Argh! Neighbor frusterations!

[RaychulRobot]

Most of our neighbors LOVE us!

We're a cute little urban farm in a pretty metro/hip area. Our house is situated on the back of our lot, so the goats and ducks hang out in the front. Our two does are super cute and super friendly...so our place is essentially a petting zoo. People are constantly hanging over the side of the fence to say hello...they tell us how much they LOVE our property and LOVE our goats and ducks...we've even had a preschool come and visit and meet all the critters...

But we got a complaint. And now we have to get permitted.

I mean, it's not that big of a deal.

Except for the bees.

We have to have everyone within a certain radius sign off to allow us to keep bees.

Bees are endangered! Keeping bees should be encouraged!

And on top of it, we don't even know the nature of the complaint, and animal control won't tell us.

We know it's something to do with the goats and the ducks. But I don't know if it was a noise issue, a smell issue, or just someone calling up and reporting us because they think we're annoying, or something else altogether.

We've worked really hard to meet and be on good terms with our neighbors. We'd hope someone could just come TALK to us so we could fix the problem!!!

I mean, I'll have a piece of paper essentially saying I'm allowed to have the problem, but I may still have upset and annoyed neighbors, with no idea what problem I need to fix.


And we may have to get rid of the bees, a project we've poured lots of time and money into. And we haven't even had a honey harvest yet.


Sad. Frustrating. City living can be silly. So disconnected from our food sources. People think eggs and milk just magically appear in the supermarket. They'd almost prefer to think that they were chemically/mechanically produced rather than coming from some "filthy" animal.


I want my acreage already!!!!!! Sigh. One day.

 

[JusticeFamilyFarm]

I'm so sorry! What a bummer. You'd think the important part would be telling you what the complaint was so that you could change whatever needed to be changed (or not- but at least you'd know). I can see the complaining person wanting to be anonymous, which is why they wouldn't have come to you face to face, but why can't you know what it is they complained about? That makes no sense to me.
I hope everyone is cooperative about the bees. That would be such a shame if you had to change what you're doing. Good luck!

 

[PJisaMom]

We recently had a township complaint... about a barking LGD. It was devastating (sounds silly to say, but geesh!... thought our neighbors liked us, too!).

I put on my big girl pants and went door to door (well... started with who I suspected and it was them). I started out by saying I had received a phone call about a barking dog violation and I just wanted to say I'm sorry if the dog was bothering you... I had no idea... blah, blah, blah. (Catch more flies with honey...)

The husband completely lied to my face and said he had no idea... his wife got off the phone and then fessed up to me.

I'm not saying it will work.. but be nice and start some conversations with the less familiar neighbors... and just make sure to let them know that you're not mad, just want to fix whatever issues are causing a problem for others.

People just need to grow a pair.

I'm so sick of this type of crap. Seriously. I try very hard to teach my kids better than this... handle your own problems!

Hope it all works out for you!

 

[jlbpooh]

I can relate, since we have a donkey of a neighbor ourselves. First he called the Sheriff and said our guinea was pooping in his pool. Then he called the Sheriff and said that my duck ate some of his grass. (Weeds in the woods are what she got into.) I did sell that pair of ducks last weekend. The guineas are going nowhere. Not like they would go near his pool to begin with. I am in the process of researching bees myself. The perfect place would be in the corner of our property protected by his privacy fence (which is actually on our property), but that is only 15 feet from his pool, so that is out. We adjoin 1000 feet of lot line with him because his lot is boomerang shaped and we are in the center of the boomerang. I am going to put my bees all the way at the other end of our property so I hopefully don't have to worry about him. That side of our property butts up to railroad tracks so there are no neighbors to complain there. No matter what any of his adjoining neighbors do, he will call the Sheriff. We are documenting everything and if it persists may file harassment charges against him. The perimeter of our property is completely fenced to keep all of our animals at home (except the rogue duck who went through the field fencing). I hope you can avoid getting rid of your bees. I wish you the best of luck.