g.d. chicken ransom

last night i received a note taped to my front door.

apparently, my chickens have been eating my neighbors tomatoes. he mentioned this last week, as sarah and i were carting chickens out to the farm, and i thought the issue would be settled with the majority of the chickens gone. apparently not.

they claim they've eaten 50 lbs. of tomatoes.
a fact i have a hard time believing. but, how could i refute it?

i understand their frustration, but all in all, i'm irritated.

one, why didn't they tell me sooner?

two, i don't believe 50 lbs of tomatoes are gone—at most two chickens were over there.

three, they have a long history of growing 10x more than they need and then constantly badgering me to take things off their hands.

four, their children lob balls over the fence all the time—this past week they broke my olive oil jar. they also pull up my plants, step on my flowers, and verbally acost me all the time.

five, (and most importantly) they wrote "since we are feeding your chickens we think you should give us eggs" like a g.d. ransom. or threat. which i find completely un-neighborly. they could ask for eggs any time, they don't need to hold this chicken situation over my head and demand eggs.

so last night i shored up my fence and locked all the ladies up in the coop. they will stay there for the next week or two. maybe i'll get some grass planted and some wings clipped. either way, i'll keep them under lock and key and we'll see if any more terrorism ensues. if so, maybe its not my deal. or maybe my lost chickens are not lost, just feral.

and tonight i will leave them a dozen eggs and an apology, and then i will ignore them.

i understand the frustration of losing precious produce to chickens but i can't get over their methods. especially when i turn a blind eye to all manners of irritating behavior.