The Poultry Keeper

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

I am so sorry for all of you and will be hoping every single one of your birds will be safe.

Seaside Landlady · Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 40 Location: Scotland

the timing couldn't be worse. We are booked to go away with family today for a few days. I'm already considering coming home early but we would be letting all the children down if we pulled out now, for what?

We have an old outhouse which I have cleared out but I don't want to put my hens in there and leave them more or less unsupervised for five days. I have someone coming to feed and water/ collect eggs twice a day and they have an auto pop opener on their coop.

The six of them live happily in a safe enclosure 35 ft by 12 ft, with solid walls to three sides, weldmesh to the fourth, but only netting on the roof, which I know isn't enough. I've tried a tarpaulin but the wind threatens to take the whole thing with it!

I've decided just to leave them as they are for now until I hear any different orders.

Doesn't make me feel good Confused

Knobby · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:52 am Post subject:

If your in an area which doesnt need the chooks to be bought in yet, then...............go away and TRY and enjoy yourself !!!! Neutral

Worry about things when the time comes !

Seaside Landlady · Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 40 Location: Scotland

we are in Fife, but outside the immediate zone. The advice is still unclear, poultry farmers throughout Fife are being advised to bring birds in 'where possible'. With only 6, I'm obviously not a farmer, and what does 'where possible' mean anyway?

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7144 Location: isle of lewis

fenwoman i agree with you Shocked

,after we went to a talk on the isle we came out feeling so reassured Rolling Eyes

,we have been ready for a couple of months apart from a few tweecks .we have so many migrating birds and thousands of miles of moors ,nobody would find any dead birds ,the west side eastate on it's on has 55.ooo acres ,which very few people walk in the winter Sad

suz

Alfietinker · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 82 Location: Southminster, Essex

Just wanted to say - good luck everybody up there!!!! Everything crossed for you!!xx

ramshackle · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 16

Hi folks,

something 'a little bird' told me: One of the '14 other birds' still being tested was a dead swan which was found ~ 10 miles from where we live. My best guess therefore is that the current 'larger risk area' was defined based on the places where these other birds that are still undergoing testing were found. I guess we'll find out in due course what happened to those birds.

Our hens seem reasonably happy in their new hen hotel so far - we moved them to a new patch of grass at the same time. One slight concern to us is the fact that, no matter how much we try to house our poultry, these parts of Scotland are full of pheasant shooting estates (we live on the edge of one!). As the birds are released after breeding, there is absolutely no way they can house them.....you wouldn't be able to catch the thousands of them in the first place....anyway, fingers' crossed!

fenwoman · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:00 am Post subject:

Did anyone watch 'the right stuff' this morning? SOme salient points were made.
Whooper swans can fly 500 miles in one day. The dead swan was left for 8 days before being collected on a friday by the powers that be, who only work 9-5 and the lab' was closed on the weekend. Surely in an emergency like this, a hit squad of collectors could be employed to collect dead birds immediately? Not that there would be much point. It is already here in the wild bird population and the government dithers. In my humble opinion immediate bringing indoors of all flocks and a vaccination programme could help poultry keepers but judging from what has been written, most poultry keepers would complain that their birds looked unhappy being confined Shocked

Personally I'm not waiting until someone tells me that an infected bird has been found in my area, by that time it may be too late to bring my birds indoors as they may well already have been infected. Mine are indoors as from today and the geese will be penned and covered by this afternoon. I have never been one to stand about waiting for orders when I can see a solution for myself.
The safety of my beloved birds is of utmost priority at the moment, not the inconvenience to me, or the fact that they won't enjoy being confined.

fenwoman · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:05 am Post subject:

ramshackle · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 16

Hi fenwoman,

I'm not so sure about that you know....incubation time in poultry for H5N1 ranges from 3 -7 days so if they find any evidence of spread to poultry within the next week I am convinced the DEFRA stance on the subject will be a lot less mild than it is now. We'll see I guess...thanks for your concern!

NannyP · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:40 am Post subject:

Just to say, I was tired when I posted last night. What I meant to say was, I wonder how long the virus has been in the country and is this the tip of the iceberg?

CP · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:43 am Post subject:

What do members think 'down South'? Is anyone here now keeping their birds in?
As fenwoman says, should we do it now before DEFRA tell us to, or should we wait & see if it spreads this way before confining them? Confused

Knobby · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

My Birds arent under cover........They will stay that way till Im forced to change......I'd have to get rid of some of the chooks if that is the case, and I'll be leaving it till the last minute !!

CP · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:49 am Post subject:

Mine are still out at the moment too.