nip out to b&q and get some clear wriggly plastic to put over your chook run and don't let them free range for a while.

people get awful panicky about bird flu and with this latest outbreak even your neighbours might snide you up to the authorities.
If your birds are 'covered' thus preventing the theoretical risk from migratory birds (yes, we know that's not how they're catching it and that intensive farming and live imports are to blame) but if you can say that yours have been covered since the outbreak it is usually enough to satisfy the environmental health.

keep the receipts....if you can get it tonight and can prove so you should be okay

House them in the greenhouse ???

Is it all kicked off again?

Thanks for this, sweeti

Erm can you explain slloooowwwwlllly...

What's happened?

yeah put the news on

there is a new outbreak in a farm in suffolk (Diss I think they said) an initial and now secondary exclusion zone have been set up already and the birds on the affected farm culled

now, the farmer has to say that his birds were infected by a migratory wild bird doesn't he? after all, who would want to fess up to trashing the british poultry trade weeks before christmas? poor sod.
Anyway.....what this means to you (well, us and Lilo) is that you should as far as poss be seen to be adhering to defra rules. officially you don't have to cos your flock is less than fifty strong, but being inside the 'zone' you need to protect yourself.
If you keep the birds inside their run, and if the run top is covered (to prevent birds flying overhead from poohing in it, and if your run sides are 'sparrowproof' environmental health won't be able to cull your chooks unless they cull every battery chook in the vicinity. (which they won't do)
do it quick though.....it's looking bad in your neck of the woods

Helped alot, sweetpea! mwah!

Thanks Tara!!

I'm outside the zone at the min... so just keeping the little sweeties quiet.... If I need to I'll shove em in with the growed up and watch the feathers fly... then put a net over the top..

what do you reckon?

Have you joined the poultry register thingy?

nope.

I'm gonna dress my girls up as rabbits and keep schtum

It's definitely H5N1 then. Wasn't it this time last year too?

Will a net keep out any passing migratory bird shoite

There's foot and mouth about 3 miles from here - the Cypriots are pretty much ignoring it, the Eu says they need to cull, Cyprus is currentl saying bollox to that and blaming Kazakstan for selling them dodgy vaccine - last week they blamed the UK said it was linked to the Purbright outbreak (at least until the results came and said it was a completely different strain) - Personally I reckon Turkish special forces smuggled an infected sheep through the British territories into the Republic of Cyprus so as to undermine the ecomony of the Republic.

Anyway back to poultry - could it be an animal rights plot so we don't eat turkeys at Xmas ???

"Where the hell are they going to get H5N1 from?"

I dunno mate - Ebay maybe , they are sneaky them activists you know

Ah ya blood thirsty meat eating basket you!!!! I'll send my hooded mates round to yours. Gonna give them this picture

so they know who you are.

I wish I was a quid behind the bloke on the right - he's our new owner, 25th richest man in the UK - he can certainly afford to eat all the pies

yak