Genuinely unsure as to who is being unreasonable here. I have 4 hens which I keep in my back garden. At this time of year they like to get up early and make a fuss as soon as it’s light.
We live in a fairly built up areas so in order to minimise disruption to neighbours I lock them in at 8ish and let them out at 7ish when I get up. This stops them making a racket at really unsociable hours but, especially in this heat, I really can’t keep them locked in the dark much after 7am. I’ve had them 3 years and never had any complaint from neighbours, in fact most of the neighbours seem to really like them and I try to keep them on side by regularly giving them eggs.
I work from home, my office window is about 5 foot from the chicken run and I rarely hear them. The only time I do hear them is if one of them does something stupid like knock their water over or fall off their ladder. Then there’s a couple of minutes where they run around shrieking that the sky is falling before looking embarrassed and being quiet again. They’re also a bolshy bunch and whenever a cat comes into the garden they all run towards it (still contained in the run though) and cat normally legs it and doesn’t come back.
Enter new neighbour. She has a cat who’s sole purpose in life is to try and work out how to get into the chicken run. Cat is undeterred by mental chickens charging at it and instead spends hours upon hours pacing round the run, hissing, putting paws through the gaps and pouncing on the roof of the run. This makes the chickens run around squaking. New neighbour works night shifts and has demanded I do something about the chickens. The chickens which have always been quiet until she came with her cat.
I’ve told her the only way that they’ll be quiet is if she keeps her cat in. I admit I don’t know much about cats but I thought they were more active at night? If cat was just out at night chickens would be asleep and unbothered. New neighbour told me that would be cruel to only let it out at night, that cats have a right to roam and that I need to find a way to keep chickens quiet. Apparently she will be reporting me to the council for noise disturbance.
I have tried dissuading cat from garden - spikes on top of wall, lion poo and squirting it with a water pistol (which neighbour yells at me for doing if she spots me). Water gun results in cat jumping in the air, giving me evils for a couple of minutes before resuming chicken stalking.
TLDR new neighbours cat is pissing off my chickens which makes them squawk. Neighbour thinks this is my fault and I need to stop it. I think her cat is a bit of a twat who should get a new hobby.