Transitioning from roofed to roofless run

[humblehillsfarm]

He just doesn't want them there because he doesn't want them there.

It’s amazing how far people will go to be angry over something just for the sake of being angry.

 

[K0k0shka]

Sorry to hear about this. Our town in the Boston area is a bit more chicken tolerant.
Could you fashion a large table in the run abutting the coop. Not ideal, but would give a few more covered square feet to be out. A couple pallets on the ends and one in the middle with a sheet of plywood. Or some long boards. I just ripped down an old deck. Got some salvageable deck boards. Free for the taking.

That and hope the PITA neighbor moves.

The town is actually great. They are really trying to work with me, and they are very lenient about chickens. It's the neighbor that's the problem, and unfortunately there's no getting rid of him because he just bought the property a few months ago So he moved into this chicken-friendly area and is now pushing the town to actually change its rules and make chickens harder to keep. We just had a town meeting about this last night (third or fourth town meeting to discuss chickens, in fact). In a year when there's so much going on, especially COVID which is also on the Health Department's plate, he's wasting Health Department resources on 5 chickens.

 

[K0k0shka]

It’s amazing how far people will go to be angry over something just for the sake of being angry.

Yep. Entitled. If that's his biggest problem right now, he must have a really nice life. Also, he just recently moved here, into a town with long-standing chicken traditions, and wants to change the rules. This is happening elsewhere in the town, too. Another agenda item last night was a property that has always had horses, had a new neighbor move in who is now complaining about the horses and asking for more restrictions

 

[black_cat]

Is the problem SEEING the coop? Could you put up some sort of fence or wall? Maybe the 'out of sight, out of mind' would work?

 

[Sally PB]

Gee willy wonkers, what an a-hole. Can you get together with any of your other neighbors to combat this? If he moved in, geez-o-friday, didn't he know what he was getting into?!?

 

[Folly's place]

I'll bet his previous neighbors are SO glad he's gone! Too bad he moved next to you though.
What do the inspectors say about re-arranging your run location, just enough?
LOVE folks who move in and want things changed, just for them!
Living in the boondocks is the best, BTW.
Mary

 

[K0k0shka]

Is the problem SEEING the coop? Could you put up some sort of fence or wall? Maybe the 'out of sight, out of mind' would work?

I put a 6-foot-tall privacy fence between us, so he can't actually see the chickens from his yard. But he can see them from the second floor of his house, and apparently that's too much. He wants "a nice view" out his bedroom window. Well I can see two blocks out from my second floor, but that doesn't mean I can dictate what people put on their property just because I can see it. If he wants to look out from the roof of his house and see tree tops and meadows, he should've moved to the woods.

 

[K0k0shka]

Gee willy wonkers, what an a-hole. Can you get together with any of your other neighbors to combat this? If he moved in, geez-o-friday, didn't he know what he was getting into?!?

He's pushing the town to change the rules and make chickens harder to keep. So I rallied a bunch of other chicken keepers and the Health Department (whose rules he's trying to change) was absolutely flooded with letters of support from my army. They showed up at the (virtual) town meeting last night and bulldozed him. The HD has spent the summer rewriting the rules to make it perfectly clear that chickens are not regulated, and now he's throwing a fit. The Board of Health is set to vote next week to accept the rule revisions (that make it clear chickens are not to be regulated). So I'll be biting my nails for another week and hope they pass it.

He knew about the chickens when he moved in, and was actually fine with them for a while. Then something happened and he changed course completely. I never found out what (nothing on my end). At the town meetings, he denied that he was ever okay with it, effectively calling me a liar. I have no idea what happened, but he has ruined my summer (and fall).

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Living in the boondocks is the best, BTW.
Mary

The best way to live

 

[K0k0shka]

I'll bet his previous neighbors are SO glad he's gone! Too bad he moved next to you though.
What do the inspectors say about re-arranging your run location, just enough?
LOVE folks who move in and want things changed, just for them!
Living in the boondocks is the best, BTW.
Mary

I don't have the room to re-arrange much, because there's too much stuff in the way (a large raised garden, fences, etc. I already moved the coop out to 9 feet from the property line, and it complies with zoning, with the roof off the run the run will comply too, because without a roof, it's just a fence and fences are not regulated. But the neighbor wants 150 feet, and I just don't have that much yard.