Happy New Year to you all
- Thread starter Icemaiden
- Start date
valeriebutterley
New member
Mine too!
If I so much as open the back door the excitement is almost too much for them, they are obviously saying (in chicken speak) here we go at last. Then I get mobbed at the door of the run, it is extremely difficult to stop them sometimes from getting out, ever been mobbed by 14 feathered furies?
If I so much as open the back door the excitement is almost too much for them, they are obviously saying (in chicken speak) here we go at last. Then I get mobbed at the door of the run, it is extremely difficult to stop them sometimes from getting out, ever been mobbed by 14 feathered furies?
rick
Active member
Cheers Icemaiden. Happy New Year!
I had never heard of a wigeon before - a scattered handful of water birds, mostly around estuaries, and an unfortunate falcon that probably ate a wigeon have been found. Hopefully that's not too surprising or out of the ordinary... Hopefully the 6th will be like a new years eve all over again but for hens!
I had never heard of a wigeon before - a scattered handful of water birds, mostly around estuaries, and an unfortunate falcon that probably ate a wigeon have been found. Hopefully that's not too surprising or out of the ordinary... Hopefully the 6th will be like a new years eve all over again but for hens!
chrismahon
Well-known member
And a Happy new Year from me to all as well.
We have ducks on the local pond so I hope they don't fly over us. At the moment our problems are due to cold and damp, although the neighbour's hen has what may be poisoning from eating too many Shield (Stink) Beetles- we've had a glut of then this year and they get into every gap everywhere.
We have ducks on the local pond so I hope they don't fly over us. At the moment our problems are due to cold and damp, although the neighbour's hen has what may be poisoning from eating too many Shield (Stink) Beetles- we've had a glut of then this year and they get into every gap everywhere.
There's been another outbreak of bird flu confirmed yesterday in Wales - the far side of the country from the previous one. Whether this means the restrictions will be extended beyond the 6th is anybody's guess. DEFRA has been very slow at advising keepers. I would imagine the winter migration season must be ending by now, (they'll soon all be coming back the other way, won't they?) and there's no way of knowing how much of it is now endemic in the wild bird population, so DEFRA has a choice, I suppose - either to issue further warnings about keeping flocks under cover, or just to regard bird flu as a notifiable disease. It's more of a welfare issue for ducks and geese than chickens, as they get most of their feed from grass. After all, it's apparently not a kind of flu that would cross species and lead to a human pandemic so not a risk to human health