Hi Y'all - questions on birdflu in NE OH.

[RootedTogetherHomestead]

Hi y'all,

New chicken mama here in NE OH (Cleveland/Medina area). Currently, we have a flock of six girls in a 72 sq ft runner and a 24 sq ft henhouse. I can tell they want out of their runner and to forage, but we are surrounded by predators here. coyotes, hawks, raccoons, cats, minks, owls, and dogs. You name it, it's probably around us. And then there is bird flu.. I saw that Ohio was very high for it. We wanted to buy one of those metal chicken run tractor things on Amazon (suggestions welcome) to let the girls out and forage in the yard for an hour a few times a week *supervised*, but we worry about the bird flu in this area. Does anyone have any input on how to either safely allow them to forage in the yard and mitigate the risks of bird flu, or what times of year are safest for them to forage? We would probably pick one spot for them to forage over a few months, vs moving the tractor thingy every day, so they do not destroy our entire yard.

Unfortunately, we have city guidelines for how big the coop needed to be (which we broke the rules on and went over slightly ). So, we cannot make the runner bigger.

Thanks y'all

 

[Debbie292d]

I just read the USDA HPAI report yesterday and saw good news that it seems H5N1 has been fading.

I pulled it back up and Ohio hasn't seen infected birds for months. That doesn't of course mean there's no avian flu, just that it should be improving.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestoc...an/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/wild-birds

You might want to check with folks in your area in the Ohio forum too.

If you're keeping your chickens locked in a tractor, then they can't go under wild bird feeders like ours do. We let ours free range.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I suggest you contact your county extension office and chat with them about bird flu in your area. They should be able to put you in touch with an expert. One thing to consider, bird flu can be more of a risk during migrations if you are on a migration route. That might be a question, are you on a route and at what times are the risks higher.

Personally I don't worry about it. It's not that prevalent here. I might feel different if a flock down the road came down with it.