Cheery's country living adventure

Fortune_Smiles

Hi Cheery.  Sorry to hear you're feeling low.  Mr F and I have started taking Vitamin D and it has made a difference to my state of mind.  It's important for regulating mood and warding off depression and few of us will be getting enough right now.  We'll stop in March when the days are longer and start again in October.

Fortune x

debtfreeoneday

How long will the chickens be in for?

Cheery_Daff

debtfreeoneday said:

How long will the chickens be in for?

There's no end date Last time this happened (2016/7 winter, before had chickens), they were in til April Basically til the risk of bird flu has passed - so in reality when the migrating wildfowl have gone  

There are commercial implications to them staying in for too long. Meat birds can be labeled 'free range' until they've been in for 12 weeks, after which they have to be downgraded. For eggs it's 16 weeks before they're downgraded from 'free range' to 'barn'. I wondered why they'd not started the restrictions until 14th December, but a friend who raised turkeys pointed out it's likely because all the Christmas birds will be in by then anyway - no point making people build extra housing for turkeys that will be dead in a week or two anyway. 

Not saying they WILL let them out within 12 or 16 weeks, just that there will be implications for the industry if they don't, which they'll be balancing against the bird flu risk. 12 weeks takes us to 8th March, 16 to 5th April. I think last time they didn't get shut in til mid Jan, then let out late April.

I guess, pretty much like our own lockdown, we'll have to wait and see (although at least this has happened before, and the risk will mostly disappear with the winter geese!)

redofromstart

Did you manage to get materials to extend the run?  I think we have roof felt and a full roll of chicken wire lurking in the garage if you get really stuck.  

greenbee

redofromstart said:

Did you manage to get materials to extend the run?  I think we have roof felt and a full roll of chicken wire lurking in the garage if you get really stuck.  

Not that you're desperate to get stuff out of the garage... 

redofromstart

greenbee said:

redofromstart said:

Did you manage to get materials to extend the run?  I think we have roof felt and a full roll of chicken wire lurking in the garage if you get really stuck.  

Not that you're desperate to get stuff out of the garage... 

Maybe ;-)  The next house will have chickens again though so it will not be rehomed unless someone needs it.

Cheery_Daff

redofromstart said:

Did you manage to get materials to extend the run?  I think we have roof felt and a full roll of chicken wire lurking in the garage if you get really stuck.  

Thank you redo, that is SO kind of you! We are all set though We ordered a giant role of quarter inch mesh which arrived yesterday, and we're using roofing from the old pig shelters the woman before us had. We might need a bit of wood but that's easy enough to get hold of (and actually we might well manage with what we've got). 

Thank you though, I am touched by your kind offer xx

redofromstart

Glad you are sorted, it was just in case everywhere had sold out as everyone rushes to build.  We will plan for a big run and shelter next time, ours were very free range but it isn't practical and the fox took all of the third flock here which was most distressing.  Once we move I will plan for them.  I also want a wood and a stream for the imaginary pigs :-)

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, woods and streams and imaginary pigs sound fantastic! How lovely

Definitely worth planning a bigger run. I'm glad we made ours as big as we did, with headspace for us and space for chairs for us to sit with them. It's also really secure, so we know they're safe and can leave them all day in there. But if I was starting from scratch I think I'd go three times the size at least. I love having them free range but as you say sometimes it's just not practical. Our poor ladies are shut in today because of the fog...

CathT

<sneaks in and waves>

Hello Cheery, I have made it to the end of your diary! You were
mentioned on another diary I read so popped over to yours, planned to skip through first and last 10 or so pages but found myself reading the lot.

I will be reading more regularly now but for now need to catch up on all the other diaries I am way behind on!