Here at the Rawles Ranch the chicken-loving Memsahib couldn't help but be dismayed when her DH suggested the immediate sale of her sizable flock of terribly cute and tame chickens. So off to the internet in search of answers...
Wild birds can be the carriers
of Avian Flu to domestic chickens
and turkeys. Bird flu can be spread from country to country by migratory
birds. Waterfowl can carry avian flu without clinical signs of infection. With
that said, how can any government in the world keep the Avian Flu from reaching
their shores? To prevent Avian Flu infecting your home poultry flock,
your fowl
must
be
protected
from
coming
into
contact
with
the saliva, respiratory secretions and feces of wild birds. Furthermore
you
must prevent wild bird saliva, secretions, and feces from contaminating
the food and water of your poultry flock, or contaminating your poultry equipment.
This means here at the Rawles Ranch, letting the chickens have free range is
a
thing of the past. We
have
to
redo
our
chicken
housing too. First, the poultry wire will be replaced with much smaller
mesh so that small wild birds can't enter the pens. Next, all parts
of the pens
will
have solid tops so that if wild birds do perch on the top their
feces cannot
drop into the pen.
It appears that all humans who contracted Avian Flu had direct contact with
live birds. Transmission occurs when human breathe in droplets of secretions
or dried feces of infected birds. There is no evidence that
suggests the virus is transmitted by consuming poultry products. Reducing
your exposure to the birds' secretions make sense. How about nest boxes
with
doors
to the outside so that you can collect eggs without entering the coop? How
about food hoppers and waterers that can be filled from outside the coop? (But
make sure they are covered and that wild birds can't contaminate them.) What
about keeping the chickens in raised pens and letting their feces drop below
into bins
with
earthworms
to
compost it ?
To be frank, not being able to let my chickens free range spoils
it for me. I built my flock up to about 30 laying hens, so that I would have
plenty of eggs to
share. The
cost
of
the
extra feed was offset by their ability to free range for grasshoppers and
other chicken treats in the pasture. But if all of
the feed has to be store bought, then the feed costs really start adding up
in a hurry, not to mention
taking
up storage space! So
in
the
end
it seems more logical to cut the flock waaaay back to just enough laying
hens to provided eggs for family use and to put up more storage food for people
instead
of chickens. That's too bad, because I really enjoy the pastoral picture
of
my
contented chicken catching bugs in the barnyard.