So mad at neighbor

[Geena]

The neighbor gave my boyfriend $20, like he always does when my boyfriend watches the chickens,

I see, I phrased that wrong, you are not technically charging him. What I meant was, if the neighbor won't accept payment from you, then you should decline payment from him as well.

I get why you are upset, but different people have different priorities in life. Obviously taking care of chickens is not high on his priority list. Now you know that, so do something different next time.

 

[CaroleW]

Seems like the neighbor had his kid do the job from what was mentioned earlier, right? Maybe something went wrong with instructions or no one told the kid what to do? A checklist in writing goes a long way.

I've hired trusted teens to do this kind of work and gave the money to parent who drives them to do the job. Sometimes the parent ended up doing the job a certain day if teen had a game, but I walked both parent and teen thru what needed to be done. They got to keep all eggs and I paid because I wanted the teen to learn a work ethic.

 

[CKfarm22]

Seems like the neighbor had his kid do the job from what was mentioned earlier, right? Maybe something went wrong with instructions or no one told the kid what to do? A checklist in writing goes a long way.

I've hired trusted teens to do this kind of work and gave the money to parent who drives them to do the job. Sometimes the parent ended up doing the job a certain day if teen had a game, but I walked both parent and teen thru what needed to be done. They got to keep all eggs and I paid because I wanted the teen to learn a work ethic.

Thinking about it, i know he has two babies at home and his wife is a stay at home mom. He has two daughters too but they aren’t there all the time (im guessing co-parent and i’ve only seen them there on the weekend). He knew what to do based on the last time he watched them for us and i didn’t think a checklist was necessary. But next time we ask someone to watch them, i’m going to put a checklist in a ziplock on the coop door.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Out here, it goes without saying that when caring for someone's birds, as long as they aren't being brooder on, any egg is up for grabs and if you want, you can take as many eggs as you want while doing the job.

Me and the neighbors trade favors like that. Sure. Its far more one sided than the other, but we both know what to do for each others animals

 

[CaroleW]

Thinking about it, i know he has two babies at home and his wife is a stay at home mom. He has two daughters too but they aren’t there all the time (im guessing co-parent and i’ve only seen them there on the weekend). He knew what to do based on the last time he watched them for us and i didn’t think a checklist was necessary. But next time we ask someone to watch them, i’m going to put a checklist in a ziplock on the coop door.

You could even do a video tutorial nowdays - some people will pay attention to a video when they might not take time to read a description or checklist. Or video supplements the checklist.

Also consider a simplified water setup - sometimes cleaning waterer is hard for me so I have some cement mix tubs (that hold more than my 3-5 gal waterers) - Super EZ to just dump and spray out quickly and refill. Make it as EZ as possible on your helpers. It could be that you are making it EZ on yourself in the future when you have a hard day.

 

[CKfarm22]

Out here, it goes without saying that when caring for someone's birds, as long as they aren't being brooder on, any egg is up for grabs and if you want, you can take as many eggs as you want while doing the job.

Me and the neighbors trade favors like that. Sure. Its far more one sided than the other, but we both know what to do for each others animals

I wasn’t so mad about the eggs! I was more mad about the fact he didn’t feed them correctly, and the task was poorly done!

 

[CKfarm22]

You could even do a video tutorial nowdays - some people will pay attention to a video when they might not take time to read a description or checklist. Or video supplements the checklist.

Also consider a simplified water setup - sometimes cleaning waterer is hard for me so I have some cement mix tubs (that hold more than my 3-5 gal waterers) - Super EZ to just dump and spray out quickly and refill. Make it as EZ as possible on your helpers. It could be that you are making it EZ on yourself in the future when you have a hard day.

Our water system is so completely simple. You fill the bucket we have with water from the hose 20 ft away and then fill the 2 gal water bucket. Same with the feeder. Everything takes maybe 3 minutes in total

 

[KingD]

I’m going to ask my boyfriend to ask him what happened this time

Don't do that. Just thank him and give him a gift for looking after them, that in itself might make him think about his mistakes this time and therefore he'll feel a bit bad about it.

Getting on the wrong side of a neighbor is definitely not a good idea.
At least the hens are still alive!
You can sort their health out no problem.

Stay positive good luck.

 

[SarahGfa]

Seems like the neighbor had his kid do the job from what was mentioned earlier, right? Maybe something went wrong with instructions or no one told the kid what to do? A checklist in writing goes a long way.

I've hired trusted teens to do this kind of work and gave the money to parent who drives them to do the job. Sometimes the parent ended up doing the job a certain day if teen had a game, but I walked both parent and teen thru what needed to be done. They got to keep all eggs and I paid because I wanted the teen to learn a work ethic.

This is good advice. It is obvious from your last experience that your neighbor doesn't want or care about $50, and that is why he did not put any effort into the job. But $50 is a lot of money to a teenager, so the teen would take the job more seriously. Also, kids are better at following directions than adults, in my opinion.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

He’s not my neighbor directly. He knows me but he is my boyfriends neighbor. Me and my boyfriend don’t live together. As i would go over there and talk to him about it, i couldn’t because one i’m not close with him like my boyfriend is and two i have anxiety talking to people with my concerns. That’s why i came on here to let my anger out basically. And for the whole money thing it didn’t occur to me that when my boyfriend watched his chickens, it was over the winter and we didn’t even have our chickens yet.

Ah, I see. Sorry, I was out of line.
You shouldn't have to justify yourself to a total stranger. Forgive me.