Do I really have to keep them in?

[Hairyhat]

For 30 days?
I have too chickens. Rescued from a horrible farm where they were shut in. I really really don't want to lock them up again for 30 days. It feels cruel. Am I risking their lives only? Or is there any danger to humans/other birds/pets?

I also question two things: if Defra are so worried, why not make more of a deal about this? And what are the chances of them prosecuting successfully if they haven't spread the word more?

I'm not taking my chickens out of their tent yet, but just feeling a bit of a wally being the only person I know 'adhering to regulations', apart from you lovely lot!

My 2 girls are furious at being kept in. I've bought a fruit cage so they can still go outside but he more contained.

I can't keep them in their house for 30 days, it's already shitty and horrible and they've trashed the grass!

I only heard because it was on the front page here Beachy.

Mine are fed up too - still laying though surprisingly. I am switching on a light at about 7am for an hour. My stables are really old and the bottom of the door is warped, I just saw a wren and a blue tit hop in through the gap for food despite the feeders in the garden.

We have covered the top half of the door with an old hay rack so that there is an air flow and daylight.

Friend went to a zoo this week and their aviaries have no protection. I'd expect them to have something.

This is from a Guardian article

The government’s chief vet, Nigel Gibbens, has declared a “prevention zone” for England that requires commercial and individual bird keepers to keep their birds inside for 30 days or take steps to separate them from wild birds.

The order, which was texted to poultry farmers on Tuesday, comes after a type of highly pathogenic avian flu, H5N8, was found in dead wild birds and some farm birds across Europe.

“The risk that we are trying to prevent is to our British poultry flock … to make sure these birds are protected against disease,” Gibbens told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He added: “Everybody should do what they can. Pet bird keepers should do their best and take sensible measures to separate them from wild birds, while looking after their welfare. I don’t want people putting them in a box in the dark and keeping them there for weeks on end.”

What does that say then because a lot of people are keeping them in the dark for weeks on end .

But they're not putting them in a box. I think he doesn't want people cramming their chickens in a carboard box for a month, but a shut up shed is different.

Are people really keeping them in the actual dark as opposed to a slightly gloomy shed? I would hope anyone keeping their birds somewhere with no windows at all would be providing artificial light.

My point was that I consider the chief vet's comments open to interpretation. Some people would class a small shed as 'putting them in a box in the dark'.

Defra need to be black and white on what is and what is not acceptable.

I think Defra CBA. They've made the rule as a kneejerk, not thought it through, but are being seen to 'do something!' They don't give two hoots what hobby keepers do. I think they under-estimated how many hobby keepers there are.

It's an airborne disease. In airborne creatures. And they think netting will help? Netting? Unless we have sheds with an airlock, we're pissing in the wind.

Or just getting a massing quagmire of shit in the middle of my lawn in my case, and birds on strike.

I just hope this isn't extended beyond January because it's taking all the fun out of having the girls. They are miserable and I feel guilty whenever I go out in the garden. They have a lovely clean run (bit darker now with fleece round it) with a dirt box and veg hanger but they still want to come out. Obviously they don't understand how spoiled they are compared to most of their 'relatives'!

I suppose netting will stop wild birds coming into the run and using the same feeders and drinkers which I thought (might be wrong) is the likeliest cause of transmission.

Me too Pixel.

I am going to attempt to build a run tomorrow using my electric netting, but I need wooden posts to attach something to the top of it and that will decide the size of the run.

They live in an orchard, completely free range. It has got a dry stone wall and nothing to attach anything to without driving fence posts. If I needed to move them out of there for any reason I could just use the electric netting, without fence posts. I am still not sure what I have got to put on the top.

The advice seems very half hearted.

Really bad news. A friend has just texted me, her dh high up in defra type organisation.

Avian flu at a poultry farm 20 miles from me, they've just started culling.

Shutting footpaths in the area.

Where's that Possum?

this one?

Yes. Right area anyway so I assume so.

Hope it's a false alarm

Sadly friend is adamant not a false alarm and her dh very much has a job where he would know.

Well, it was going to happen, it was just a matter of when. Looks like we have got them inside in the nick of time. I wonder if the people who think it doesn't apply to them will rethink.

Unless defra up their advice then I doubt it. At the minute I think defra are just people the impression if it's too difficult then don't worry. And you can't blame people for not complying when that's the message bloody defra are giving out.

Wonder how the turkeys got it though as they will have been inside.

Wild birds getting in?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-38342006

Turkey farm affected those not infected will be culled.

Can't see wild bird s getting in a modern large scale turkey farm. The sheds are so secure.

The stupid chief vet says any sign of ill poultry you should report it but doesn't say who to! I assume defra?