Keeping chickens in gardens - is this unreasonable?

orangeflowers

Gavin83 said:

Regardless of whether this is allowed or not (which is debatable) it's extremely antisocial. After all there's a reason they don't wish to keep the chickens next to their own house but they seem happy to push the problem onto their neighbours instead.

They sound unreasonable and I suspect the likelihood is you'll never get on that well with them. Based on that I'd be speaking to the council and looking into what the options are.

If the council route fails and they don't move the chickens at some point you may need to get poison for the rats. Just consider that rat poison will also easily kill a chicken.

Thank you for your reply.  Which did me smile a little too much!

But, I would never wish harm upon the chickens. I have no issue with the neighbours keeping the chickens. It's the location of the chickens so close to the house, which is my issue.
 

Slinky

I'm curious OP, nobody seems to have mentioned it, how did you get that photo?

Newcad

From the look of it I'd assumed a selfie-stick poked over the fence.

diystarter7

Slinky said:

I'm curious OP, nobody seems to have mentioned it, how did you get that photo?

Hi

The reason I did not ask as I safely assumes it was a selfie stick and not a drone, lol.

Thnaks

Brie

I would have assumed that if there was a restriction for keeping hens for one property then there might be for the neighbours as well.  What do your deeds say?

doodling

Hi,

Brie said:

I would have assumed that if there was a restriction for keeping hens for one property then there might be for the neighbours as well.  What do your deeds say?

I'll say this again as people seem to keep missing it.

It is legally impossible to ban people from keeping chickens (for non-commercial purposes) on land they occupy without a new act of parliament.

It doesn't matter what deeds, rental agreements, bylaws, notices on walls or my deceased great aunt says on the matter, parliament has passed a law (Allotments Act 1950) which overrides all that.

Looking at deeds will not help.

The only angles here are animal welfare and legal nuisance.  Beware however that "nuisance" is a very complex area of law - for a discussion read the recent Supreme Court judgement about the Tate Modern viewing platform here:  https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2020-0056-judgment.pdf .

Longwalker

doodling said:

Hi,

Brie said:

I would have assumed that if there was a restriction for keeping hens for one property then there might be for the neighbours as well.  What do your deeds say?

I'll say this again as people seem to keep missing it.

It is legally impossible to ban people from keeping chickens (for non-commercial purposes) on land they occupy without a new act of parliament.

It doesn't matter what deeds, rental agreements, bylaws, notices on walls or my deceased great aunt says on the matter, parliament has passed a law (Allotments Act 1950) which overrides all that.

Looking at deeds will not help.

The only angles here are animal welfare and legal nuisance.  Beware however that "nuisance" is a very complex area of law - for a discussion read the recent Supreme Court judgement about the Tate Modern viewing platform here:  https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2020-0056-judgment.pdf .

Wasting your time I think, people are people and like to quote this that and the other, not realising that the Allotments Act overrides it all. The council can only insist on you rehoming or culling cocks because of the noise nuisance , hens - nope 

Hens - birds laying eggs
Chickens - dinner
Cockerals - PITA and not required for keeping hens or chickens, only required for breeding 

CurlySue2017

annabanana82 said:

An old neighbour did similar, except they also had a Cockerell too - how we willed a fox to get in their garden. It didn't smell though and being able to nip round the corner for eggs was super handy

Wow

"I wish a fox would kill your hens, but yeah, I'll take your free eggs" !!

You sound like a joy (sarcasm)

CurlySue2017

orangeflowers said:

Hi.  I'm just looking for other peoples opinions.

We've just moved into our new house and discovered our neighbours keep chickens, (about 4 or 5 hens we think) next to our house. They have a really big garden, on a corner plot, so only have us as neighbours. There own house must be approx 50m away from these chickens. 

The brick wall at the top of the photo is the corner of my house. My upstairs bedroom window is just out of shot, but inline with the dining room window you can see to the right. The fence is our boundary and then the hut is the chicken coop!  You can just make out one of the neighbours hens in bottom left of the picture. 

There is a distinct odour from here! I can smell them when I walk past and when I open my bedroom window and they are rather loud when laying eggs, which is annoying when it wakes us up! It's not everyday, but it's often enough! 

I have tried politely speaking with them, but they were very abrupt with me, telling me that the chickens were there first! (Not off to a great start!)

Does anyone else think that putting chickens this close to another person's house is weird? I would appreciate some advice. Or is it me just being unreasonable.

I have no issues with the actual chickens. My issue is how close they are to our house.

I will appreciate any replies. 

Have you thought about what will happen to the chickens if you get them evicted?  Or is it a case of "I'm alright Jack"?

Stateofart

powerful_Rogue said:

They have a point about the chickens being there first. It's also their garden and as long as what the do is legal, I don't think there is anything you can do.

No they don't have a point.  If it becomes anti-social enough in terms of sound / odor they have no right to keep them.