smell

[sharol]

Be sure you are within the exact wording of the law. (You may have to re-home 2 chickens) If you are legal, there won't be anything they can do about it. If you aren't, they will have grounds for complaint and might cause you grief.

 

[catdaddy66]

I think the couple complain about the smell just to have a complaint. My coop has 12 hens and is 50 feet from my deck. I smell nothing other than when rained upon, and then only within 10 feet of the coop. As for noise, my girls coo at me when I am in sight and this sounds like "sweet nothings" or soft chatter only. All of the neighbors complaints are much ado about nothing.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
I have to agree. You are allowed 4 and you have 6. Might be a good idea to rehome 2 of them.

Just so you will be able to legally keep the 4. There's just no pleasing some neighbors.

Rehome 2, keep everything inspection ready and have a copy of the new ordinance printed out. Hope it works out for you.

 

[drumstick diva]

Do you have someone who could take on your 2 extra chickens until things simmer down? I'm sure your neighbors just complained in anticipation of having something to moan about later. If they said things were fine now, you might hold them to their word - and they didn't want that.

I think once you put the run cover on and use stall dri etc., you would pass muster anywhere. I find it hard to get upset over maybe one hen annoucing her egg. Even if they all did it, it's not like it would go on all day. They only lay one egg a day at most. There are always people who's only purpose in life is to ruffle their feathers and be atch . Unfortunately, we all seem to live next to one of them.

Do they cause any aggravation to you (loud music, pets etc.)? If so I would kinda blow off their next complaint and respond with " Your dog seems to find alot of bark about in the middle of the night." or " How often do you have those loud parties on your deck," kinda thing. Make them go on the defensive. That usually defuses them at least for while.

Good luck to you. There are people on this site would you dearly love to be able to legally have just 4 hens.

 

[drumstick diva]

PS an afterthought , maybe you shouldn't give them eggs - it they have a tummy ache they'll say you gave them salmonella. Maybe you could also mention you really wanted to have some (very large breed) dogs and raise a litter or two but, you find the chickens make amusing pets., so you changed your mind.

 

[valibby]

Thanks for the replies. We do have our inevitable response should they call a bylaw officer. The renter in their basement? Completely unauthorized suite, not even close to fire code.

We got our one post cemented today (only need one, since we're tying in with the existing fence) and have all the supplies we need to build the chickens their pen (except the roof, as we are undecided what we're using for it).

 

[valibby]

Ooh, an update. Turns out the problem is really the weirdo renter in the basement. My husband went to talk to the owner (the husband) and he said weirdo renter has been complaining about the smell, so they all went up to their balcony and the owners COULDN'T smell anything. That still leaves the wife my husband heard yelling at the hens, but that could've been a one-off thing. They're a young couple who probably don't want to make waves in the neighbourhood, and they know their renter is weird but rely on the rent to make their mortgage payment. So I think we're good. My husband is going to take "Greg" (what he thinks the owner's name is - it's not) some eggs soon.

We also bought some wood chips to go along with our straw. Question, though - do these go inside the coop or out in the run? We don't have the proper pen built yet so no covered run, and really the chickens have free run of that (fenced) area of the yard now because our first fencing job was just that bad.

 

[welasharon]

You could also give him something else to smell. Tie about 30 or so of those vanilla smelling car freshener trees to the fence and see if he prefers that. They also keep the flies away.....
sharon

 

[crawfordmama]

The wood shavings should go inside the coop. Be sure they're pine, not cedar, which is harmful to the chickens. I have sand in my run. It's sort of like a cat litter box. I use a litter box scoop to clean it up. Good luck with your neighbors!

 

[nanaimochick]

So what was the end result? I'm from Nanaimo too so I'd love to hear the end of the saga! For everyone else - Nanaimo is so progressive they now allow 6 chickens - hopefully that came in time.