of town, and she called police, yelled at care keeper , a friend I asked. And I was fined. She even asked me to pay for landscaping money of hers, but she did not get it.
She said my chickens damaged her flower, this year, my chicken have never been to her yard, and her flowers were still bad. And she is suing for smell. I need to treat the coop every time it rained and get hot. But I was out of town for a week, and she called police. I asked friends to care for my coop, they could not work do diligent. Also my husband and I have different opinions, about how to reduce odor. I think compost is good, he thinks cider mulch is good. Then I figure out moss is good. We were not educated what is the proper way to do by the city regulations to eliminate odor. And we only try and see. No other neighbors have problem. Some of them wrote letters to keep me out of jail. This lady like to call cops. My car was broke, and parked on the curb for one night, and she called cops. She lied to police she is cuing me on behalf of neighbors, and the police told me if I do not know how to keep a coop, I need to quit. But my heart broken when I try to give away my chickens.I got emotionally attached to them.she is constantly looking for something to get angry and yell at police, city clerk, and store workers.I live beside her. Once I cut a branch that goes in my eye, which is out side both of our property, but the root is on her side, she yelled at me. I think she is watching us. Sometimes when I and my husband work on yard, we look up, she is right there , near the border, try to look away. Yes, animals have smell. On some days, you would smell animal pees and poos out door. Some schools keep pets and chickens in door. People work in pet stores having no health issue. How much smell is against the law? Police came , and smelled hardly , and decided there is smell.the neighbor like to walk on the border , try to catch us I guess. She has a huge yard, but I saw her several often walking along the border.
When her son was home, some times I woke up during night by loud music of his car when he came home. If I wait for him, and catch him on the act and call cops, I would be successful, but I am not such person.
It is illegal parking a car on the traffic , but accidents happen. Next time she call on us, I am in jail! Or I need a huge fund to bail myself out.Help!
I did things beyond the regulations .

 

[michelle44106]

Last year, I promised I would reduce my flocks . And she just can not wait. I have 14 now, and I will reduce ,and keep them in chicken house, and let them out occasionally in the run. I have a house that is 4 by 13, enough run by law to have 5 chickens with out run. It has a second floor bedroom, and egg layer box. That way they will not come out unless the house broke. I need your help. I think raising chickens , is the first step of better urban life. Because the chickens will eat pests on the lawn, and reduce pesticides in the water system. And I am learning to make organic fertilizer, and l figured out to hand pull weeds to keep lawn good. I aim for a chemical free lawn. Well, I was bad at first, and created a very bad smell before, which I said sorry, and gave them a box of chocolate costed 40 bucks. And other stuff. I think backyard garden and fruit trees and animals , substantially raised our living happiness, and will lead to better environment. Because we will learn how to keep our lawn better, by doing gardening. And raising chickens , has improved my lawn a lot. Because the rain will flush natural fertilizer on the slanted spot that can hardly hold water . My lawn I’d better and better.

 

[azygous]

I do sympathize. There is nothing worse than living next to an individual that finds a problem in everything you do, and is also engaged in their share of annoying behavior.

Groping my way through all of the issues you are dealing with, it occurs to me that you would gladly do something to reduce or eliminate the chicken odors if you knew what to do. It is possible, but does require effort.

The source of bad smells is usually moisture and fresh feces. So, you attack the excess moisture by channeling rain runoff away from your coop and run and by reducing the amount of freshly accumulated poop.

There is a product called "Stall Dry" and another call "Sweet PDZ" that reduce moisture and odors. But daily scooping up of fresh poop is the best way to conquer the bad smells. It will also reduce the flies, and I'm surprised that isn't also on the long list of gripes your neighbor has with your chickens.

 

[DobieLover]

I have a neighbor, who acts like law,by calling cops non stop, and is going to send me in jail. She would call police , if any dog accidentally got loose, if children play in my yard, said on my behalf. Another neighbor got two dead trees, and Called non stop, and yells at city clerk, and gets her way, for the new trees be planted. She told workers of neighbors to stop the machine. Because it was loud to her. She is so nosy, everyone knows her, and one other neighbor saw her twice, that she bought stuff from store, use it, and try to return it, and she got her way.
She used to complain to me and husband any time she saw us, about rabbits, squirrels, and the weather, before we have chickens.
After we have chickens, she is constantly at us. She took lots vedios, and pictures of my yard.
We used to have no fence, so they did go every where, and caused trouble, then I fenced them. But then they learned their way to come out .we are constantly improving.Last summer, the chickens learned to dig tunnel from the near by veggie garden and out. And we did not find out for a while, thought other reasons. Then we were out of town, and she called police, yelled at care keeper , a friend I asked. And I was fined. She even asked me to pay for landscaping money of hers, but she did not get it.
She said my chickens damaged her flower, this year, my chicken have never been to her yard, and her flowers were still bad. And she is suing for smell. I need to treat the coop every time it rained and get hot. But I was out of town for a week, and she called police. I asked friends to care for my coop, they could not work do diligent. Also my husband and I have different opinions, about how to reduce odor. I think compost is good, he thinks cider mulch is good. Then I figure out moss is good. We were not educated what is the proper way to do by the city regulations to eliminate odor. And we only try and see. No other neighbors have problem. Some of them wrote letters to keep me out of jail. This lady like to call cops. My car was broke, and parked on the curb for one night, and she called cops. She lied to police she is cuing me on behalf of neighbors, and the police told me if I do not know how to keep a coop, I need to quit. But my heart broken when I try to give away my chickens.I got emotionally attached to them.she is constantly looking for something to get angry and yell at police, city clerk, and store workers.I live beside her. Once I cut a branch that goes in my eye, which is out side both of our property, but the root is on her side, she yelled at me. I think she is watching us. Sometimes when I and my husband work on yard, we look up, she is right there , near the border, try to look away. Yes, animals have smell. On some days, you would smell animal pees and poos out door. Some schools keep pets and chickens in door. People work in pet stores having no health issue. How much smell is against the law? Police came , and smelled hardly , and decided there is smell.the neighbor like to walk on the border , try to catch us I guess. She has a huge yard, but I saw her several often walking along the border.
When her son was home, some times I woke up during night by loud music of his car when he came home. If I wait for him, and catch him on the act and call cops, I would be successful, but I am not such person.
It is illegal parking a car on the traffic , but accidents happen. Next time she call on us, I am in jail! Or I need a huge fund to bail myself out.Help!
I did things beyond the regulations .

Okay. First of all, you are not going to go to jail for having chickens or breaking an "offensive odor" ordinance so stop worrying about that. You'll get fined and that is all.

The way this most often works out is you will be issued a citation with a fixed amount of time to deal with the problem. If you fail to deal with the problem, then you get the fine. So deal with the issue of odor.

DO NOT use cedar chips. They are toxic to chickens.

You need to keep their area DRY. If you have your flock in a run it must drain properly and have appropriate litter to control odors.

Where do you live in the world? You can update your profile with that information and it will show under your avatar.

I use a thick (about 4-6") layer of wood chips and shredded wood in my run. My run is also covered with a solid roof so that does help a lot. But the wood allows the poop to cold compost in the run and drain and dry out quickly.

I also have over 17 sq ft per bird between the coop and run so I don't overload the area with poop. How many birds do you have and how many square feet do they have in the coop and in the run? Do you have poop boards in your coop? Cleaning the nightly load out every morning helps tremendously in keeping odor at bay.

As for the neighbor, you are going to have to learn to ignore her. Just keep your coop and yard clean and as dry as possible and go about your business.

 

[slordaz]

is it possible to make your property fence higher on side with nosy neighbor?

 

[PirateGirl]

You mentioned compost as well. Compost needs “green” and “brown” components to balance out. When you have both, it does not really smell. There is lots of good reading on this online. Since you have close neighbors, and you have a sensitive neighbor, I highly recommend you only compost in a closed container/compost tumbler. There are many good tutorials how to make your own that are easy and economical. Then be sure to store your tumbler far from the neighbors property line. I would not compost in an open pile with a neighbor like you have.

Also call and find out what the rules and laws are about chicken keeping in your neighborhood. Make sure you are following all the laws. You will worry less when you know you have done nothing wrong. I have a neighbor that does not like my chickens but has admitted she cannot do anything about them. I made sure I have the appropriate permit for my town, and keep things clean, and measured so that my fence and coop is the right distance from her property line.

Good luck. It sounds like you are trying to be responsible.

 

[Chickassan]

You can't be jailed for an odor.
She CAN be fined for harassment.
Stop trying to please this woman, beat her at her own game.

 

[michelle44106]

Thank you all for helping me out. I live in Kansas, a college town. I shovel the stuff in chicken run into my vegetable garden, so I try t9 avoid wood chips that do not get soft fast enough. I know I have a fussy neighbor , that has been constantly fussy against all other neighbors. I might have to sue her for harassment, but that might make her angrier.I am going to get legal advisement on this second issue against her. I have friends who play 8n my coop all the time.I will keep it dry as soon as possible. Do you guys have more than normal rain this year? Our lakes have flooded the near by places, by 18 feet. I am those person who are criticized by others and do not know how to defend myself. I have been offended by other rude people .This neighbor just taught me a huge lesson, that I need to change my attitude toward these kind of human beings . There are less and less animals living with us now, people are raising lots other animals other than chickens. There will be smell of nature on certain extreme days. Because she is so fussy, I have to reduce my flock anyways, but I need time. Neighbors say she is creating things that can make her angry and yell at other people, and my chickens are huge targets. She is more nuisance than the animals. I have met people like this before. Can not be too weak. They go beyond limit. But this one uses the law .She calls police and city non stop. Not only against me, but against other neighbors too. I appreciate your advice on how to eliminate odors. I once went Baugaria , and I saw one open nature toilets that belong to the city hall, that is just a hole on the ground , with a cement shelter, and place to stand on. Would that not creat odors? I know there are lot of places that still use nature toilets. I am deeply concerned that nature resources we consume, become trash, pollute the earth, and not going back to the land. The soil will lose it nuitrition little by little. Depending more on chemical fertilizers. What will be better than what Nature gives us?There might be nutritions, scientists have not found, and lost in the landfill.I want to do my share of find a way of making it better . But with such a neighbor, I live in fear daily.

 

[PirateGirl]

I am sorry that you live in fear. No one should have to feel that way in their own home. I think that learning the rules in your town/neighborhood will help. If you know you are not breaking any rules, then you know you cannot get in trouble. It sounds as if you are on the right track and you have gotten some good advice on ways to keep your run/yard as dry as possible. Another thing that helps is if the chicken run is covered with some sort of roof or tarp. Then less rain and snow gets in and the ground stays drier overall. A dry chicken run does not smell nearly as much as a wet run. If you need any help figuring out how to modify your existing coop and/or run, we can certainly help with that if you can post photos. Good luck.

 

[michelle44106]

Thanks for the replies. My plan is to reduce chickens to five, keep them in the chicken house, which is almost covered all, other than the side, they need sun shine. The house could be kept dry is not raining heavily. I have done everything but more than the law required.