Vent.. neighbor doesn't want my chickens on her back lawn.

[freemotion]

Be sure to check with your town. Here, a lot of towns have rules about fences, such as the back needs to face your property, the pretty side faces the neighbors. Or it needs to be at least 6 inches from the property line. Etc, etc, etc.

Don't give her another reason to complain. She sounds like she is under stress and taking it out on you. Too bad. Maybe she will come around eventually.....

 

[Jennyhaschicks]

Quote:
Yes, I know about those laws. I am not sure if they apply here in Maine though. I just started a new thread about what sort of fencing to put up. We don't have a TON of money to put up a goregous 6 foot fence. With their new house I am sure they would want that. It's going to put them in a weird spot too because they one acre would now be boxed in. Our property borders ALL around them. Honestly if I were them I wouldn't want to be boxed in, but what other choice do I have? She made it clear they don't want a fence???

 

[what was i thinking]

we have fairly new neighbors. i think it was june or july. they have a two yr old very expensive house. i got chickens about a month after they moved in. i free range my chickens and have spoke to them several times about them and about my roosters. i bring them eggs every couple weeks. (don't have too many right now). they go in there back wooded piece so they really aren't bothering anybody and you can't see them thru the weeds any ways. but sometimes they get bold and go right up to their house. which i have appoligized. they said they didn't mind because they were eating up all the bugs. i explained they would mind when they found there landscaping outfront. i throw them scratch most of the time when i catch them out there. well they had about 15 people come and stay a couple days for thanksgiving. i did my best to keep the chickens out of there yard. the company must have had quite the conversation with thirty chickens running in there back yard. any way just saying some neighbors can get along. but i also know a fence is always a possibility when the novelty wears off. good luck

 

[BeckyLa]

I understand, but I would still look into the laws and find out. If it does apply, get a copy and present it to her just to see what her attitude is. If she reeeaaaly doesn't want a fence, then she must agree to quit complaining. And to not chasing your chickens. This way the choice is up to her. If all else fails, I'd go with 6' board privacy fence, even if you have to make payments, and tell her that up front. If she doesn't want that then she'll have to quit complaining and causing trouble. imho

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

It's a cruddy situation. I hate having neighbors just because it gives the chance for things to happen. I have 3 good neighbors out of the 4 that I have but that one bad fourth one has been a real doozie.
A month after we moved in we were outside playing tag with our kids and all of a sudden our neighbors marched out of the woods and right onto our property and we thought they were going to introduce themselves, well in a way they were, by telling us "We moved out here to get away from Kids and Animals, and we are quiet people, we don't think this is going to work for you or us. We hate kids (said looking right at our children)."
Then she went on to ask "Don't your kids go to school?!" To which I told her that we homeschool. To which she replied "Wow the _____ (insert last name of sellers/landlords) must really hate us!" She had NO clue that they had SOLD the farm! When we told we that we had bought the place she had the cahones to tell us that we were lying and that we were renting (the place had been rented for years to various people before we moved in and it was a private sale. When we corrected her she said "We'll see about that!" and stormed off to literally call our seller who also lives on the same road and has lived here for over 25 years.
Apprently they said some really nasty and disturbing things on my sellers answering machine and she called them back and told them that yes, indeed we had bought the place and that we were a nice family who was going to be here for a long time.

They have been rotten. They have called police on us, Child Services, Animal Control, lied to other neighbors about us, etc. All on absolute rubbish. We have gotten so used to strangers knocking on our door. We finally had to file a harassment claim with our local PD. And thankfully things have been quiet since.
Now we don't think they're going to be here much longer. A new McMansion just went up on the other side of them and the new people did alot of clearing, so now these uber private people are smack in the middle of two families with kids and animals who can see their every move in their yard. The new people have noisy teenagers, a little yipping dog that gets left out all the time, and they ride their ATV's through the woods. Before we moved in they were ruining my other neighbors life as well, they have 2 kids and it got so bad that restraining orders got involved and court appearences, they would leave notes on my nice neighbors door telling them that if their kids didn't shut up they would burn their house down and murder their pets. There is something seriously wrong with them. We are not loud people and we keep to ourselves for the most part. It's not like we blast music and have parties and things.
Hopefully they have had enough and just pack up and leave. People come out here for agriculture and things, if you want to get away from animals and kids then get a ritzy city loft or move WAY out to the middle of nowhere on a 100 acres or whatnot.

Karma baby, KARMA!

I would put up the fence. You know what they say right? All good things must come to an end? Always remember that it could be worse!

 

[Trollkiller]

Quote:
It's just that all of a sudden she is having a fit. For years we have let them mow our lawn and use it. Their dog and kids have come over here and rode their dirt bike. The dog is hooked now because he's old. They put their old rusty dumpster in our field and left it. We un-tangle their dog constantly during the day when he gets his chain stuck. We listen to him bark when they are gone. We feed their animals when they go on many trips through out the year.
I guess I thought when you have neighbors you kinda take the good with the bad. Right?
Our chickens only go over there once in a great while and don't stay long. Either that they use part of their property to get over to our part.

STOP letting them use your yard. They are attempting to expand their property by squatter's rights. The longer you allow that run to remain on your property the stronger their claim will be to that land.

Do yourself a favor, fence off your property.

 

[FrChuckW]

It is unfortunate that things turn like this between neighbors. As has already been said, good fences make good neighbors.

As far as fences go, you can do the standard chainlink and post, you can also due the privacy fence or a post and rail system. Or another one would be the horse rail type fencing and then put chicken wire on the inside of the fence to keep your animals on your side of the fence.

No matter what type of fence you decide to put up as long as it is on your property and not on any easements between the two she can't say anything about it. Then plant some fast growing trees or fruit bearing trees along the fence as an added screening. If you plant fruit bearing trees plant them about 10 feet from the fence so she can't complain about the fruit falling on her property. You can also plant shrubs like a privet hedge or get some arbor vitae that grow tall and narrow along the fence. Plant hollyhocks or rambling roses along the fence once it is installed. Another plant would be holly bushes along the fence.

You can also use the fence to support various berry type plants. The fruit trees and berry bushes will provide you with additional food items and the chickens will eat the bugs around them and any fruit that falls to the ground. So will the hogs once the trees are mature and producing fruit.

Definitely get their dog run off your property for your own peace of mind and less chance of liability. Because of my neighbors I have bushes on one side of the yard to provide screening because of their dogs barking everytime I was out in my yard or my dogs were out. While I get along with my nieghbors for the most part, there are a couple who are just plain miserable who just moved in. Lucky for the rest of us they are only renting the property and they will not be allowed to renew their lease. The rest of my neighbors are mostly related to each other in one way or another and we all help each other out when needed.

But like my daddy always told me when building a fence, make it horse high, hog tight and bull strong!.

And some people are just miserable their whole lives.

 

[LynneP]

Jenny, I think you're going to be forced to build some kind of run, if you don't get to it before they complain officially. We live out in the country, but there are a lot of folks who are not as tolerant as country people used to be. A BYC member lives near us and is trying to get a coop and some birds, but she has the planet's nastiest neighbor. Everyone in the area detests him, but if she has chickens and/or a coop within 150' of his property line he can have them seized.

We happen to have a fantastic neighbor on one side- she and her SO have dogs, but they stay on their land and she is tolerant about out pasture and pond. If one of her dogs were to get out, I'd help to get it back to her and she would help if my old horse were in trouble. We're not even chummy, just respectful of each other's need to live where we can have pets and livestock.

We're also zoned agricultural. We don't free range though, because of predator and biosecurity issues. In January 2009 new regs will affect home flocks, and I wouldn't be surprised to see such changes in your country, either. The plain truth is that if a complaint is filed your municipality is compelled to act, and unless your birds are in 100% compliance, things could turn very nasty. Sorry...

 

[freemotion]

A friend of mine with 17 acres let a neighbor use part for his sheep for several years, no charge. Then the neighbor got a divorce and put a for sale sign on my friend's field!!! My friend had to get a lawyer and spend some stressful and expensive months fighting for his own property!!!

 

[Jennyhaschicks]

Quote:
Why would I be forced to build them a run if I can put a fence around my property to keep my chickens in? As long as I am sure to follow all laws about fences and such I wouldn't think it would be a further issue.

eta this could turn nasty. The part of our lawn they mow was dug up this summer when they put drainage pipes in to the ground for their new house.

Their drainage pipes are in our property. We didn't complain then...