[desertmum]

I called DEFRA this week asking if I can let the girls out, and no-one was prepared to give a definite yes, just kept saying check the rules on the website.  As we aren't in any sort of infection zone they are going outside - they are still laying but really want to get outside when it is sunny. 

Of course, sod's law, there were two foxes in my neighbours garden last night . . .   got to make sure the electric fencing is working properly.

[northfifeduckling]

I must be sitting on it, does anyone have a link to the Scottish regulations since Febr. 28th? I always just  get to the map where Scotland is cut off and no specifics.

[PK]

A week ago we were in a higher risk area but when I check the interactive map last night the boundaries have been revised and we are now just outside.

[mojocafa]

North Fife duckling - have pm you

[Bionic]

For anyone in Wales this is a link to a briefing by the senior vet to the Welsh Government

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjY_HH5IN5M

[Chicken_House]

Hi everyone,

I've had my hens under cover since DEFRA announced the measures and touch wood, all seem fine and healthy. I have been keeping my pigs in with the chickens, but someone mentioned today that I shouldn't do that because either pigs can pass Avian flu or catch Avian flu (he'd been told this in passing, so he wasn't sure it was true). I do walk my pigs back and forth to the run , so upon reflection I'm guessing they could potentially pass something on but no signs of illness in anyone yet. Has anyone else heard of this? Should I now keep them separate forever? Thanks a lot for any help you can give!

[orchard]

I think they do need to be seperate, it's because of the risk of the virus mutating to be transmittable to humans via adaptation to the pigs iirc

[harmony]

Hi everyone,

I've had my hens under cover since DEFRA announced the measures and touch wood, all seem fine and healthy. I have been keeping my pigs in with the chickens, but someone mentioned today that I shouldn't do that because either pigs can pass Avian flu or catch Avian flu (he'd been told this in passing, so he wasn't sure it was true). I do walk my pigs back and forth to the run , so upon reflection I'm guessing they could potentially pass something on but no signs of illness in anyone yet. Has anyone else heard of this? Should I now keep them separate forever? Thanks a lot for any help you can give!

You should not be keeping pigs and poultry together because pigs can catch avian flu. Take a look at the British Pig Association web site for more information on avian flu and pigs.

[Marches Farmer]

As I understand it the deadly H5N1 virus developed in China, where it's common to keep poultry in cages above pig pens.  Pigs, being quite similar in physiology to humans, can act as the link between species.

[Q]

I challenged a neighbour about letting their chickens out because if theirs get bird flu mine will probably be destroyed as well.
He said that he had rung Defra and was told that as long as there had been no incidents within 30 miles then it was ok to let them out.
Anyone else heard anything like that?
On the Defra maps we are in one of the high risk areas.

[ellied]

I wish someone would come up with a clear guide.  This picture thing seems to suggest a scarecrow is enough to keep wild birds off your free range section but how many smallholdings with free ranging birds for all or part of daylight hours, don't have trees, bushes and puddles, and how do you police wild bird poo on a 10 or even 1 acre range with any real success?  Neighbour 1 has bird feeders out over a fence from me.  Neighbour 2 has been releasing young pheasant and partridge throughout the lockdown, many of which end in my garden/fields because they don't get shot there.  Neighbour 3 has ducks and hens and is half way between me and a loch frequented by swans, geese, ducks and all kinds of overhead flying results.

Free range isn't just commercial penned areas with staff to patrol, the backyard keepers get a lot of flak for non compliance but the guidance is so messy and the advice given by government officers so variable that it is a wonder anyone risks anything as the fines and criticism are the only certainties, not how to actually manage a real life smallholding with laying birds on it!

Mine are still penned and I'm seeing advice that they can be let out but I daren't take it in case the interpretations or government guidance is wrong. I just want to open the gate and see birds actually range free again, before April ideally!

[clydesdaleclopper]

I challenged a neighbour about letting their chickens out because if theirs get bird flu mine will probably be destroyed as well.

There is no policy of culling adjacent flocks - just the affected ones.

[desertmum]

Well I put mine out today with their food and water sheltered by plastic strips.  They are sooooo happy despite the rain and mud.  I have mucked out and scrubbed out the shelter and sheep are going in ready for shearing.

DEFRA, when I called them, wouldn't give an answer to my question of ' I am not in a risk area of any sort, can I let my chickens out?'  just kept telling me to check their website for guidelines  - covering their arses I think.

[mentalmilly]

I also let my chickens out but with all food and water under cover out of the way of wild birds.  They are so happy.

[big soft moose]

I was at services on the M4 earlier today, and got chatting to the trucker in front of me in the queue  for coffee.  He was bringing in a load of thousands of live chickens from Romania  for one of the big suppliers (i'm not saying which for obvious reasons)

So while all the back yard people are bending over backwards to keep up with whatever restriction defra like to place, big suppliers are importing live birds from an area where Bird Flu is endemic ... yeah that makes perfect sense.  (bangs head in frustration)

As I said way up thread , bird flu 2017  brought to you by the same geniuses who did such a great job of Foot and Mouth 2001