Changes

I haven't been writing lately, I know.  It's been a rough few weeks here.  A neighbor called Animal Control to complain about the chickens and excessive flies and smell.  We had spent a long night in the ER the night before with an injured kid (he's all good now), and bright and early on a Saturday an AC Officer knocked on our door and asked if we had chickens.  When we answered yes, he said, "Yeah, you can't do that."  He told us about the complaint and that it would be best if we just got rid of them.  I wish I could say I was better at handling unexpected situations, but I can't.

So we went to work.  We knew the bigger smell issue was the rabbits, so that week we slaughtered the 8 young bunnies.   We also killed the two chickens who had been laying soft-shelled eggs and eating them in the boxes.  We upped the number of Fly Eliminators that we had ordered for a monthly delivery this year.  The trouble I have with those are the same sprays that kill the pesky flies will kill the eliminators also.  It's a catch-22.  Spray to kill the problem and we kill the solution.  We did spray some in the days before the next shipment arrived.  But even after they arrived we had to wait to put them out since you're supposed to wait until some emerge before you set them out.  I had just spread them nine days after the first complaint when there was a knock on the door.

The person complained again.  This time they mentioned the goats.  Turns out there was an ordinance somewhere other than the section we were looking at that said we were not zoned for livestock and since there is no exception for dwarf goats, they fall in that category and can not be raised on our property.  We had 24 hours to get rid of them.  The only good news this day was that this officer helped explain things a little better and since I was a little more prepared (even though I had not expected the visit) I was able to ask better questions.

She had been sent to issue us a ticket if we had not removed the chickens.  I told her we had some questions regarding the chickens.  The fist officer had said we couldn't do that, but what we saw online said we could.  The coop was 60 feet from all but one neighboring properties (thank heavens we had spent the previous day moving the coop to be sure we were in compliance).  It said we needed permission, but was that from just the neighbor under 60 feet or did we need it from everyone who bordered our property (not likely to happen if someone was complaining).  I told her about the things we had done in the last week and she went to call her supervisor.  As she was on the phone, the neighbor who is closest to the coop came out to see what was up.  I told her and she offered to write the letter right then.  This neighbor rocks.

We didn't get a ticket that day.  I showed the officer the yard, and she felt the chickens were well taken care of, not kept in small cages but still confined in a way they can't escape.  We still had to get rid of the goats, and she recommended finding a new home for the older bunnies.  By last Wednesday, the goats and Ma and Pa bunny had found new homes.

So in the yard we have 8 older chickens and the 6 younger ones in the second coop.  We did some rearranging of the fences around the coop to limit their area.  We planted some flowery vines and threw out some flower seeds on the other side to hopefully make the air sweeter.  Hubby even built his own solar fly trap, which seems to work great.  And hopefully means we can use less of the stinky fly traps that bring flies from miles around (another catch-22).

The new coop area.

I'm still not relaxed.