chickens in lockdown

[243deer]

so as of this morning my 6 chickens have to be kept inside to protect them from wild birds although as usual there is an unclear statement about using netting which I am going to interpret in my own way.

Clearly whoever thought this up does not keep a small flock of hens, the pigeons that used to happily feed on my brassicas and the rooks that used to clear up at the bottom of the bird feeders now have to wear camoflage to make a raid and have to limit their time on the ground to 10 seconds or less, the alternative is on rushing hens which I do find quite amusing.

We have had a couple of avian flu outbreaks on commercial scale properties locally and certainly some precautions need to be taken not to spread any disease but this is quite normal for country folk. If I was to visit a friend who keeps 120000 broilers then I would obviously be extremely careful about biosecurity but hang on a minute we are not supposed to be visiting in t2 anyway! This countrywide inhumane treatment of birds with no end date seems like a complete over reaction by folk who simply do not know how to produce a measured response. In the whole country there have only been a handful of cases and my wildfowling and gamekeeping friends have not found one dead infected bird between them and we are supposed to be in a hotspot area.

This same thing comes up year after year with a relatively low number of birds affected. 

My hens are rescue hens, the poor things arrive almost featherless having been caged all their lives, I did not rescue them to see them re-caged. 

Having done a risk assessment, the most likely carriers that regularly fly over my garden are rooks. So under GL42 I am going to protect my livestock (note not shooting in the garden as I already have permission on the fields in front and behind and next to the rookery)

[Rob85]

Mind if I lend a hand....I think I saw them same rooks flying over my permissions in northern ireland 😁

[243deer]

I have been asked to reduce rook numbers on another permission of mine. Once again the main rookery is not being managed properly and now a secondary one has started up. The second one is in the middle of the farm so it will be managed, probably with an fac air rifle for the branchers as cheap to run.

[SpringDon]

How are the chickens rushing the pigeons if they’re separated? Or are they just running up to the wire?

[243deer]

41 minutes ago, SpringDon said:

How are the chickens rushing the pigeons if they’re separated? Or are they just running up to the wire?

They cannot at the moment due to the netting restricting them to a pathway to the polytunnel, I was talking about normal times. Polytunnel is 20ft x 10ft so they have some legroom and are reasonably protected. Just means I have to clean up every night and make sure there is not a scrap of food left as I do not want any furry visitors.

[turbo33]

I completely sympathise with you 243. My two are now restricted.....same scenario as you, poor things. Maybe we should get out and ramp up the pest bird control, Jackdaws/crows/Rooks in particular, as they are so keen on entering the areas where hens are.........and tell Mr Packham we have to on grounds of disease control!!!!