Chicken / Poultry Keeping

[Rupert Fever]

I need to know the law regarding chicken keeping. More specificly, my neighbours in North Yorkshire, all of a sudden, putting their chicken shed directly outside my kitchen window.
Regards

[Eve]

You could try this...http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/family_par ent/housing/neighbour_disputes.htm

[RATTER15]

I think there are laws in place that state how far from a house these pens can be placed.

[JRB]

Get onto your local Environmental Health Office. You could have several xomplaints that they would look into - noise, smell, and possibility of vermin for a start.

[Rupert Fever]

Thank you very much for your replies.
We have sent the council an email and hopefully have an answer on Monday.
Do you know what the most annoying thing is, we got on absolutely fine with them, they had the chickens far away from our house and they never bothered us. Now - without talking to us - they just put them right in front of our kitchen window which is not very nice for us. They are just 2 m away from our house. They also got a Cockerol which starts Cockedidodeling at 5 a.m. Since it is so close to our bedroom window as well I am waking up every morning and can't get back to sleep because that damn thing won't stop it.
Now I have seen some lwebsites from other cities where the law says that they have to be 9 m away from a dwelling, I just don't know if it also applies for North Yorkshire AND... even if they put them 9 m away I will still be able to smell them and obviously hear them. I live in the countryside and they won't just attract rats and mice but also foxes.
Sorry that this is so long, but I am really wound up! Thanks for listening :-))

[WendyS]

Many houses have a restrictive covenant on them preventing them from keeping poultry at all. If the two of you live in identical houses and you can check your deeds you might find out whether they have been keeping them illegally after all.
If they are allowed to, I'm sure there are probably some regulations about minimum distance from a food preparation area and the Environmental Heath Dept of your local council are probably the best people to advise you.

[Eve]

May be worth checking your deeds, there could also be more general covenants about not causing nuisance to adjoining land.

If you don't have any then you can obtain a copy of the title register (if your property is registered) from the Land Registry.

http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/

There are fees for obtaining a copy. Some covenants are noted on the title register, however, sometime they are referred to in documents which are filed which you can also obtain a copy of.

It can be very difficult to do anything about it though unless there is someone traceable who is both authorised and willing to enforce the covenants (eg a landlord of a leasehold property who could be traced by obtaining a copy of the freehold title). Many covenants of this type are archaic and date back to the late 19th century.

I'd try environmental health first.

[Eve]

Actually, if you are obtaining a copy of the title register (example here http://www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/resou rces/example_register.pdf) from the Land Registry then it would be wiser to obtain a copy of your neighbour's title deeds as you will have different entries.

You can try the postcode search to find it (postcodes can be traced on www.royalmail.com).

[Rupert Fever]

Thank you very much for your help - it is very much appreciated. I hope there are rules for private poultry keeping, although it seems that North Yorkshire is a law free county and everybody does what they want!! I hope the Environmental Health people can help tomorrow... and I hope I get a good night of sleep.!!!

[Eve]

Let us know how you get on, you could e.mail these in a roundabout way just not mentioning the anti-chicken [email protected]

[yorkshirenth]

Did you get anywhere with your chicken problem?
Interested to know as we have similar + hens come into our garden digging up flowers and veg.,excrement on patio and paths, rats from hut area into our garden. North Yorkshire pest control officer has been out to us twice to sort out. No response from neighbours to phone messages and emails - they seem to pretend we're not here.
Any ideas welcome!

[Rupert Fever]

Hi,
yes - we moved to Scotland :-))

Seriously - we did not get anywhere. The environmental health has not helped really. We would have had to fill in forms - basically a protocol of the nuisance caused by the chickens. As our circumstances changed and we planned to move we just left it.
The situation was so bad, that I could not live there any longer. The neighbours ganged up with some other neighbours and living in that little village became a right pain.
Rats started coming even during the day and fed from the chicken feeders. I informed my neighbour about it and his solution to that was shooting it with an air rifle while I was walking in my garden (the chicken compound was next to our garden fence and he shot into my direction!).
Needless to say more I think! Such people believe they can do what they want and you can't change them. It is your life that becomes a misery!
Where do you live in North Yorkshire?
I feel for you ... honestly! I hope you will be more successful in doing something about it.
Best wishes

[yorkshirenth]

Thanks for your response - we live in a village near Thirsk. I emailed HDC asking for advice and their Environmental Health Officer visited today. On my request one of HDC pest control officers had visited twice last year and set bait boxes where he identified the rat run by the hen hut - this had been partly successful as in October we found one dead rat on our path and previously there had been a terrible smell in that area of our garden. I noticed when showing the EHO the layout that food had been scattered on the ground of the run - easy picking for rats - the PCO had told me that he advised the hen owners on hygienic feeding when he had visited them (unknown to us) two years before. The EHO and PCO will both come out when I next report a rat sighting!
Apparently not much Environmetal Health can do about secure containment of hens - so any advice on that score still appreciated! Surely I must have some rights over my garden regarding marauding hens?

[Rupert Fever]

Hi,
I lived in a village near Thirsk :-)) And I worked in Thirsk.
I have only moved up to Scotland last month! At last I have my peace as I could not bear looking at this idiots feeding their stupid chickens any longer! My whole life there was stattered when we dared complaining! Some neighbours (OAPs - had nothing better to do than feeding their kitchen rubbish to the chickens) liked them so much and all of a sudden we had fallen out with everyone living around that corner - even though we had never had any problems with them for years But this is how it goes in little villages!
Unfortunately there is no proper rules or regulations about keeping chickens. What do your other neighbours think?
One EHO is quite a keen one - her name is Maria Bentley in Northallerton - she deals quite a lot with that kind of problem. Maybe you want to give her a ring.
When did your problem start?
We lived in that village for 4 years and only a year ago our neighbours put the chickens that close to our fence. We were actually friendly with them and didn't mind them keeping the hens further down the field. When they moved them so close we asked them to put them back into the field... big mistake as after that hell broke lose... and we had big arguements. The guy is a complete idiot and his wife is a nurse... I actually reached a point where I hoped the hens catch bird flu and she would need to get rid of them.... how sad is that?!

[Rupert Fever]

By the way, our intelligent neighbours constantly scattered food around the compound. They had feeders but once a day she scattered other food around in the compound - also bread and kitchen rubbish - as I said, other neighbours came around to dispose of some of their kitchen leftovers as well. The rat that I was on about came during the day, which is a clear hint of loads of rats being there. They put the feeders up on the hut at night time, but that did not solve the situation and it ended that the idiot shot the rat when I walked in the garden.
Also - all this food attracted all the birds in the village and I could no longer hang my washing out in summer as it was covered in pigeon poo when I did!
Our chicken owners did not have that problem, as they don't live near enough the chicken compound!
Ghosh, just writing about it winds me up again...

[yorkshirenth]

Glad you were able to move out of the situation! Will keep this site updated as to our progress.