We all know that keeping our pets/animals on our property is the right thing to do but I understand until now the neighbors enjoyed their company. If he complains, he can do that, but obviously he is a problem. But, as far as the threats, you should contact the housing management and let them know he is making threats. You can explain the past situation and the opinions of all the other residents there, but let them know you will now keeps your chickens home. If it is government subsidized they would/should want to know if threats are being made. Let the others there know to complain if he is bothering them.
Good luck.
If more die, I'll call the housing manager. We have positive relations with all the neighbors, except that one. The one neighbor emphasized he was a democrat. Lol. And that he was crazy. We hear him screaming at the other neighbors quite often. These people leave the city to come to the country and complain when the country is next door.
We have tried to keep the chickens in because we knew that as times get harder if the chickens go across the street hungry people might get a chicken dinner!!! I don't know how many times we've shagged them back into the yard. So we've been working to keep them contained, but they still get loose.
But anyway, we tried fencing the chickens in a big long run last year; I took great care to 'fox proof it'. Ha. Yeah. No such thing as fox proofing. Devil killed 11 in a single morning in that run. After that I threw my hands up and said, they're going to have to run free. Missing 1 from a fox during the day is better than losing 11 in two hours! At least when they're loose they can scatter; they couldn't scatter in the run.
It's funny how chickens may be stupid but when it comes to food they're like foxes; I have no idea how they get out!
We went around yesterday and patched holes in the fencing and we still found them across the street. Oi. So we have to see where they're squeezing out. Once it warms up more we're going to be pounding new posts in and running chicken wire around the old fencing.
Just asking, because I know some jurisdictions are different...if he were to be caught in the act, what could be done? Arkansas does have "stand your ground laws." Basically if he's outside the house or he's fleeing call the pd. Inside the house or coming at me he could be doing business with the business end of a Ruger.
I'm not sure legally what could be done. We're zoned agriculture so there's not much any law enforcer could do against us, especially with 99% of the people encouraging the chickens to come to their house. But if he killed the chicken while it was
off our property, I don't know if he'd be held accountable or not. He could be, I suppose.
The other neighbors think the guys nuts. There's seagulls and all sorts of other birds that around the place; chickens are birds, what's the big deal with them, is there attitude.
But we don't want problems with any of the neighbors, so even if it's one complaint we're trying to fix the problem. I mean, regardless of the complaint, we want the chickens to stay in the yard anyway. Like I said, as times get tough, people will have chicken dinner if we can't keep them contained.
I'm really want to try loose during the day, I guess we will see how it goes.
Hope you can let them run free. Ours are goats with feathers, but I love seeing them free. You can see how much happier they are when they're free compared to being fenced in.
If you don't feed them kitchen scraps, they won't/shouldn't eat your garden. I had mine loose & they didn't bother the garden - especially if they have lots of bugs and worms to eat.
Lucky. They've always gotten into the flower beds; the vegetable garden etc. They're certain things they like more than others, though. We had to fence in mom's flower bed. Mom cried a lot last year because the chickens were destroying her flowers.
This year we'll be making more flower-bed fencing.
I agree with this for the most part. Dogs, cats, most other type of critters. But she was explaining that all the neighbors prior to this new guy enjoyed the visit of the chickens. So, no problem there. New guy doesn't like them (or is just a jerk) so now it is time to keep them contained.
Thanks for reading and understanding the situation. I think it's obvious people want to keep their animals in their yards, but some animals do have a mind of their own and when they're encouraged, it makes containment even harder.
One time we saw giddy people pointing at the chickens and taking pictures with their phone. It's rather hysterical sometimes. I went to Quest and the phlebotomist was like. . "Are you the one with the chickens?!" Apparently she sees them every morning while getting her daughter on the school bus and her daughter loves it.
They can't have animals over in their apartments so they love seeing our chickens and our cats; and our dog sometimes goes over there >.<. Lol. The little kids know his name and will go up to our dog and hug him. My cousin lives over there and has a cat (even though they're not allowed) and the cat even goes up to our dog!
Our one cat Spock lived with the neighbors for a while. Came home with a collar on. So we attached a note to the collar saying he was all up-to-date on his shots and our address. And then the neighbor sent a message back on the collar hahaha. . . .
Our animals were always the positive bridge for communication between the neighbors.
One time a mother brought her daughter to our place because she wanted to see 'Snowball'. Spock came home and was hanging out with us and so she hadn't seen her beloved
Snowball in some time so she came to visit him.
It's unfortunate that it's always that
one person who has to ruin it for others.