UPDATE: Homesteader confronts 70-year-old neighbor who doesn't want chickens freeroaming in her yard: 'Y'all, I'm putting up the fence'

A homesteader vented about their neighbor's request, expecting sympathetic ears, and instead…

….They only got critiques of their homekeeping etiquette. 

If you lived somewhere rural and had plenty of space, maybe you wouldn't mind your neighbor's livestock wandering around your yard, too. While many (most!) people keep their animals in some kind of cage, this person doesn't. Their freerange chickens are for real free to wander where ever they choose. 

The person who used to be their neighbor didn't mind this. Maybe they were just used to it, or they liked seeing the chickens pecking around at their lawn. For whatever reason, it wasn't an issue. 

But now, an older woman has moved in, and she sees things differently. 

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  • Elderly neighbor distressed by chickens free-roaming her yard.
    via Getty Images

    Elderly neighbor distressed by chickens free-roaming her yard.

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Just a grumble. Advice, sympathy, whatever welcome. New neighbor moved in and wants me to contain my free range chickens.

    New neighbor moved in and wants me to contain my free range chickens. > I moved to a very remote cottage in 2014.
    via W473R
  • The only 'neighbors' were weekenders and the folks across the street actively enjoyed when my chickens came to browse their yard.
    via W473R
  • The older lady loved feeding them, and the guy didn't care as they were only down a few times a year.
    via W473R
  • > Six months ago a 70 year old woman bought the cabin and moved in full time.
    via W473R
  • It's a rough area and she's been adjusting to a lot... bad roads, her dogs met a porcupine, regular power interruptions, etc.
    via W473R
  • > Now she insists I keep my hens off her property because her dogs bark at them through the fence she put up.
    via W473R
  • > I guess I can't argue (please let me know if you think I should). > It's going to take me a few weeks to save up the money to build a run, but I've had free range hens for 12 years.
    via W473R
  • In addition to the fence, my feed bill will now increase. > I'm sure she isn't going to make it out here, so would rather just wait her out until she moves, but in the meantime...
    via W473R

  • People did NOT give this person the sympathetic ear they were anticipating

    justconnor209 Sounds like you had a good 12 year run before needing to make a reasonable accommodation for a neighbor
    via justconnor209

    Instead, they started asking common sense questions like: Why haven't your chickens had a place to be cooped up before this? 

    Plus, this woman has a dog! A dog might treat chickens nicely, but it's awfully presumptuous to think that it might not also see them as fun feathery toys. 

  • ell... My chickens free range in my fenced back yard. I don't contain them in a run. That means there is chicken everywhere. They are excellent at catching bugs. but man, every patch of dirt that I haven't put protection around is scratched to heck.
    via ellensu*dies
  • If my neighbors chickens were roaming all over my front yard I'd be ped. I do need at least one free zone, and a bit of grass that stays grassy.
    via ellensu*dies

  • This person has a great point too

    rshining You should always have been prepared to keep your chickens confined in some way. If they can reach a neighbors property, the appropriate action is to assume they should be staying home and adjust
    via rshining

    This is for the safety of everyone involved, both humans and feathered friends. 

  • accordingly (put up your own fence, plant a thick hedge, build a run, use tractors, just train them to stay home).
    via rshining
  • Necessary_Occas... You'd want people to keep their animals and livestock off your property. Have a reasonable conversation with her about how you'll correct the situation.
    via Necessary_Occasion77

  • Here's the update! As you can imagine, they were expecting sympathy and got very little of that, so they pretty fed up with it by the time they came in to share the changes they'll be implementing

    grumble grumble grumble. > Edit... ya'll, I'm putting up the fence. I can't imagine no one else has had the experience of a new neighbor changing things in a way you'd rather it not change.
    via W473R
  • Pardon me for thinking I'd find understanding and companionship in my adjustment. Yeesh. > Edit 2.
    via W473R

  • Hopefully in time, this person will understand why there was such a rush to defend the elderly neighbor

    I am grateful for the DMs and comments showing empathy and compassion. The rest of you, good luck.
    via W473R

    You're responsible for your own property, and you've got to keep things to yourself. Your chickens are your own property, so even though they may love to wander, they'll have to roam at home for the time being. And who knows, maybe that neighbor will move out in a few years, and someone more permitting will move in again. In that case, they'll still have their chicken-containing infrastructure set up, no harm, no fowl. 

  • I am newish to reddit and will be showing myself out based on my experience here.
    via W473R
  • I'll leave this up and maybe - just maybe - some of you will revisit your comments and undertake some self reflection on your proclivity to assume the worst and join in on a dog pile when someone is looking to share feelings about a difficult situation.
    via W473R
  • > May others treat you better than you've treated me. Good bye. > Edit3, just because why not...
    via W473R
  • again, thanks for the continued DMs and positive comments to those who possess the ability to think independent of the mob.
    via W473R
  • > Sorry, I didn't provide a lot of context because the other stories I could tell about her choices and her knowledge of what she was getting into would be too many.
    via W473R
  • > She hasn't quite been a nuisance (although she did knock on my door with a flashlight at 3am one morning to ask me to help her deal with porcupine quills in her dog's mouth....
    via W473R
  • uh, no, go to the emergency vet) and hasn't quite been unfriendly (although she has avoided all the invitations I've given her to get to know one another over tea) and hasn't made too many changes that effect me (except for the big bright led flood light that now shines in my front windows when she lets the dogs out at 2am and refusing to NOT burn her garbage) but I have real concerns over how well she thought through buying this place sight-unseen (again at the de d end of a seasonal northeaste
    via W473R
  • > I could also have told you all how I moved out here years ago for quiet and solitude after experiencing some heavy sh during military service that deeply impacted me, and how the loss of my solitude was actually quite a shift for me.
    via W473R
  • > Sure, I could have provided the context above and acknowledged how that made the very reasonable request she made just one more thing to deal with, but I was trying to be generous to her and measured in my complaints by not piling on all the various ways I am keeping my calm amidst these changes and just focusing on how much my girls are going to now have to be penned up when I love them and enjoy watching them dustbathe and browse and feed in freedom.
    via W473R
  • > I really want to be good neighbors with her and have adjusted quite a bit to her being here.
    via W473R
  • I also love my hens and the loss of their freedom on top of the other adjustments I've made was just a bit much in the moment it happened.
    via W473R
  • > I have an order with Premier1 already placed and am doing the deed, as I was always going to do.
    via W473R
  • The issue was frustration and sadness, not annoyance or entitlement. > So yeah. when I came here looking for sympathy I could have explained all of this, but I'm trying NOT to dwell on the whole, even though that would have provided more context for my feelings.
    via W473R
  • Backyard chickens wander freely around a grassy lawn.
    via Missy Lynn Arts

    Backyard chickens wander freely around a grassy lawn. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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