The Poultry Keeper

debcat

.. apparently you now have to register if you have 50 or more birds even if you don't sell or give away any birds or eggs (except Scotland - yet)

links below:
http://www.acountrylife.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=9857

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/vetsurveillance/poultry/index.htm

By law* in England and Wales you must register if you own or are responsible for a poultry premises with 50 or more birds. This requirement also applies even if the premises is only stocked with 50 or more birds for part of the year. At present, premises with fewer than 50 birds are not required to register, but we encourage keepers to do so voluntarily.

This does not necessarily mean 50 of one species (although this may be the case) but 50 overall, for example if you have 30 chickens, 15 geese, 4 ducks and 1 rhea you need to register.In Scotland the requirement for registration currently applies to commercial premises with 50 or more birds. Similar legislation to England and Wales, as detailed above, will apply in Scotland in due course.

A "commercial premises" means premises where poultry are kept for commercial purposes. This requirement does not apply to premises where all poultry (and their eggs) are kept by their owners for their own consumption or as pets.

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 2703 Location: Monmouthshire

All I can say is that my sister, who lives in Scotland, was told she should register and has. She, like the rest of us, keeps them as a hobby, to supply eggs for family, and sells the surplus eggs and poultry locally. She too had to register them as 'pets' since she does NOT run a commercial premises. Mind you, the left and right hands of defra are usually arguing. In a small community there's always somebody who doesn't like you and amuses themselves with anonymous calls to officialdom - here they tried it on me at a public meeting.

ParkFarm · Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 6 Location: South Ayrshire

Me too, I live in Scotland and have a large number of birds, not for commercial purposes but rescues and purely because I love poultry and I have to list where every bird came from and keep a register of the ones I have and new ones I bring in, it's bad enough with the sheep/goat/cows and pigs with the paperwork, it is now the poultry as well! So Scotland is included, it was a gentlemen from SERAD that came down for the regular inspection and told me this was in force.