Hi chick. Yes it is worrying, and I expect it has been with us for many years, since the spread of infections is linked to wild bird migration patterns in Autumn and Spring. I think many people in the fairly recent past who kept a few private hens wouldn’t have been informed about it, before we were all on the internet and able to keep up to date on developments.
The main way to protect your flock is to reduce or eliminate their contact with wild birds, ideally by keeping them in a large run with a solid roof. A mesh roof will stop wild birds getting in, but isn’t fully effective because wild birds can still land on the roof and poo through the mesh, thus contaminating the bedding where your hens will scratch and forage. Of course if you offer your birds an area for free ranging, and maybe have a small run with a coop included, this poses problems if restrictions are imposed. You just have to be prepared and think ahead in case lockdown measures are imposed. Although a fully free range system is ideal for chickens, they will be perfectly happy and healthy in a roofed run if it’s large enough, (minimum of 2 square metres per bird) and if you supply them with green food as daily extras to their normal diet of good quality layers pellets. Compared with most commercially farmed chickens, this is paradise!
If avian flu is diagnosed in a flock near to yours, unfortunately yours will be culled along with any others in the local area, whether or not they are infected. And if course, if yours are the first to be infected, local chicken farming businesses will lose all their birds. Most outbreaks are on commercial farm premises, though, so with care and good hygiene, those of us with small flocks should be OK.
