Susan, I am with you all the way. Every single day we lose our freedom because of complainers and big babies. I used to have chickens and a rooster while raising our daughter for the same reasons as you. One neighbor came over and even expressed her pleasure with hearing our rooster at 5:30 AM. She absolutely loved it! However, thats the way it is. Some idiot minority gets upset and every one suffers. Now that you live in Wildwood you will probably lose. When government gets involved you are in deep do do. I hope they don’t give you a prison sentence, although it wouldn’t surprise me.

I can sympathize with your situation.We had an idiot neighbor whose house was 300 plus feet from ours who liked to call the sheriff when our dogs barked.Problem was,he’d complain when the dogs hadn’t been out 10 minutes,it was early evening, or they weren’t even our dogs who were barking.The cops finally told him to lay off or we would pursue harassment charges,as we not breaking any laws, along with the neighbor across the road who was being harassed by this joker,too.It seems there is always one neighbor who is mad at the world and wants to take it out on everyone.

We also have about 2 dozen hens and 2 roosters(we have had good luck when roosters are raised together),and there is a new subdivision going in across the street, so I imagine it is only a matter of time before someone complains about ours.Surprisingly, the guy who complained about the dogs never said a word about the roosters.Fortunately for us,though, we are zoned for livestock and have 3 acres, so my response will be “BUMMER,don’t like farm animals, should not have bought in a predominately rural area if you wanted city living.” I’m kind of tempted to get a pair of geese to do bug patrol in our horse pasture(we have horses,too), as well as to deter potential trespassers-geeses can be scary.Our current neighbors are either neutral about the roosters or actually like to hear the occassional crow, plus they enjoy our surplus eggs.

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is about an occassional crowing rooster,I’d much rather hear that than a LOUD muffler,but I wonder if “de-crowing”,like debarking a dog, would be a last resort option instead of killing the bird.I am not endorsing any procedure like this,if it is even possible(I don’t know,I have never heard of anyone needing to do it),but if it means you could keep your pet….Alternatively, maybe the Humane Society would take him to rehome-they have Longmeadow Farm(I think that is the name)for farm animals that need homes.Maybe getting your neighbors to sign a petition would override the one crabby jerk.Good luck,Susan, with keeping your rooster.Just seems to me the government should have bigger things to worry about.If the rooster was aggressive and running loose terrorizing people, it would be a different story.

Going green, what the heck is a city girl from the Velt doing raising chickens? You marry you a farm boy?

Don’t be too quick to think just because you are zoned for livestock that it will last forever. They shut down a decades long pig farm in NSTL county awhile back because all the brand spanking new subdivision dwellers raised enough stink, pun intended.

Amazed,

I was always more of a country girl at heart,crazy for horses,and fortunately my husband shared that dream,and we were lucky enough to find a place close enough for commuting but far enough out to be happy.Unfortunately he wasn’t a farm boy, so we had a lot of learning to do.I do understand your point, but we are in an area of predominantly 3 plus acre rural-residence zoned properties, and there are several large boarding stables nearby,and a tree farm, all with substantial acreage.I think it “stinks”(pun intended) that they were able to shut down the pig farm when it had been there first, but there is a huge difference between horses and chickens,or even alpaca that I hope to raise someday, and hogs.We have lots of road frontage(on a busy corner) and people frequently stop and ask to pet the horses, and our neighbors have no problem finding takers for their manure pile whenever they put out a sign.

In my opinion, if people object to country smells or lifestyles, they should go back to the city, or learn to be more tolerant.Personally, I object to the cookie-cutter style houses built in most subdivisions, the boring landscapes with the endless boring lawns in the teeny-tiny yards, the restrictive rules they have about EVERYTHING…even hanging laundry outside.I try to time my laundry hanging when the subdivision is having an open house on the weekends :-),just so prospective buyers might have a heads-up that we all don’t live by association rules.A minor rebellion, maybe, but we(all the neighbors) didn’t want the subdivision there anyway,so anything that might slow their sales works for me,although in the long run it won’t matter.The important thing to me is that my kids are enjoying the childhood I wish I had had, not that I had a bad childhood, I just would have preferred more wide open spaces to explore.From some of your other posts, it sounds like you have gotten away from city living,too.

Susan

You should be ashamed!

You should not have chickens. You need to wait for “The Messiah” to give those eggs to you, along with health care, cap and tax and all the socialist programs he is pushing for.

“If we have to get rid of Boss, most likely, we will have to kill him.”

Have you tried a rescue? Shouldn’t be any reason to kill a healthy animal in this day and age.

Have you tried a rescue? Shouldn’t be any reason to kill a healthy animal in this day and age.
— my id
4:26 pm July 8th, 2009

Uh, what about to EAT them?

Yeah, Green, I made the move to the country. I was born and raised in that concrete of NSTL but now have about 6 acres of open ground with a 7 acre lake that I share with 3 other owners. I’ve got a cattle farm across the road from me and a crop farmer just a few hundred yards out my front door. I’m not the animal farmer though, so no horses or chickens roaming the yard. Just a dog. Got a great big garden and a lake I can fish a few hundred feet from my backyard. I’ve been lucky as my wife has taken to living this way pretty nice and my kids have a ton of fun. I would have definitely like to live like this a lot sooner and hope that this is the last house I own until my death.

When people see how I like to live and what my hobbies are, they are amazed that I spent the first 15 years of my life in STL and when I tell them I went to Roosevelt for two years, their jaw usually hits the floor. They can’t see a shirt and tie during the week becoming a worn out clothed, muddy boot, fishin and huntin redneck on my off-time.

Amazed,

Wow, sounds like heaven, we would have liked more land,but we are pretty happy with what we have, and like you, hope to never move.Our ten-year-old daughter has called dibs on the house when we die,although she hopes that is not for a long time. :-)We don’t eat our chickens,just the eggs, so I understand why a lot of people might not consider that an option,plus I have read about butchering things…I don’t see my family becoming quite that self-sufficient.We have the garden,too, and are getting into edible landscaping(fruit trees and berry bushes) and wildlife gardening.We are getting better at gardening,but nowhere near providing all our needs even part of the year yet.I hope to put in a small “swimming pond” or natural swimming pool within a few years, but I doubt we will put bigger fish in it, despite pleas from my teenage son and the neighbor boys.The kids keep us busy enough with 4H and our horse club activities(like the Lebanon Il.parade tomorrow) that we don’t have much in the way of other hobbies right now,but we are fine with that.

Just curious, what years were you at Roosevelt?I was there from 80-84.As far as your hobbies not fitting your work image, I find it amusing how quick some are to pigeonhole others based on the most superficial knowledge.I worked with a PhD guy once who had really long hair,very laid back, was a former firefighter, and so knowledgeable about almost anything we cared to discuss, as well as being a brilliant scientist and devoted single dad. I have found a lot of people are more than they appear to be at first glance, at least if you give them a chance.

I live in a subdivision and my neighbor’s roosters are driving me out of my mind. There’s a reason I don’t live on a farm, on a ranch, in the country, etc. I’ve put up with their dogs barking at all hours of the night, the other neighbor’s dogs barking and then them yelling at the dogs not to bark, the loud music and arguing and noise at all hours, but now I have to be woken up EVERY SINGLE morning at 5:00 a.m. by two roosters next door. And then I have to listen to them for the next two hours until I go to work. I get it. They like animals, their girls are part of 4-H or FFA or both, but that shouldn’t mean I have to be woken up every morning and then listen to them for hours. The houses are pretty close together and even with my windows closed I hear the noise. I just wish people would try to have some consideration for their neighbors. If they were cooped up until 8 a.m., I’d be in heaven.

Sounds like you are trying to be responsible but many people are not.
In some areas the fad of raising chickens with roosters is out of control. We (in Florida) have a city boy neighbor who recently moved into the subdivision. The lots are big but it is not zoned for agriculture. Chickens are prohibited by deed restrictions. The city boy now thinks he is Mr. Greenjeans and brought in several dozen chickens and 7 roosters which roam his and other property. The roosters start crowing about an hour before dawn at the rate of 500 - 1,200 crows per hour. During the day it averages about 300- 500 per hour. He refused to honor the property zoning and deed restrictions, the County refuses to enforce code. So now we have to sue the city boy faux farmer to comply.