We had to rat out our neighbours

Two years ago my backyard neighbour got chickens. 

 

I love chickens in a sandwich or in a bucket (finger lickin' good), but on my suburban fence line? Pass.

 

We lived with the chickens for a whole summer. We tried to accept it. We didn’t want to be “those people” who rat out our neighbours. 

 

But the clucking. Oh my goodness the clucking. 

 

I’ll paint you a picture. (This is not to scale).

Can you see how close the chickens are to my house, and how far they are from the neighbours house? What’s worse is that our bedroom windows are on the back of the house, just above the chicken house.

 

After that first summer, when the weather turned cold, the chickens were gone. (You know. . .gone). We could be happy again. And then Spring 2023 came along.

 

One of the loveliest things about spring is finally being able to open your windows and let the fresh air in. Curtains blowing in the breeze, the sound of rain as you fall asleep.

 

And chickens. At 4:30 am, every day. Chickens. The chickens were back. Well, I’m sure they were new chickens, but just as annoying as the last bunch.

 

I am not a people pleaser, I don’t think. But one of my strongest values is respect. I try, to the best of my ability, to look at difficult situations from every possible angle and stand in other peoples’ shoes before I decide how I will move forward. 

 

So I didn’t want to make my neighbours get rid of the chickens. They probably paid a lot for them and looked forward to getting their eggs. 

 

I tried to get along with the chickens. I really did. I even scared off a fox at four in the morning that was trying to eat them. But I couldn’t stand it.

 

When you have a strong value or boundary, it makes it extra difficult to manage when you feel like your values or boundaries are being crossed. 

 

Don’t these people know how obnoxious it is to have their chickens right outside our windows? Don’t they feel bad for imposing this hardship on us? (They didn’t.)

 

I would be mortified to learn that something we were doing was imposing on our neighbour. 

 

If you are one of my neighbours reading this, and we're bugging you please let me know. I’ll probably apologize for the rest of time and buy you a case of beer.

 

We had the chickens removed. I felt bad. Honestly I did. But sometimes you have to create your own peace.

 

Sometimes you have to do the best thing for yourself, without putting so much importance on what others will think. Sometimes you have to take care of number one. 

 

As I continue down this road of adulthood (I keep trying to make a U-turn, but they won’t let me) I find myself realizing that I put a lot of other peoples’ feelings and comfort ahead of my own. And in some cases I’m okay with it. My kids for example. I’m willing to take a lot of hits for those three little humans.

 

But chickens. . .and neighbours who put chickens under my windows without any regard for how that may affect my family? I’m slowly but surely learning how to say no. 

 

I’m slowly learning how to put my own peace, happiness, and health above the rest. Or if I am choosing someone else above myself, you’d better believe that they are damn important to me.

 

Do I still seem bitter about the chickens?

 

 

P.S. If you’re reading this and you are the proud owner of chickens in a subdivision, sorry to hate on you, but also maybe consider checking in with your neighbours if you don’t want them to egg your house. . . see what I did there?

 

Do you have any neighbour horror stories? How did you deal?