DEFRA Prevention Zone and Hens in the Garden

Time in the garden is one of the things that I love to be able to offer my girls. As ex-batts, every minute of freedom is precious and seeing them scratching about, systematically destroying my grass is one of life’s pleasures! At 6pm last night (Tuesday 6th December), this all changed……

Due to a serious strain of Avian Flu in Europe, England, Scotland and Wales were declared ‘Prevention Zones’ by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs). The zones which are there to protect poultry in the UK are in place for 30 days until 6th January 2017. The disease, which in this case can be fatal, spreads from bird to bird through faeces or contaminated bodily fluids.

When I first read about this, I didn’t think that with my little garden flock of 7 it would apply to me so I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention. I heard a bit more about it that evening and thought maybe I should look properly. Good job I did because as it turns out, it does apply to me! For 30 days, all poultry in the Prevention Zones has to be separated from wild birds so whether you have 2 hens or 2000 hens, it’s a lockdown!

Poultry has to be kept somewhere that can’t be accessed by wild birds and where possible, there should be some sort of cover to prevent wild bird droppings getting in. As a back garden hen keeper, although it’s not ideal, for me it’s manageable and I was immediately grateful for my large, covered, walk in run. We upgraded it a few years ago – it’s 18’x5’x6′ and the hen house is inside it. The ‘walls’ are made of 12 gauge mesh panels and the roof and back ‘wall’ of the run are covered with heavy duty plastic sheeting. This is an old photograph but it gives you an idea of what I’ve got.

My girls weekday routine has always involved them being let out to play when I get home from work but with 30 days confinement on the cards, they’re in for a shock! If there’s a bright side to the situation it’s that it’s winter and the girls go to bed earlier now. With sunset now around 3.50pm, by the time I’m home from work the girls have already cleaned their beaks and fluffed their feathery PJ’s ready for bed.  Usually five of them Rosie, Ruby, Ellie, Camilla and Annie are all perched and snuggled not long after sunset. The other two, Stevie and Gracie Mouse prolong bedtime like children, “but mum, I just need a drink!”, “but mum, I just need some more food!” until finally with a guiding hand and enticed by the sleepy coos of the others, they climb the ramp to bed.

At the weekend I try to spend more time in the garden with the girls to make up for them not getting out for long throughout the week, it’s a great chance for me to check them over and make sure they’re ok too. I might just about get away with the weekdays but it’s the weekends that will be difficult for them.

When I get about half way down garden the hens hear me and all run to the door of the run. Normally I get to the bottom of the garden, open the door and they all pour out in a wave of excited feathery clucks but this weekend is going to be different. I know there’ll be a few of them trying to sneak past me when I go into the run so I’m going to have a little barrier ready to try and stop them!

It’ll feel really strange without them being in the garden this week, even for a few minutes and the garden already looks really empty without them! There’s not much grass left at the moment and Camilla always escapes to the other side of the fence where the grass is greener so after 30 days rest, there might be a few new blades for them to nibble when they’re released!

I’ve decided to order some Virkon S disinfectant powder to give the girl’s run a good clean out and to use in a foot bath for when I’m in and out of the run changing their food and water. It’s DEFRA approved and effective against Avian Flu so will always be handy to have as an addition to my essentials kit.

30 days is going to feel like a really long time and I feel so guilty that my girls are shut away. I have to keep reminding myself that where they are now, even though they’re shut in, will always be better than where they were before. My girls already have things in their run to occupy them but if you need a few ideas for your girls then you might find some in my post ‘In House Hentertainment’.

I’m going to add a few more things, sprout stalks are normally in the shops at this time of year and these usually keep the girls busy for a while.

With the 30 day DEFRA lockdown now firmly in place I think there are going to be some pretty grumpy hens out there! Roll on 6th January 2017!

If you’ve got any great ‘boredom buster’ ideas I’d love to hear them or get in touch and let me know how your girls are coping! There are links in the side menu to my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages and I’d love to hear from you!