Selfsufficientish.com

*Rant mode on*

Urrghhhh!!!, bloody interfering old buggers!! Why!!! - can't they leave my birds alone!. They are mine and my pets!

*Rant mode off*

Why do they do it? Right, I have 12 chickens down on the allotment.

1 Ex Battery (last one from the 6 from last year rescue)
6 Welsummers (4 Boys)
4 White Coclins? (1 a boy)
1 Dark Barama

Now, they all get through a 10kg bin of food every 2 days, so I fill it up when its empty (and after they picked up all the scraps off the floor) and I am happy for them to get what they need.

Blasted guy next door to me has said that he is giving them a loaf everyday! and he keeps harping on at me that they are not getting enough feed, you BLEEP ! Can't you think of a better way of teaching grannie to suck eggs after working with chickens and eggs for 3 years and keeping my own hens for 2 years at home? Don't you think that hens won't lay if they get fat! Talk about trying to regulate their feed and he is even resorted to chucking in dry "DOG" food in their pen cus they are hungry

I am really loosing my patience with this bloke (he is in his 60's) and I am really considering sourcing a plot of land somewhere away from the allotment and move my veg growing and chickens there instead.

I am waiting for it now.. as I've moved 3 cockerals into the polytunnel for a fortnight to rip up the weeds and grass in there before they are destining for the freezer.... I bet he will be giving them a loaf of bread everyday too

Complain to the allotment manager, get them to give him a warnign about his behaviour. He's giving them food that's really not good for them. Cheeky!

Trouble is... there is no allotment manager - parish council just dish out the plot to whom ever is lucky. So I am a dead end on that front - last option would to pack up and buy a plot of land

Ask the man if he is going to feed them all the time, then don't feed them yourself, share eggs with him, and try and make friends?
Try, however hard, not to take offence to his interfering and try and get the most out of it. If you let people think that they are doing you a big favour, it really is no skin off your nose.

This man simply has " Dad" disease, it means that whatever you do it's not good enough, what ever effort you make, is derisory and in no way as good as he has done, would do, could do.

Me and my OH both have fathers who unfortunately have this disease, and although we used to get cross now we just laugh at them.

They both came to stay with us at different weekends last year, and both "joked" when either one of us or the kids were having breakfast
" You got enough Jam on that?" Infering that we were being greedy with the amount of Jam we had spread on our toast. Now I will agree I rarely eat breakfast, I only ever eat when I am hungry, but when I eat toast I see no point in just showing it the Jam, I like it thick, and it has to cover every part of the toast.

However.....

" I made the bread, I grew the fruit, I washed out the jars, made the Jam, labelled it, stored it, I worked to get money for sugar, we live on a smallholding which we worked long and hard for, and if I want to put a whole jar on each piece of toast, what bloomin business is it of yours.. you... you..you.. Antiquated dinosaur who still thinks making Jam is womans work, and growing food is an indication that you are a peasant, why bother when you can buy it so cheap in the shop IDIOT"

So, now whenever you feel those angry rages, just think about the Jam, how silly they are, but however they have the best of intentions, you will not ever change them, but thank God that you have this Truth, and you will promice never to treat people like that when you get old.....

thanks all - for those who are interested, I have posted this on the green living forum too...

http://www.thegreenlivingforum.net/foru ... 4&t=102757

:D

Maybe post a sign, not naming him, but something to the effect of "To whoever is feeding my chickens: These birds are on a diet, as they are getting too fat to lay. Please stop giving them additional food, unless you would also like to pay all of their veterinary bills."

(Even if they aren't too fat to lay yet, and there are no vet bills. This might just scare the person a little)

I hate signs.
Although I do know why this is, I ran a food production business and the technologists, and even worse the Supervisors were not confident enough to discuss rules with mainly non english speaking workers, so they used to laminate signs, things like wash your hands, clean up after yourself etc etc, the best ones were a series pinned to the tops of allot of the machines which read "this is not a table" you could very rarely read these signs as they were normally covered with paperwork and utencils! In a food production room the signs posed the biggest foriegn body risk, more so than the things they were trying to stop.

Although I would suggest.

"Please stop feeding MY chickens as a punch in the face often offends"

Might send Dad disease into critical state that one.

i quite like signs! but then im biased as i have an 'emergency shelter' sign above the living room door and a 'this machine may start at anytime' above my computer!

on the issue at hand- informing the person involved of the health issues would be a good deterrent most people couldnt care less about themselves but highlighting the animal welfare issues and they all obey with military precision a polite sign would do the trick for any other unsuspecting 'feeders'

Thanks.

I think a simple solution to this problem is a padlock :D... thinking about it further I will need to restaple the roof netting that is loose in the middle onto some wood to stop him chucking them in that way.

It really does get on my goat.

Hummmm

boboff wrote:I hate signs.
Although I do know why this is, I ran a food production business and the technologists, and even worse the Supervisors were not confident enough to discuss rules with mainly non english speaking workers, so they used to laminate signs, things like wash your hands, clean up after yourself etc etc, the best ones were a series pinned to the tops of allot of the machines which read "this is not a table" you could very rarely read these signs as they were normally covered with paperwork and utencils! In a food production room the signs posed the biggest foriegn body risk, more so than the things they were trying to stop.

That brings back memories of my egg days in the local firm.. doing HACCP signs that no one takes any blind noticed to. And try to explain the HACCP rules to the non english speaking workers there results in this so... why did I agree to take on a HACCP role and course yet it causes more headaches lol