In
the
early
summer of 2007, we began experiencing trouble with our neighbors.
On one
side, they didn't like the crowing of our roosters. On the other
side, he
was angry because my husband would not allow him to dictate the
maintenance activities
that were to go on within the bounds of our fence line. This
neighbor was
continually after us to trim our trees up at least 20 feet and to keep
our
grounds continually raked of all ground litter. We live in a
forest. He is a retired volunteer firefighter. Being
retired, he
had lots of time on his hands, a little too much. Well, we
haven't
reached that point in our lives. We do what we can as we
can. So,
the two of these neighbors got together and decided to enter a
complaint down
at the local dog catcher's office. It was a nuisance complaint
for the
noise. Being Christians, we knew what was expected of us by our
Lord. We had to be nice in the face of this abuse. We had
to keep
our hearts pure and pray a lot to keep from being bitter and angry.
We checked the records and found that our property was zoned as
"Unclassified" and the first permitted use was "accepted farming
practices." We figured we were within our rights. However,
we
sold several birds at young ages. Most of these were cull
birds. We
sold others as potential breeders and as they were still quite young at
the
time, they were nice but we had no idea how they would turn out.
We tried
really hard to work with these neighbors. We spent a lot of money
converting our barn at the other end of the property into a "Bachelor's
Pad" for all the boy chickens. It took longer than everyone
wanted
it to. My husband had to work and so I
was left with the entire job myself. My
children helped wherever they could. We
also endured a heat wave that lasted several weeks.
At the end of a couple months and having
moved six cockerels down there, it wasn't enough. So the whole
thing went
to court.
The only thing that was considered was whether or not our roosters were
disrupting the lives of others. Well, angry neighbors exaggerate
and so
the judge sided with them. We had a “screeching Jurassic Park”
and “they crow constantly with only two seconds between volleys of
crows” and “it all starts at 3:30am and goes until well after dark”
and “it is like someone scratching a chalkboard” and “once
the sound comes in the house in the early hours of the morning, it
stays”.
Of course the judge made some really inane statements. He said
that
"farming is not agriculture" and that "raising chickens is not
farming, it is ranching." Unbelievable! As
it turned out, we lost the case. So
with a huge fine hanging over our heads as well as the threat that each
successive complaint would cause the fine to double, I was in a quandry
as to
what I could do. I was fairly certain that they couldn't make me
get rid
of all my birds so I began thinking about who I could sell my flock to
(minus a
few). I have a good friend who offered part of her garage to me
that
would fit about four roosters. However,
I was deeply depressed. I lay on my bed and just leaked
tears. I felt that the fun, most enjoyable part of my life was
coming to an end. It
was
extremely hard at this point not to be hateful toward my neighbors.
We had spoken with our County
Supervisor after a
day or
two and he informed us that most of the land around us had just been
changed to
RA., which is Residential Agriculture. I checked, again,
the
status
of the zoning of our property and found that as of January 2007, our
property
was indeed one of those which had been changed. What this means
to us is
that we ARE allowed to practice commercial agricultural activities and
that the
county will NOT consider nuisance complaints arising from operations
such as
ours. The only restriction is that we have to limit our numbers
to about 100 birds. That will be difficult come spring but that's
why we raise and sell. Either way... HALLELUJAH! Now we are
in communication with the county supervisors, planners and
counsel. They've referred us to a lawyer because they want to
re-open the case and get it reheard. They would intervene as a
"friend of the court" (whatever that means) and they say we stand a
really excellent chance of getting the judge's original findings
reversed. The fine has been paid and it would be really nice if
we could get that money back as well. For the future, the
sheriff's department which is responsible for Animal Control has been
referred to the County Counsel and they have told them to lay off of us
if they get any further complaints, while this is being handled.
We are so very thankful. The Lord has won the war for us and it
was all
done before we even got the first complaint. We figure, and so do
others,
that He let it happen this way to show us our hearts. We did
struggle
quite a bit to keep from being hateful in return. We were very
angry and
pleading with God to help us with our hearts and attitudes. But
THANK
GOD, that's all over; at least this part of it.
The neighbors have sworn that they would drive us away. They
promise to
be a real pain in the neck. Who knows what they'll do but as of
right
now, I and my children can keep our birds!
I am so happy I could just burst!
Life is a pleasure again. I never
ever thought that I would become so attached to a flock of chickens
like I
have. But I have spent the last two and
a half years studying up on them. We’ve
had two hatching seasons and watched all those babies grow up. We’ve suffered heart ache as some of
them were lost to Marek’s Disease or some
other
malady. Of
course, many of these were
very promising youngsters. Out of
perhaps 20 hatchlings that made it to about 5 months of age, I had four
left. These losses were to Marek’s. This
year, I’m ahead of that game and have taken care of it before it could
strike. I have spent the last two and a
half years studying up on nutrition and how to get them healthier. My birds are totally confined and so are
suffering from some nutritional deficiencies.
Bagged food these days just doesn’t fit the bill.
They only put in enough to keep the birds
alive. But that’s my soap
box. I’ll get down now and just
close with this. I am so happy and
pleased that the Lord has seen fit to fix this for us and I want to be
very careful to give him the glory. This hasn't happened because
of anything that we have done, other than ask, and all that did was
show us what He had already done.
He doesn’t expect us to always be
perfect because we are only human. He
does expect us to do our level best to live like he wants us to. The rest, he will take care of.
