Reporting violations of city ordinances

[Cluky]

I would suggest talking to them first. It is possible they will not want to deal with the city and will get rid of rooster. It isn't needed for eggs anyway. Then, and i would hate if this would happen to me, however I would report them (do give them some time to get rid of it though) They need to understand that middle of night crowing is more then anyone could take.

 

[pdp1]

Thanks everyone for the responses. You've helped me decide that it's better to talk with them first, and just in time too because that rooster has been acting up, crowing more and more these past few days. Starting at like 4am... then by around 5:30am it's almost non stop, with only a few minute breaks until well after I leave for work. My pregnant wife is very upset at losing sleep, not to mention having it wake up our toddler too sometimes.

Anyway, just one more thought, if they end up not cooperating and as a last resort I have to go to the city, won't my anonymity be blown? And ideas on if I can confront them but still stay anonymous if I have to report them?

 

[bugglesmommy]

IMHO, you never had a chance of staying anonymous. New neighbors move in and complaints appear soon after? Even if it wasn't you, you would get the suspicion anyways.

 

[CedarAcres]

IMHO, you never had a chance of staying anonymous. New neighbors move in and complaints appear soon after? Even if it wasn't you, you would get the suspicion anyways.

I agree with this. Even if someone else were to complain, they'd probably suspect the new person in the neighborhood.

 

[BakinInAZ]

Any updates on this?

 

[pdp1]

Any updates on this?

Not yet, I'm hoping to catch the neighbors while they are outside their home, but again, since our garages/front doors are quite a bit apart, about 4 times the distance between houses of a typical track home community, it's hard to see if they're outside in front or not. In fact, in the past 3 months, I've only seen the grandma (I think it was) outside walking closer to our house, but she didn't speak English so I didn't say anything to her. I'll give it another week or two, and if I still don't catch them, I'll just go up and ring their doorbell, as much as I hate for our first meeting to be a complaint.

 

[AprilWC]

I would be as nice as possible about it. Mention that the rooster sometimes wakes your family up in the night and while you don't have any issue with them owning chickens, you would appreciate it if they could do something about the noise. You could suggest they move the coop so that it isn't so close to your house. I personally would use reporting them to the city as the last resort, but I keep chickens.

 

[pdp1]

Quick update. I was trimming a tree in the backyard this morning and a branch fell into the chicken neighbors yard. It wasn't planned but I realized it was a great excuse to walk over and introduce myself. I'm guessing it was the dad that opened the door, and only just a crack. I told him I'm the new neighbor next door and I accidentally cut a branch that fell in his backyard. He quickly said, "It's ok and was about to shut the door." I then quickly told him my name and he said ok and proceeded to shut the door, the whole time only opened a crack. Not a very promising first encounter, but I guess this experience makes it even less of a wonder why I've never seen them outside and why I've never had a previous chance to introduce myself.

 

[bugglesmommy]

That was not a particularly promising first encounter. It doesn't seem like they will be likely to have an open, civil discussion if they hardly let you say your name. You can still try but Yikes! They could have been ruder but not much more anti-social.

 

[thatchickenlady]

I agree with what many have said. Talk with the chicken owner and try to work out any concerns. Keeping chickens is a wonderful thing and you might check in more with what people are doing with their birds on this board. You can get a better understand of how important it is to so many of us to be able to have them...