# Neighbor!! (Rant warning!)



## Spear (May 8, 2016)

I have ONE neighbor who will put up a fuss about ANYTHING! 
I would understand if she was an old lady who had nothing to do all day but complain however she is about my age or younger. She is a teacher and lives in the apartment directly below mine. 

1st it was my bees - I had to move them.
2nd it was my 'killer' dog - I fought her on that and won.
Now it is (you guessed it) my hens! 
She is claiming that their LOUD clucking wakes her at 5am and that their stink is keeping her out of her garden - that she never uses anyway. 
I'm awake every morning at 5am to take my 'killer' dog for his walk (have to leave home at 6am to get to work on time) and the worst noise from my hens is their greeting calls when they see me come through the back door. 
I have spoken to the people who live in the building directly behind and above - we live on a hill - my garden and asked them if my hens bother them in anyway, as they like to have breakfast in their garden that is not even 30cm away from my hen house (due to the slope they sit almost directly above the hen house), and say that they rather enjoy watching the feather butts scratching and playing in the garden. Their bedroom window also faces my garden and report that never have they been woken by my hens at 5am but like clockwork one of the hens does stand on the log in the middle of my garden at 10:30ish and sing her eggs song which they find amusing.

In response to the letter that my complaining neighbor wrote to me, I wrote her a sweet letter back that basically smashed - in a nice way - all her complaints about noise, stink and pests that will be attracted by the hens (I clean the hen house every morning after taking my dog out and clean up any poops on the stones in front of the garden house every evening, so there is nothing to stink and attract pests) and I offered to share my fresh eggs with her. This letter and a printout from a website on the laws regarding the keeping of chickens in an urban area, I put on her door step with a basket of 3 lovely fresh eggs. This morning I find the basket of eggs halfway up the stairs to my apartment - she is even too lazy to bring them all the way up the 1 flight of stairs! I think her reasoning for not accepting the eggs is that if she accepts the eggs she is admitting defeat...

Oh and one of the people living in the house behind my garden - not couple I spoke to - only discovered that I had hens yesterday and he thinks it's great! I have had my 6 hens since 8 May 2016 and they have only been free ranging since 26 May 2016.


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## havasu (Jun 21, 2012)

Please help me. You say you live upstairs? In an apartment? You had bees? You now have chickens? You have free range chickens? Killer dog? 

Umm, what am I missing?


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Yea, what kind of apartment allows hens ?

There's always one whack a do that's just plain bitter about life in general and wants everyone else to dump their happiness out the window. If you're allowed to have hens, there shouldn't be a problem. If some agency comes to inspect, and you clean up all the time, there's nothing she can do. Hen egg songs? Really minor compared to dogs barking and people screaming.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

Good lord - some people are just born to complain. And some people just hate animals. They must have miserable lives because I can't see too many humans wanting to hang around them either! 

The last neighborhood I lived in sent out the chicken gestapo to find who had chickens (they could hear them but they didn't know who it was. I had them for two years... hens.) Apparently I was in the only neighborhood in town which could not have any live stock and they had already evicted someone's pet goat which he had for four years. We moved out but I still drive by there and there is this house at the end of the stret that was built before the rest of the neighborhood which I knew they were harassing. Someone built a barn and a paddock and had two horses that were there for six months before disappearing, after the neighbors kept complaining about "the eyesore" -- how a barn that matches the house is an eye sore is beyond me. Every new person who moved in didn't stay there long.. this final woman was insistent on having livestock - had a huge battle. I think she proved her house wasn't part of the no livestock zone because now she's got two cows out there. I want to knock on her door and thank her... 

Similarly I met a guy at the feed store who had 40 chickens for a decade or so before someone ratted him out. The weekend after he was forced to get rid of them he brought home a calf out of spite. Sent the poor dog officer into a tangent...


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

People can $uck. They can't just mind their own business and go their way. No they have to spy on the neighbors and make people miserable. I'm not allowed to have roos but I have 9. 7 are silkies, LOL. But if they go these pigeon people should look out. There are hundreds of pigeon owners in this area. But I have a cop on one side and he's got a young family, and this Puerto Rican family in a big fancy house on the other. And I've kept him supplied with chickens here and there.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I think Spear might live in another country. 

Ignore her. Don't give her anything to use against you. Ask the neighbors that like your hens if they would support you or provide something in writing.

This is why I like living in the country. The neighbors are not close enough to give me grief and if they tried, me appearing at the door with a shotgun would get the point across.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Don't even get ME started on the neighbors...


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Ah I forgot to mention that I live in Germany LOL

I have a 'Huge' garden available to me because my mother owns the apartment that I live in and the one next to mine. The tenants that live in the other apartment don't want to use their garden and one of the other owners has given us his garden so technically I have 3 gardens. 
I'll post pics of my set up later, right now I have to feed my son and take my 'killer' dog out for his walk....


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## havasu (Jun 21, 2012)

I'd like to see pics of your killer dog as well!


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Here are 3 of my Ladies scratching some nice loose dirt from where I pulled up some weeds,


Just a cute pic,


If you look caefully you can see the fence separating my garden from my neighbors garden, 


A closer look at the setup, the roof I added today,


Bonus: My 'Killer' dog and my 5 year old son,


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You said something some where here that led me to think you were not in the US. It might have even been the garden set up you have living in an apartment.

The son and the dog make quite a team. The killer dog and the armed boy. Not a combo to mess with.

BTW, if you didn't have the birds or the dog the problem neighbor would be complaining about the son. That's how those people roll. And she won't move out, if she did she'd have to find new neighbors to harass.


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Well I have 2 boys, the youngest is 5 and the other is 14. I'm a single mom and work odd hours so my 5 year old lives with my mother or the neighbor would have something to complain about there! 
And there is NO way neighbor lady will move out since she owns the apartment she is living in and one more in this same building!

There are 6 apartments in this building and 4 owners (only 2 of the apartments are occupied by tenants the rest by owners). There is more drama here than in any soapy ever made! So I try keeping out of it by just being nice to everyone and doing as I please - within reason of course like for e.g. I will never get a rooster because that will just really provoke everyone...


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Where in Germany do you live? If your mother owns your apartment, does she know about the neighbor? 
I like what Robin said. Ignore her. Some people aren't happy unless everyone else is unhappy.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

Yeah, I go with the advice of trying to ignore her. Love your 'killer dog' and your chicks. Cute boy too!


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

You have three gardens?? Wow... you must be so lucky! I know how scarce land is out that way. What a cute set up and I also love the killer dog and his killer handler.


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## Cockadoodledoo (Jan 28, 2016)

I'm just waiting for my complaint. I moved so I could have chickens again. There are 2 lots in my residential neighborhood that are 1/2 acre (one is mine) and are allowed 50 chickens with no restrictions on roosters. However, nuisance complaints are handled seperatly. So, basically, if someone hears or smells something they don't like...I may hear about it. We've decided we would move again if that happens.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Yes I remember one place I lived in Germany there were always nosy people ready to pounce on anyone not doing things the right way. Our landlady was pretty staunchy and we kept our distance.


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Well here's a quick update i anyone is still interested:

My complaining neighbor actually got a lawyer to send me a letter.
In this letter is said that I have until 21 June 2016 to remove my chicken breeding operation from my garden or he (the lawyer) has advised his client to take the matter farther. The noise and stink of the chickens is making her lie a living hell - she can't sleep at night because of the stink of chickens blowing into her bedroom windows and she is woken every morning by the LOUD cackling o my chickens. Since she did send me a letter before warning that she will take the matter to a lawyer if I did not remove the chickens and I reused I now have to carry the costs of the lawyer - over 400€.

I then wrote a polite email to the lawyer informing him that I have no chicken breeding operation in my garden since to breed with chickens I would need to have at least 1 rooster and I only have 6 hens, and I will not remove them until I have proof that they are really a nuisance. I also attached a link to a short video of my hens scratching peacefully in my garden. So far I have had no reply.

Yesterday I had to luck to encounter another of my neighbors that live in the house in the parallel street whos garden backs up onto mine. I asked if my chickens disturb them in any way - the loud cackling early in the morning and the HORRIBLE stink wafting from my garden - They laughed and said that they rather enjoy having the hens around and spend time watching them everyday and have not noticed any stink. He said that at one time he had chickens himself and the people who had my garden before me (they had moved out about 2 years before I moved in) had rabbits and when they cleaned the rabbit hutches they would spread the 'compost' in the garden, which accounts for the extreme fertility of the soil and the wild weed growth. Anyway I told them of the lawyers letter and they said that I should not worry and that there is nothing that she (complaining neighbor) can do and I don't have to pay the lawyer sine I did not employ him. At the conclusion of the conversation I gave the eggs that I had just collected since I still had 4 eggs in the fridge from earlier in the week.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I don't know German law but I would be checking to see if any of the neighbors are willing to vouch for your setup and its condition. 

If zoning allows for the keeping of chickens I just don't know if she has a leg to stand on. But we're still talking Germany and not the US.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Sometimes lawyers send letters just to collect a check from the client.


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## Spear (May 8, 2016)

Nm156 said:


> Sometimes lawyers send letters just to collect a check from the client.


The thing is this lawyer is trying to collect a check from me! 
Surely that can't be allowed since I'm not the one who hired him in the first place!?


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Turn him in to whatever lawyer board type thing you have.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

A bill from the lawyer? Well, maybe you should see that as the lawyer asking for a bribe! If you are allowed chickens, there is not much she can do. She would have to prove that her statements are true. I do not see how you can lose anything.


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