the Neighbors

[tdgill]

Quote:
Its called being polite. Especially if you are going to be five feet from them. Cramped in the city and having chickens can be a lot different than being in the burbs or in the country.

They never said for sure what the five feet was all about. They said "suburban", not "urban", but we'll need clarification about the distance between the coop and the neighbor's house. Still, no one asked me if they could get another dog that barks all night or another cat that rips open my garbage bags at night so to me, or if they could do target practice at 11 p.m., it has nothing to do with being polite, IMO. Unless you are going to back off your decision to get a couple of hens when they tell you that they think chickens are filthy, disgusting creatures, then why ask, really? Guess I'm not an nice person, then, because if it was entirely legal and I knew I was going to keep up with the maintenance, I would never ask the neighbors. But, that's just me, I suppose. Why are my rights less than theirs because it involves a chicken or three, is the way I look at it.

All that said, I'd locate a coop as far from all neighbors as possible. Just know that hens do make noise and sometimes, lots of it!

yeah, what she said. Although I'm not even sure if I'd worry about locating the coop as far away as possible! lol.
and I love this - "Sometimes it is better to ask forgiveness than ask permission!"

 

[Over Easy in Adna]

I have to disagree with the "better to ask forgiveness than permission" thing.......

If it is legal to have chickens, why even ask for forgiveness?

 

[tdgill]

lol. If it came down to that - that is. As a way of a peace offering. But still having your way. Or at least to be able to hear your neighbor say, "oh that's alright. They don't bother me. I think they're rather neat" or something along those lines

 

[LittleFeat]

I see this as more an issue of just being courteous and trying to ease the neighbors' possible fears as to what's going on. I understand the idea of why ask when people don't ask about getting a dog or cat. I definitely know I've had tremendous amounts of problems with neighbors' dogs and cats and for that matter very noisy kids. BUT those are all fairly accepted practices for out society. People don't regularly think about asking or informing their neighbors that they plan to build a playhouse or get a dog.

Building a coop and having chickens is a fairly new occurence for the suburban/urban setting and there are a lot of negative ideas about just what keeping chickens entails. We've all seen and smelled the filty farms. But how many remember seeing fancy clean chicken coops behind very well kept manicured suburban homes. It's a mindset that time and education will change but for now, I think the OP is just being considerate to let her neighbors know her intentions.

 

[tdgill]

my worry would be how the conversation might go after you ask - or inform of your intentions. It seems to give the neighbor more leverage and opportunity to voice their opinion since you don't already HAVE the chickens. Like they might be able to discourage you. You're giving them the opportunity to. I mean, after you have them - its more like what's done is done so why bother opening up a can of worms. (unless its to feed the chickens! lol)
ps: I've never smelled a filthy farm. Manure is a good thing. lol. Its just a little strong when they are fertilizing the field. hahahah.

 

[All about the EGG]

Quote:
Thats what I was trying to say...you just said it better than I could. Thanks.

 

[tdgill]

I could be considerate and courteous and tell you that I'm going to hit you with a brick....

but I'd rather just catch you by surprise and make it count!

how's that for courtesy? lol

 

[LittleFeat]

I'm beginning to see why some of you have so much trouble with your neighbors!!

 

[tdgill]

actually I'm doing just fine with my neighbors. And two roosters to boot!

 

[PineappleMama]

Donno about the ins and outs of your area, but it sounds to me like you handled things in just the right way for your situation. Best of luck with your new babies and the neighbors too.

It's legal to have four in our city, so I've no plans to talk to my neighbors beforehand. 1 neighbor should never even see them, since their pen will be on the other side of the house from them. 2 On the pen side there's no one there at the moment To Ask. 3 is the lady behind us. We spoke to her once, when she was going to have her part of the fence fixed and wanted to make sure our dogs were penned. *shrug* Not exactly a block party kind of street.

But, besides those reasons... like the others said, if they don't need permission to get a cat who'll poo on my front stoop, or worse still in my veggie/herb garden (URK!) then I don't need permission to get a bird that will poo only on my property. Their cat sits on the fence yowling in the hopes of summoning a mate, which of course sets off every dang dog in a three mile radius... fowl cluck or quack... noise wise I'm thinking the cat/dog is worse and the poo is certainly bigger and much less useful. But lastly of course is that should you breed your fowl (not chickens since roos are banned) then you get little ducks or chicks that can be sold or worse case eaten. Not a basketful of unwanted pets that will either end up in the pound OR keep those pound animals from being adopted because a free kitten is cheaper than the adoption (and mandatory spay) fees that the state/city require. The Libertarian in me just screams Fooey on That! So long as my actions have no (negative) effect on you, then you have no reason whatsoever to try and poke your nose into my property.