Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Nelliegrace said:

It has been sunny here too @edwink but still cold. I hope there won’t be a frost while the apricot is in bloom.
Our hens are under clear tarpaulin and enjoyed the sun today. 15 eggs last week from the three of them. 

 All the blossom got knocked off our apricot tree recently when we had hail stones here. Only got 2 apricots on the tree last year as the same happened then. It's beautiful when all the blossom is out, especially as we have around 20 trees all in blossom around the same time. I Love it!

One egg roughly every other day here at the moment. Our hens are under clear corrugated perspex with UV block coating on it. 

Edwink x

orangecrush

Hello everyone!

I’ve been reading all our news sporadically, but have been very time-poor and haven’t posted.

Well thanks to my overworking myself I have pneumonia, and am forced to rest.

Our chicks are still doing well! We think Buffy, our Orpington, is turning 6 this year. So we were surprised to find two eggs in the coop this week! Ginger I think is 4, and she’s a bit of a rubbish layer anyway. 

We’re having a debate about what to do - we won’t rehome thé hens, they’re our pets, but we have a fair chunk of garden taken up by them, for no return! Also we keep getting rats visiting the garden - they don’t really bother us, but we have very squeamish neighbours who complain frequently. (NB the chicken run is fully enclosed with weld mesh and rodent mesh over the top of that; the rats can’t actually get in, and we’ve had pest control out who say that the rats aren’t actually living on our property… but never let that get in the way of a whinge from neighbours!)

We could get some new feathery friends and endure years more neighbour whinging, but benefit from eggs, or we just wait until the encumbents die then give up ? 

We have two small kids, busy jobs and a house that we’re renovating… so we don’t have a lot of spare time. But I think we’d miss them! 

Anyway no rush to decide with flockdown still in place. 

(An insight into our moaning neighbours - for flockdown we securely tied a tarp over the coop. During a storm they came over and complained because the noise of the wind rattling the tarp was making their dog bark.)

Cheery_Daff

Urgh, they sound very annoying orangecrush! Hope you complained about their dog barking! 

Ours are finally starting to feel a bit fed up and grumpy. They're fine, but the new ones are still being a bit of a nuisance to the old ones, and I think they would all benefit from some more space outside. We've not finished building the extension yet 🙄 and it's rather wet today so they'd be in anyway. Need to get on with the building work though.

I've been reading the DEFRA bird flu risk assessments. They released these every week last year, but the one this week was the first since 6th Feb. They've downgraded the risk for wild birds from very high to high - that didn't happen til 25th April last year, and it was the week they announced the end to flockdown (which ended 2nd May).

They've also downgraded the risk for places with good biosecurity from medium to low, which again didn't happen til 25th April last year.

Risk for places with poor biosecurity remains at high though - it was downgraded to medium on 25th April last year (the same date as the other risks changed). 

I am certainly not an expert, but I'd hope that flockdown would be ended when the risk levels reach the same as last year's ending. Risk for wild birds and good biosecurity has now reached that, as of this week, and we're just waiting for risk for poor biosecurity to drop from high to medium...

So maybe it'll be soon?! All fingers and toes crossed. Of course, there are likely to be all kinds of things behind the scenes that I don't know about, and I'm not going on any actual numbers, just their risk levels, but you've got to have something to hope for, right??

Dustyevsky

Nelliegrace said:
The proposal is that all domestic birds are to be registered. Is Defra planning to send men in biohazard suits to exterminate a child’s budgie if it is not registered? 

How is that going to reduce bird flu when wild birds fly in every year?
I expect we will need a licence for a bird table next.

I'm not sure how registering those of us with a few chickens is going to help contain avian flu assuming we  practice good biosecurity. That's the important thing. With birds costing maybe £25 each, I'm not going to be taking too many risks! If any sort of ill health strikes a chicken, most of us small-time keepers will spot that very quickly and have her isolated . We are not the problem, so putting us on yet another list isn't the solution.

I thought about the above when watching Canada geese in a parkland setting a few months ago. I did a rough count and there were around 300. According to the notice, avian flu was endemic in this flock, but it was impossible to get anywhere near the birds. Apparently, we were to phone a number if we saw any dead or distressed geese, and so far as I know, that was the level of 'control.'

edwink

I know I have mentioned this before but there is a farm about 4 to 5 miles away from us here in Hertfordshire and all their many many hens are still being let out daily, I mean hundreds of them. I know this firsthand because my brother actually works there but not with the hens. I do believe that these farms are a big part of the problem, then they shout from the rooftops that it isn't fair when their flock ends up with Avian Flu and the whole lot is destroyed. 

It just makes me so cross that we garden hen keepers are doing all we can to keep our girls safe meanwhile a few miles away they couldn't care less and if their hens are destroyed they will just get some more. Mine are pets and I do everything I can like others on here to keep mine safe. 

From experience of keeping ex-battery hens I don't think any of mine have reached 6 years old, in fact, I am almost sure none have. The girls I have left at the moment are over 5 years old so I do wish that they were able to lift the lockdown so they can come out and roam about and forage in their last year. I do all I can for them but it is not the same as letting them roam about anywhere and everywhere they want to on their own.

Edwink x

edwink

Hi everyone, hope you and your feathered friends are ok.

I've got a slightly quiet hen here but she has her moments and picks up ok. She's not overly hot or off her food but just sits on her own for quite a bit. Maybe she is just taking little naps because she is bored being in the same surroundings all the time with the same hens. Although we do change things around in the run and add and take away things. Added a ladder yesterday and lent it on the hospital hut so they can climb up there. They jump up on the roof of the hospital hut anyway but thought this might be a change for them. Hung up broccoli and sweetcorn this morning and I definitely expected more enthusiasm I have to admit, oh well!

When will we ever see the end of flockdown?

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Aw, hope your poorly hen picks up edwink! 

I did laugh at yours showing less enthusiasm than you expected to broccoli and sweetcorn 😂 ours have no interest in such things either. We hung up a cabbage last week and has anyone taken a single peck? Nope! 

I hope the end of flockdown is soon. I've been reading the risk assessment reports - in the latest one, the risk levels are reduced to exactly the same levels as the point last year when the lockdown ended - and yet they haven't lifted it. So I don't know what else needs to happen 🙄 Every day sees the end of more and more of the temporary 3km zones which is a good sign. The last risk assessment was dated 29th March and released 4th April. Last year they were doing them weekly, but they've been less often this year. 

I'm hoping they'll release a new one after the bank holiday announcing the end of flockdown... fingers crossed. But maybe they'll just keep them in til the end of April anyway like last year,regardless of the reduced risk levels?? 

Who knows. It's all very vexing.

Nelliegrace

Happy Easter.
I hope the hen is better soon. Does she smell the same as usual?  @edwink

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Dustyevsky

Cheery_Daff said:

I did laugh at yours showing less enthusiasm than you expected to broccoli and sweetcorn 😂 ours have no interest in such things either. We hung up a cabbage last week and has anyone taken a single peck? Nope! .

Mine are much less fussy. Got them on 19p Easter carrots at present and bolted mizuna. Broccoli, I agree, is treated with some suspicion; but half a drumhead cabbage goes by lunchtime.

edwink

Nelliegrace said:

Happy Easter.
I hope the hen is better soon. Does she smell the same as usual?  @edwink

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I love your "I was an Easter egg". Thank you for posting that.

Yes, your question about smelling the same. I've had her on my lap to comfort her a couple of times today so I would have noticed. She has perked up a bit which I'm pleased about. Will keep a close eye on her tomorrow.

Edwink x