City Issued a Citation and claims we aren’t allowed to have chickens due to neighbor’s complaint. What are my options?

[Kiki]

Feed is in a big plastic tub, rat proof. I’ve seen rats eating the food out in the run, even in broad daylight.

Poison isn’t really an option because the chickens free range often. So we have been using traps ever since we discovered rats but they must keep reproducing or something to be causing this big of an issue.

Make a rat proof coop AND run.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Move your coop as far from the snitch neighbor as possible. Prepare to fight in court because rats on your neighbor's property aren't your problem and they have no evidence that you're the source of the rats

 

[SourRoses]

The fact that the rats were IN her garage is evidence that she doesn't have a rodent-secure building. For a house, all ingress points should be covered with mesh like soffits, dryer vents, etc.
And what drew the rats to her garage? They are usually seeking food (garbage?) or water.

We had a horrible rat problem at our previous house. We saw rats for years before they actually affected our chicken area. Because sometimes we didn't have chickens, and for the longest period we had just one small flock.
There were two big farms (one with hogs) nearby, and a neighbor who collected junk cars and fed their dogs outside. We knew he had rat problems for years because of the random shooting at nighttime they had to explain to everyone.

Only after we scaled up our chicken operation did the rats come over for the spilled feed that was hard to clean up, multiple water stations, etc.
I found it helped to not only lock up the feeders, but dump all the water sources every night. Poisoned, trapped, but the numbers were ever increasing. Whatever we did, they could just hop over to the neighbors to survive until some chickens made a mess again.
Nevertheless, in winter, we got them in the house, and that's a hundred kinds of horrible. The house should have been secured against rodent infestation, but there were multiple ingress points not addressed by the homeowner even after we told them about the problem.
Moral of the story: Everyone in a community has to take measures against rats. They shouldn't have housing, water, or food at any location.

 

[Nym]

My dog killed a few this summer, and when I opened the shed I discovered a new bag of Blood and Bone had been opened by the rats! The shed is in the chicken yard but dogs and chickens don't have free access so I threw basic supermarket ratsack baits in the shed, in the compost bin and under the inaccessible main chicken house. I have yet to see another one. Seems the dog killed the breeding rat and the baits sorted out the young.

 

[CHICKENX2005]

Some time last year the city came because of a noise complaint, demanding we get rid of almost all the flock and all the roosters. We had almost 10 roosters, had to get rid of all of them.
Had about 60 chickens, they said we can only have 15 so we brought it down to about 20 and the guy let us slide. He’s a nice guy, always is trying to help us and doing everything he can to let us keep the chickens.

That was sometime last year. We’ve had chickens for around a decade so we thought we’re off the hook. City clearly said we are allowed 15 hens because of the size of the coop and property, multiple inspections followed the complaint last year.

Some back story. Fresh eggs are huge in our family. Chickens are a big deal here. We don’t even eat store bought eggs, before they would even make some of our stomachs hurt.
So I am trying to do anything I can to keep these hens. We don’t sell eggs anymore, no profit from them. Just the fresh eggs, and occasionally, meat.

I am just needing help on how I can fight them this time…

It’s the same neighbor complaining this time.
This time there’s rats “coming from the coop and into her garage.” And i don’t deny we have rats, i’ve seen a few here and there. The chickens are close to her property line but we have double fencing to divide both sides.
The guy from the city claimed she provided “evidence” of the rats because she took photos/videos of them in her garage.
HOW is this evidence that they’re coming from our coop, and how is that enough to force us to get rid of all our chickens?

The man mentioned something about other neighbors being involved, so she must’ve got other people on board to fight against us.

I am willing to do what it takes the keep the 15 that we were allowed in the first place.

Thinking of moving the coop to the other side of the property, it would be almost an acre away from the complaining neighbor’s fencing.
I can get an exterminator for the rats if it I find it to be affordable…. I’ll do this if I need to. I’m not going to do it if I have to get rid of the chickens either way.

Please share your experiences if any, and any insight on what to do/how to do it would be greatly appreciated.

First thing how is your neighbor claiming that the rats are because of your chickens. My Chickens Eat Rats! And my ducks do to. We don't have any rats anything now. Not because of traps and points because of my little pets also I would move if I were you or at least that neighbor wouldn't be my neighbor anymore. Doesn't she know that if possible did raise chickens there wouldn't be any fresh egg or meat and doesn't she know that they are great pest control for various bugs and other creatures? Did you try give her fresh eggs to try to smooth things over? Luckily for a neighbor I used to have I tried that when he started complaining and he hasn't since. Sorry this is happening to you. I would move if all else fails. And I mean all else I would fight it in court and wouldn't give up till a truly had nothing left to chuck at them.

 

[MrIgmo]

There are breeds of dogs that are specifically meant to hunt and kill rats. Jack Russel terriers will chase rats around for days. They used to open up the sewer, throw a few of those dogs in and then go to other end of the pipe and those dogs would shred every rat in there. They are so high energy people get them and can't handle them. They are often needing to be re-homed. Training them not to kill the chickens isn't that hard, actually any dog can be taught not to fairly easy. But having a flock guard dog that doubles as a rat slayer would fix your problem. Sometimes just the smell of their urine will deter the rats off your property. Just keep their shots up, rats carry some nasty stuff. I have a minpin and he catches anything dumb enough to test their luck. Sometimes he regrets it, like when he ran up on our neighborhood skunk, whom love to eat rats. We actually have a feral cat problem in our neighborhood now, I haven't seen a rat in a couple years and the squirrels are starting to get thinned out pretty good now. All of which puts the predators onto my chickens, so I kinda wish there was a couple rats around, but I'm probably jinxing myself saying that. Rats are never stable to their environment. They breed out of control until they wipe out their food supply completely then they starve to death or invade where they aren't welcome.

 

[All4Eggz]

First thing how is your neighbor claiming that the rats are because of your chickens. My Chickens Eat Rats! And my ducks do to. We don't have any rats anything now. Not because of traps and points because of my little pets also I would move if I were you or at least that neighbor wouldn't be my neighbor anymore. Doesn't she know that if possible did raise chickens there wouldn't be any fresh egg or meat and doesn't she know that they are great pest control for various bugs and other creatures? Did you try give her fresh eggs to try to smooth things over? Luckily for a neighbor I used to have I tried that when he started complaining and he hasn't since. Sorry this is happening to you. I would move if all else fails. And I mean all else I would fight it in court and wouldn't give up till a truly had nothing left to chuck at them.

We’ve given them eggs in the past. Avery couple weeks and they loved it.
The weird part is these neighbors used to have chickens but a different neighbor complained and they had to get rid of them, per order of the city.
They’ve always defended us and thought it was stupid that they had to get rid of theirs. We’ve given them eggs dozens of times. They loved our chicks they would hold them. And the chickens would even fly over the fence and run around in their yard and they weren’t really bothered. They had dogs that almost got them multiple times and since then we secured the run and coop more so that they wouldn’t be able to get over.

Point is, they never had a problem with them. And last year all of a sudden the rooster crows are a problem to them and now supposedly rats.

We can’t move right now. As much as I’d want to.

 

[All4Eggz]

There are breeds of dogs that are specifically meant to hunt and kill rats. Jack Russel terriers will chase rats around for days. They used to open up the sewer, throw a few of those dogs in and then go to other end of the pipe and those dogs would shred every rat in there. They are so high energy people get them and can't handle them. They are often needing to be re-homed. Training them not to kill the chickens isn't that hard, actually any dog can be taught not to fairly easy. But having a flock guard dog that doubles as a rat slayer would fix your problem. Sometimes just the smell of their urine will deter the rats off your property. Just keep their shots up, rats carry some nasty stuff. I have a minpin and he catches anything dumb enough to test their luck. Sometimes he regrets it, like when he ran up on our neighborhood skunk, whom love to eat rats. We actually have a feral cat problem in our neighborhood now, I haven't seen a rat in a couple years and the squirrels are starting to get thinned out pretty good now. All of which puts the predators onto my chickens, so I kinda wish there was a couple rats around, but I'm probably jinxing myself saying that. Rats are never stable to their environment. They breed out of control until they wipe out their food supply completely then they starve to death or invade where they aren't welcome.

Dogs would be a great pest control but unfortunately we don’t have the means to own a dog right now, let alone put in the effort to train it to keep the chickens alone. By the time it grows up and gets trained and begins to get rid of the rats it will be way too late.

 

[CHICKENX2005]

We’ve given them eggs in the past. Avery couple weeks and they loved it.
The weird part is these neighbors used to have chickens but a different neighbor complained and they had to get rid of them, per order of the city.
They’ve always defended us and thought it was stupid that they had to get rid of theirs. We’ve given them eggs dozens of times. They loved our chicks they would hold them. And the chickens would even fly over the fence and run around in their yard and they weren’t really bothered. They had dogs that almost got them multiple times and since then we secured the run and coop more so that they wouldn’t be able to get over.

Point is, they never had a problem with them. And last year all of a sudden the rooster crows are a problem to them and now supposedly rats.

We can’t move right now. As much as I’d want to.

Humm... I wonder what could of caused them to be like that... you never know with people what could of happened in their life that could be making them act like that it can be something totally unrelated to your chickens and that's just what they are taking it out on. Maybe they are jealous that they had to get rid of their chickens but you didn't?..... who knows they might not even know......... sorry your having to deal with this. Hope that everything goes in your favor. Don't give up

 

[Nym]

We’ve given them eggs in the past. Avery couple weeks and they loved it.
The weird part is these neighbors used to have chickens but a different neighbor complained and they had to get rid of them, per order of the city.
They’ve always defended us and thought it was stupid that they had to get rid of theirs. We’ve given them eggs dozens of times. They loved our chicks they would hold them. And the chickens would even fly over the fence and run around in their yard and they weren’t really bothered. They had dogs that almost got them multiple times and since then we secured the run and coop more so that they wouldn’t be able to get over.

Point is, they never had a problem with them. And last year all of a sudden the rooster crows are a problem to them and now supposedly rats.

We can’t move right now. As much as I’d want to.

Just a thought. Are you sure it's this neighbour that complained? I'm just thinking someone called the city on your neighbour to make them get rid of their chickens. Maybe it's that same neighbour who complained about your roosters. The city isn'y allowed to state which neighbour complained, so it could be another neighbour. At any rate, the city can't do anything unless they can prove serious neglect.