Small issue with my neighbour…

[TakesTheCake]

Our garden is slightly higher than our neighbour’s garden, and we share a fence with a kind of rut/dip underneath it. Half of my garden is lawn but the nearest portion is patio.

We have free ranging chickens and once a week I wash down the patio with the hose and a broom because of the chicken poo. Any bits go into the rut underneath but depending on how long I spend doing it, some water inevitably builds up in the rut and runs onto the neighbour’s path, alongside the fence.

We are on OK terms with the neighbour, though it’s an odd arrangement where our houses are on different streets so I actually have never seen the front of their house and am not sure where it is. We have chatted over the fence, though, and it’s always been friendly enough.

Yesterday I washed down the patio, and the neighbour was in her garden. It was clearly long enough to overspill onto her path as she yelled out that the water was coming onto her path. I apologised and immediately stopped, moving onto the portion of our patio where the water runs into our own flower bed and lawn. However she then yelled again (quite angrily) and said it was still running through. This could not have been additional water as I had moved past that point by then. She said to look over the fence and I did, and what I consider a small amount of water was wetting her path. Clear water not muddy or pooey water. I explained that I really had stopped cleaning that area as soon as she called the first time, and all run-off was now going onto our flower bed and lawn. It must have been just still dribbling through from before. She stomped off into the house angrily while I was standing there.

I’m really dismayed as I hate having any issues with the neighbours or bothering anyone. I feel like it’s just water and I’m not sure what the big deal is but now questioning myself. Should I stop ever using water on the back portion of our patio? We pressure clean it once a year too, and it’s completely unavoidable to stop the water going onto the neighbour’s path. I can try to avoid using water on that segment of the patio that butts right up against the shared fence, or do it as little as possible, but it’s not possible to avoid it altogether.

I want to hang a bag with box of our chickens’ eggs from a fence post so it’s on their side of the fence, with a note to say sorry, but not sure how to word it. “I’m sorry about the water but I don’t get what the big deal is” obviously isn’t an option, but “I’m sorry about the water and I’ll never do it again” isn’t a promise I can keep. I don’t know if the tiny gap at the bottom of the fence can be filled in but that’s something I will look into.

Any suggestions or perspectives? I know it is a small issue but I really want to avoid any bad feeling of any kind.

Could you try wetting the slabs, switching off the hose and then scrubbing that part. Then rinse off. It would use considerably less water and this would hopefully then stay in the rut. You will have to start using less water - I would also be annoyed if you were washing your bird s**t into my garden area.

'sorry your path got wet'

It was clear water. She said the problem was the water. I am careful to quickly sweep most bits of anything onto the start of the flower bed and any tiny bits stay in the rut. After she went in, I looked again and it was just water on the path, no muck.

"Sorry about the water. Please can you call me on xxxxx to arrange a time to discuss..."

You can then explain in person that you need to clean the chicken poo and ask if she has any suggestions as to what can make this better for her (perhaps you could give her path a rinse once you're finished?)

Although, I'm with you. I don't get what the issue is.

Isn’t “Sorry your path got wet” is a bit hollow if I can’t also promise it will never happen again to some degree? It also happens when it rains because our garden is an inch or two higher than theirs.

You're filling the rut in your shared boundary with chicken shit. How lovely.

It was clear water. She said the problem was the water

I think maybe you're interpreting her words rather more literally than she intended. My guess is that she does think you're washing chicken shit on to her path, even if you're actually not.

Also, maybe the water makes her path slippery or slimy or whatever, or the drainage is poor, or she's just annoyed that she can't run out to the bin in her slippers or something. It sounds like her reaction was unnecessarily arsey, but I can see why she's irritated if this is something you do every week.

I'd be annoyed too. Can you not sweep it the other way and keep it in your garden?

I'd be annoyed if poo water is coming into my garden. Clear or not.

If you have a garden, you have poo in your garden regardless of the neighbour's chickens. There'll be wild bird poo, fox poo, rat poo, mouse poo, mole poo... all manner of poo.

Plus bird poo is pretty much liquid anyway so if OP was washing it down it would have dissolved. It's not like she was chucking lumps of shit onto the neighbour's path.

You think it was clean water but was it really? From her perspective you have been spreading chicken poo under the shared fence and some into her garden.
Chickens stink, they are noisy. I suspect it's partly that she doesn't like the chickens. Unless it's a large garden and they're kept away from the house I think you're unreasonable to keep chickens frankly. Your garden isn't a farm.

As someone who had chickens for years, chicken shit stinks. I know people say healthy chicken poo doesn't smell, but I've never been anywhere with chickens that doesn't smell. I wouldn't want water from the poo wash off running onto my patio either. I think you need to ensure you are sweeping away from her garden into your own from now on or keep the chickens away from that small section of the garden so you don't have to worry about the wash off. The eggs as an apology are a good idea!

Is there anything you could purchase to fill the Ruth that would absorb the water?

For example could a load of growing moss or some other thirsty plant help with the small amount of water run off?

OK to clarify some points. I have enquired early in our chicken keeping and several times since if the chickens bother them and they have said absolutely not and they like the clucking and trilling noises. I’ve also given them extra eggs before.

The issue isn’t any poo. I don’t think they even know why it gets washed down. I always careful sweep any clumps onto the flower bed and it’s only slight stains that get washed with the hose. There is no smell. They have never said anything about poo and we have discussed the chickens quite a few times over the years.

If we didn’t have the chickens I would still wash down the patio once in a while, just less often.

It is not just "clear water", it's dirty chicken shit water and I wouldn't want that on my path, either. I say this as someone who keeps chickens, btw, although away from my back garden so we avoid this exact disgusting issue. I do not want chicken shit germs being brought into my house.

They are four small bantams in a pretty big garden. There really isn’t a poo problem.

I once had a neighbour who used to complain when I watered my plants because it made her path wet. Not quite sure what she thought was happening when it rained....

I think I'd be looking at just filling the gap where it gets through. This would seem the most simple solution really.

It's obviously been bothering her. You are washing water into her garden once a week which I would imagine (even if you say it hasn't) she thinks has chicken shit in it. It's obviously the reason you wash the patio (nobody would wash a patio weekly otherwise) so I can see her reasoning behind being annoyed.
I'd either keep them off the patio to avoid having to wash it down, use a hard broom to sweep up poo and then scrub down any excess (you don't need copious amounts of water of running water to do this just a bit and scrub hard) or you find some way to fill the area between the gardens so you don't get run off. Good luck! I don't think is an insurmountable problem, just apologise and move on.

Ask her how she manages to keep her paving and roof stay dry when it rains. Perhaps then she’ll realise how stupid she’s being.

We used to keep bantams, we had a small portable run that we moved around the ,admittedly ,very large back garden. Would it be possible to do that so that the poo goes directly on your lawn /garden and not on the patio? Then no washing down is required. I'm rather fond of bantams BTW!

There's enough poo that you are having to wash down your patio once a week!!!

As someone with chickens, do you use any ground sanitiser? And make sure some goes down under/your side of the fence? If there is a smell there then that will resolve the problem.

I would hang some eggs out, and say something like didn't realise how much water was running into their garden, but you will try in the future to keep it to a minimum.

Also, if you poo pick daily / every other day, then your will limit the amount of hosing you need to do. And to be fair, it won't be long before bird flu starts them all on lock down again so no free ranging anyway! Perhaps she will be in a better mood by spring!

Chicken produce a LOT of poo. Its great for your compost and grows great veg! They then get fed some of the veg and the whole cycle continues!!

This...I found sweeping daily/removing the poo really helps and definitely wouldn't have needed a weekly hose down for four bantams. Great advise about the sanitiser.