A few days ago I received a package in the mail from the village council, the body in charge of allotments at our village. It contained a detailed booklet ennumerating all the new requirements for hygiene and risk management regarding avian flu. Once more, bird flu is a problem in the country and once more, all domestic poultry and fowl will need to go under cover--probably until spring.
This last happened in the winter of 2016/2017, when we had to keep our chickens in a small yard with netting on top in order to completely exclude wild birds, as well as some other biosecurity requirements. We had 14 chickens in total, and they were confined for about three miserable months in a very small enclosure.
After reading over the allotment requirements, we have decided they are just too restrictive and would be cruel to keep our chickens confined there; one of the stipulations is that they not be outdoors--not even with netting overhead--unless someone is physically supervising them. I can't lock them up in their coop there--it's way too small. They'll have to come home, where I can supervise them all day.
To that end, the husband went and got some tall posts and has started to put them up, to make a permanent yard here at home; thankfully we still have a good sized coop here. He'll get the gate up and posts in, put up wire around them, and then net the top. It should be about as tall as the yard at the allotment allowing us to go in without crouching, and covering a larger area than their yard at the allotment. All this needs to be done by 14 December--just about a week away.
Our three ducks will be going in too, as they are included in the order. They've been free ranging for a few weeks, and I even moved the fence surrounding part of the veg patch to give them access last week. I'll leave them out for as long as possible, but they'll have to be under cover by 14 Dec too. It's going to be a hard winter for birds.
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