[Richmond]

Mmm yes it's the "where practical" bit I'm thinking about.  I don't trust my geese with netting - they will chew it. To provide large rigid structures of wood and weldmesh will cost a fortune.

[Penninehillbilly]

I really can't imagine trying to keep my geese confined, their overnight pen is far too small, OK  just for overnight, fed in there at nights, I have a very small field below their hut, they will go in there, with a bucket of water. The frog pond will be covered over somehow.
We don't get migrating birds, apart from occasional flight of geese way up high.
Hens will be in. One trio lives in polytunnel since last year anyway, other trio plenty of space in their 4x6 shed with extra raised platform.
In some ways, it's good that it's over the worst part of the year weather wise. Not fit for them to be out anyway normally (Up here in the Pennines anyway)

[doganjo]

Nice that they’ve given plenty of notice. A week would have been enough. I’ll not get my hens covered by Monday especially with the forecast storm coming at the weekend.

I had got mine in and under over but teh gales last night have devastated my orchard and the tarpaulin is hanging by a thread, literally.  No one to help me put it back on for a few days so I'm glad I've only 4 hens.  They are inside a weldmesh run so nothing except teeny birds can get in anyway, but I hope one of my kids comes over tomorrow

[Fleecewife]

Nice that they’ve given plenty of notice. A week would have been enough. I’ll not get my hens covered by Monday especially with the forecast storm coming at the weekend.

I had got mine in and under over but teh gales last night have devastated my orchard and the tarpaulin is hanging by a thread, literally.  No one to help me put it back on for a few days so I'm glad I've only 4 hens.  They are inside a weldmesh run so nothing except teeny birds can get in anyway, but I hope one of my kids comes over tomorrow

Oh no, that's a bummer. What happened to your fruit trees?  Our windbreak fence which is one side of the goose enclosure snapped off all the deer posts in the wind - they had been there for 25 years so it was perhaps inevitable.  One tree down, and a roundy tin ex-pig now sheep shelter (big and very heavy) was flipped right over a fence, mashing it as it did so. Not much compared to others, but a nuisance just before lockdown.  I think there will be a few folk in your situation doganjo.

[lord flynn]

I am glad that I have cut back on ducks but it’s still a pain. The Muscovy are pretty laid back and don’t seem to mind much, the crested will hate it though. the hens I keep in during the winter under lights anyway, they do much better like that.


I work a lot with commercial egg units, some of the largest and the smaller free range organic ones-their biosecurity is very good actually, as with all these things it gets harder at scale and free range units are the hardest. This is the third avian lockdown in what, 5 years? Seems likely that it will become an annual event and people should be prepared for it.

[doganjo]

What happened to your fruit trees? 

  They're fine, Juliet - they are still only a couple of years old and most are dwarf variety - my kids and my cousin thought ahead of time that as I get older and shorter I wouldn't be able to reach the fruit on the upper branches.   The stakes they put in are well planted a couple of feet in.
The grass was totally flattened though.(maybe a good thing  ); and the  rhododendron and elder trees had a good pounding

The orchard is on the side of the house so was protected to an extent, the back garden is at the top of the property so took all the force of the wind.  My back fence, which was already about 20 years old, took a hit and is wobbly, but my friend Roy who did my renovations came up yesterday and propped it up.  He'll replace the rotten posts in the summer.  My neighbour behind me returned from London yesterday afternoon to find they had no fence left at all.  So I've been lucky.  Just need to replace my very useful little plastic greenhouse and my pond plants

[Warwick lad]

I've just read this thread from the start, when you don't have birds at all you never take much notice when the media says that bird flu is about again.
Now we have our own little flock it's a different case altogether...so it'll be a sit, wait & watch maybe until next spring to be clear??.

Cheers BJ

[Nelson International]

Silver linings: a Eurasian eagle owl has discovered our chickens, but cannot get at them because of lockdown. If he/she had been a couple of weeks earlier, it might have been a bloodbath...

[Fleecewife]

Silver linings: a Eurasian eagle owl has discovered our chickens, but cannot get at them because of lockdown. If he/she had been a couple of weeks earlier, it might have been a bloodbath...

Where are you to have an eagle owl?

[Nelson International]

South Wales. Apparently they're usually escaped from captivity with the possibility of some coming over from the continent. the last reports I can find are of one with jesses on in Cardiff in 2019, but this bird doesn't seem to have any on.

[Fleecewife]

South Wales. Apparently they're usually escaped from captivity with the possibility of some coming over from the continent. the last reports I can find are of one with jesses on in Cardiff in 2019, but this bird doesn't seem to have any on.

I thought you were going to say somewhere like Russia or Czechia, not Wales 


I wonder how many eagle owls there are living free in the UK. It would almost be worth losing a hen or two to see an eagle owl