The nerve!

[WillieBoy]

Its been my experience, alot of folk ignore signs as mentioned here.It happens on my land all the time..I would ask the people running the day care center to circulate a memo to all the kids parents.Asking to not feed the chickens...violators will be reported to police, for the ones who ignore the sign/memo...

 

[Chickenaddict]

I would have been quite upset too! My grandma is ALWAYS sending moldy bread over here for the chickens after I have told her several times they can't eat that crap. Just the other day I had the neighbors bring their small kids over to see the birds. I no sooner blinked my eye and all 3 kids were in the coop literally crawling the walls to get to the roosts, then they dove into the nests, picked up eggs and tossed them back in the nest cracking all of them open. I asked the kids to get out of the coop and that i'd give each kid an egg for each hand, and I did but on the way out of the coop each kid dropped both their eggs on the front porch! All the while mom and dad are just sitting at the picnic table like its no big deal.... The eggs in the nest inside the coop were for HATCHING! SO my point is if ya give em an inch they take a mile! Now I can't go outside without those kids peeking over the fence asking to come over to see the birds! A sign is a great idea as well as marching over to the school and having a little chat with the staff about parents and kids coming over to feed the birds.

 

[Nambroth]

Quote:
I really always prefer to politely educate people in a friendly manner, too, but this is something that scares me and I agree with. With such young kids, all you'd need is for one of them to get sick (from anything!), and the parents found out that they'd been playing with chickens... people are SO quick to jump on the notion that chickens will make you sick. I too hate to be a curmudgeon, and in a perfect world you wouldn't have to worry, but even if a young child somehow injures his or herself on your property you could get sued. It's outrageous but it happens.

A friend had a young dirt biker trespassing in his woods and run into a bit of old fence. The kid injured himself and had to get stitches (but nothing serious thank goodness). The parents sued my friend and won because the property was not 'properly posted'.

 

[mercedes]

chickensducks&agoose :

I wouldn't want anyone feeding my birds without permission... also, why is grass clippings bad? Sometimes when I visit my friend, I pull grass for her horses... how is that different?

Pulling grass for your friends horses is alright,grass clippings however can cause severe colic and founder in horses,resulting in high vet bills,possible loss of use of the horse and quite likely even death.Not to mention the chemicals and insecticides that have been used on the grass prior to cutting.Compare it to leaving anti freeze out for your dog.VERY bad idea.​

 

[Wise Woman]

I go through this all the time. I live in a tourist area and even though I am 3 miles out of the main village, they still seem to find me. I have found people putting their children into my goat pen, sitting them up on the fence to pose for pictures and I even found a lady in my chicken coop one time! Plus, they constantly come to my door and ask if they can go in the goat pen and play with the goats. I always find food in my goat pen that I didn't put there as well. All kinds of crap like cheetos and even moldy onions. I do go out and try to explain to these people, but it seems to do no good and there is always another group next week anyway. I do have a few neighbors that like to come and visit and they are respectful and have asked if they can stand at the fence and pet the goats. The goats like that and they never feed them without my permission.

We used to keep our goats and chickens on a 7 acre property and my friend had her cow and horse there. One weekend some tourists decided that her cow was too skinny (they knew nothing about how a cow should look) and fed her half a bale of hay all at once, after my friend had already given her her morning feed. The cow got very sick. It is really dangerous to let these people just do what they want.

It gets very frustrating because I do not go to the areas where they live and ask to use their pool. I would never walk onto someone's property to look at something in their yard. I am liable if they are on my property, even though they are trespassing. It isn't right, but that seems to be how the law works. If one of my animals hurts someone, I am going to get sued, even though the person broke the law and came onto my property. I will be installing no trespassing signs this summer to see if it helps. Here is what I came up with. They will be wooden, hand painted signs that say.

This is private property,
As you can plainly see.
So if you step upon this ground,
Trespassing you will be!

I will also be putting up Please do not feed the animals signs as well as do not climb on the fence signs. I am also going to put up a disclaimer sign at the spot along the fence they seem to always go to. It will say something to the effect that you have chosen to willfully trespass upon my property without my permission and that I will not be held responsible for any injuries that may occur while you are unlawfully on my property. I know that sounds mean, but I am really getting sick of them. It is only a matter of time until someone's kid falls in the pen and gets hurt or gets bitten by one of my goats or makes one of my animals sick by feeding them some crap. It just isn't right that they can just stroll onto my property and cause me problems.

This might be an idea for you too. Along the street side of my pen where people kept coming in, I planted 3 fruit trees and underneath that I filled the whole area in with raspberry and blackberry bushes. I used to have my strawberries out there, but they just trampled on them. Now they don't walk through the jaggy bushes. In the winter time, the snow berm there is too high for them to climb over. I am also thinking of adding some cute picket fencing around the berries, which will keep them away even more. It is insane that I have to have double fencing and thorny bushes to keep people at bay. I think there is a severe lack of respect these days and I for one, am not going to tolerate it any more. Hope you get your situation resolved.

 

[oegbman]

Just a thought, try going to the day care and politely explain to these folks that you dont want folks messing with your birds or disturbing them. You might also tell them if you want to schedule a set time that you can show the children around your chickens and give some feed and let them feed your birds, all small children are fascinated with chickens and it should solve your problem and in the same time you can be a good neighbor and being respectful might cause them to be more watchful when you are not at home. God bless.

 

[dewey]

Not sure if it can be or not (heaven forbid a kid or guardian falls or gets hurt while on the property in this day and age), but if the property cannot be fenced, a barrier fence around the chicken pen only might at least help keep them safe from wandering strangers.

 

[zoo357]

Signs?? You want people to read and understand that the signs were meant for them?? Does it have their name on the sign??
Seems like all the arguments I've heard....

I'm beginning to sound like my grandparents..we would have never done that when I was growing up....guess I'm older then I want to admit...

 

[kesali]

Mattemma is right about one of the kids getting sick and then the chickens get blamed. Also, one of the kids might get a good peck by a chicken. The parents probably have their attorneys on speed dial!

 

[ErinG]

Thank you for all of the support! I am still stewing over this...what if I hadn't been home? What if she had fed 5 chickens 10 pieces of moldy bread? Anyway, I was thinking of writing a letter explaining my reaction and also inviting them over for a scheduled, supervised visit. Chickenaddict makes a good point though, I don't want people around my chickens really at all, if I invite them over while I'm home, they may think it's okay later. I guess I'd rather just be seen as cranky, maybe word will spread and people will stay off our property. I will be planting a big garden soon, and have a feeling people will be helping themselves to that as well. We are currently renting, I am so anxious to have our own place. If we owned this place a fence would already be up to keep people out. We have bees as well and I always worry that someone will mess with them, get stung and blame us. I'd much rather have it all behind a fence to keep the majority of people out.