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Hi guys,
Our next door neighbours have a rather a large number of chickens in their 'back garden' - at least 40 birds in approximately 50ft by 30ft. Needless to day there is absolutely no ground level greenery left within that patch.
The problem we have is that there are always 3 or 4 at a time getting out into the lane which runs between our houses and they have pecked the plants out of the front gardens of the houses which face onto the lane behind us and some of the grass. Complaints have been made by said neighbours (several of them) but to no avail.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't be over worried (other than for the number of rats) as we have a 6ft high fence between us and the lane and I was under the impression that chickens ddn't fly due to clipped wings. However, over the last couple of weeks we've seen some of the chickens happily roosting in the trees surrounding the neighbours garden which would indicate that they're not having their wings clipped (I think bearing in mind I know NOTHING about chickens
other than they taste nice roasted with butter and garlic 
) and now I live in hourly dread of finding them in our veg patch decimating my precious crops.
In addition to this is the aforementioned rat problems. Now we have lived in this house for nearly 8yrs and up to the chickens arriving we had NEVER seen a rat out and about in broad daylight. That's not to say that they haven't been here. We're not daft. We know they're about. But it is not a coincidence that with the increased number of chickens has come a trully unbelieveable number of rats!
The main nest is amongst the hedge that runs down the side of the main chicekn area and between us, our neighbours and us must have spent hundreds on rat bait and traps but nothing seems to work. We have a couple of weeks, after fresh bait goes down, where no rats are seen but then we'll catch sight of the mother rat (she's huge and we think immune to the poison), quickly followed by juveniles (lots of them) running around the garden happy as you like. Last week OH discovered a rats nest in the compost (was there the week before) with 10 furless baby rats in it. 10!!!!!! Can you imagine if say 3 of them were female??? No wonder we've got a problem.
Can some one please advice us as to law re numbers that can be kept in a built up area (village) and if we have any redress re sorting the rats out?
Many thanks
Reet
x
Our next door neighbours have a rather a large number of chickens in their 'back garden' - at least 40 birds in approximately 50ft by 30ft. Needless to day there is absolutely no ground level greenery left within that patch.
The problem we have is that there are always 3 or 4 at a time getting out into the lane which runs between our houses and they have pecked the plants out of the front gardens of the houses which face onto the lane behind us and some of the grass. Complaints have been made by said neighbours (several of them) but to no avail.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't be over worried (other than for the number of rats) as we have a 6ft high fence between us and the lane and I was under the impression that chickens ddn't fly due to clipped wings. However, over the last couple of weeks we've seen some of the chickens happily roosting in the trees surrounding the neighbours garden which would indicate that they're not having their wings clipped (I think bearing in mind I know NOTHING about chickens
other than they taste nice roasted with butter and garlic ) and now I live in hourly dread of finding them in our veg patch decimating my precious crops.In addition to this is the aforementioned rat problems. Now we have lived in this house for nearly 8yrs and up to the chickens arriving we had NEVER seen a rat out and about in broad daylight. That's not to say that they haven't been here. We're not daft. We know they're about. But it is not a coincidence that with the increased number of chickens has come a trully unbelieveable number of rats!
The main nest is amongst the hedge that runs down the side of the main chicekn area and between us, our neighbours and us must have spent hundreds on rat bait and traps but nothing seems to work. We have a couple of weeks, after fresh bait goes down, where no rats are seen but then we'll catch sight of the mother rat (she's huge and we think immune to the poison), quickly followed by juveniles (lots of them) running around the garden happy as you like. Last week OH discovered a rats nest in the compost (was there the week before) with 10 furless baby rats in it. 10!!!!!! Can you imagine if say 3 of them were female??? No wonder we've got a problem.
Can some one please advice us as to law re numbers that can be kept in a built up area (village) and if we have any redress re sorting the rats out?
Many thanks
Reet
x
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