Conversation

Sorry mastodon, i feel like I need to vent.

I've mentioned here in the past that we raise back yard chickens. We've got a nice little coop I built myself, 14 hens in there, they are happy, well fed, and maintained. They repay us with lots of nice fresh eggs. The kids learn about the cycle of life, my wife enjoys caring for them, they are entertaining, and generally everyones happy.

One thing my wife likes to do, is get fertalized eggs, and hatch them at home in a small incubator she picked up. Its a really cool process, several of our chickens came into this world in this way. You always take a chance though. Being in town, chickens are ok, and lots of folks have them, but roosters are a big no-no because of the constant crowing. Well one of these eggs hatched into a rooster. So as soon as he started crowing (which is pretty much the sure-fire way to know the gender of a chicken) we put him in our garage, in a smaller coop, and started looking around for a farm or someone to take him. This wasn't going well, seems nobody wants a rooster, and if they do want one, they've already got one, and having more than one is problematic.

Back while I was building the coop, one of our neighbors (who we've always gotten along with) stopped by, and we chatted a bit about the chickens. He was super cool about it. He's generally been a nice guy, a little more hipster with his sandals and white cotton pants, but whatever, I can get along with just about anyone. I assured him we weren't planning on getting a rooster, and we'd planned to keep up with the cleanliness of the coop to make sure we didn't bother neighbors with it. He said something along the lines of "you wont have any problems from me", and seemed really happy about the idea of neighborhood chickens.

Well, That neighbor, about 3 weeks into our rooster-rehome search, approaches my father-in-law, who lives with us, but doesn't own the property, doesn't own the chickens, and generally has nothing to do with the situation. Complaining about the rooster, really agitated, says the rooster keeps him up while he's sleeping, how I'd promised we wouldn't get a rooster (which I did, but come on, we're actively trying to deal with it), and basically threatens to call the cops.

So, that night my wife and I talk about it, and the next morning I get up early, before her or the kids are up, and kill a rooster. Before you get all weird about that, I took every effort to make sure he didn't suffer. Now I've hunted since I was 12. I've harvested several deer, rabbits, squirrels, even a turkey, not to mention the numer of trout and bass ive pulled out of the local waters. But this was different, We'd raised this guy from an egg, and while we knew we had to get rid of him, none of us wanted it to be like that. Im not ashamed to say it really bothered me. All day it would hit me, how this poor guy did nothing wrong. And he was a beautiful chicken. Such a shame. It took me a week or two to really move past.

But it's done now complainey-neighbor can shut the hell up.

Well fast forward to yesterday (about 3 or 4 weeks since rooster incident). I'm out mowing my lawn, and mr. sandals and white cotton pants shouts from across the street. About "the stench". We had just opened up the coop for the spring, took the shielding off of it that we'd added for the cold winter months. Tells me his whole house smells, and how toxic it is, and how we "promised him" there would be no smell. Which i might clarify, i never said. How could I promise that? It's not possible, it's like promising he'll never smell dog poop from our dogs. After a 5-ish minute back and forth me trying to explain what we were doing that might have caused the smell, what we were doing about it, and him refusing to accept any of it. He brings up the rooster, i re-iterate that the rooster was an accident, and i had to murder the poor thing because of him, he goes on and on about how "We had a conversation" and how "I pormised him". I cut off the interaction feeling like it was going nowhere, and all I;m getting is threatened, and went back to mowing my lawn.

Why am I sharing all of this? Well i guess just because im angry, and wanted to share it, and also because im curious. Am I being a problem here? we;re doing our best, i cant find any ordinance that says we cant have chickens, and we''re making every effort to make sure we're not bothering our neighbors with this. I am generally not a confrontational guy. Now whenever I'm outside I'm looking over my shoulder to see if he's going to come accuse us of something else. Yesterday, my kids were out in the backyard playing with the hose, and the whole time, I worried that he was going to come complain about the annoying mirth of my children. (he didnt)

Anyone have a few acres in PA they want to sell cheap.

#neighbors #chickens #backyardchickens