Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

One thing I hate about people keeping chickens as a new trend, is the people who rush out and get some just to be part of the new fad. They are not really interested in learning anything about them and often do things to ruin it for others. My mother's seniors home is in a country village, some of my relatives live around there. I am one day going to sell this farm and sometimes I have been thinking about buying a house in the village. Some of the houses have small sheds that used to actually be barns years ago. I jokingly wondered what would happen if I moved there and kept chickens in the village. Turns out there is no bylaws against it. If I did, I would do everything in my power to not bother my neighbors and make it a positive experience for everyone. However two houses near the seniors home got chickens. One has a flock of three, the other is six or eight. They let them run free range in the village, sometimes the two flocks run together. So now you walk out and nine full size red sex-links are digging up your flowers, your garden, your lawn. Getting up on your deck or lawn furniture and going for a big sticky stinky , and also the flocks live across and down the street from each other, so they constantly come out onto the road and stand on the yellow line, stopping traffic or running in front of cars. You can tell many of the neighbors are getting ticked. How long before something happens like a banning of poultry in the village. You would think that they would know enough to build a pen. I wouldn't let a dog or cat run around the village, what are these guys thinking? They will ruin it for the next person who wants to try chickens responsibly.

Skinny..i know what you mean...asshats...thats what i call them..and hey, free ranging birds have lower feed costs, right?...but its always the same...people act irresponsibly and I daresay they haven't really given it any thought whatsoever...they need to have the issue pointed out to them I suppose, or someone will just end up with free chicken dinners ... I hate rules, oh boy do I hate rules, but they always get put into place because of people like this... I hope it gets resolved in a pleasant way rathe than another bureaucratic levy being put in place...my yard in that village, should I happen to live there, would be devoid of the neighbours chickens because any stray chickens would meet their maker right quick in the joyful jaws of Otis, my oldest dog...keeper of the faith here on the farm..... :running-chicken:

I don't like rules either, but that's regarding my own property, I am respectful of others property, I would feel terrible if my chickens got out and destroyed someone's garden, mainly because I would be fuming if my garden was ruined by someone being too lazy to take proper care of their birds. Chicken wire is cheap, they could run some around their own place and that would be plenty. I wouldn't want to see the hens get hurt, it's not their fault that the owner has a smaller brain than them.