Important! Aviarian influenza (Bird Flu) prevention zone declared in England/Wales/Scotland due to outbreak

[Perris]

I've got a shed ready for mine today but they are going to go mad, they're used to being completely free (wander around the village sometimes!). It's heartbreaking!

all the existing welfare rules still apply, so you should not ignore them in order to try to fulfil this requirement too - it does not over-ride everything else. It states “Whether you keep just a few birds or thousands, from 14 December onwards you will be legally required to keep your birds indoors, or take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds.”
PS welcome to BYC

 

[HollyWoozle]

It is a stressful situation and I really feel for those without any easy options in place. We are lucky in that our 'coop' is actually two large sheds which are joined, with a cutout in the wall for the chickens to walk between them. We have now attached a polytunnel to one of them in order to make things more roomy, but I do feel sorry that they won't see any sunshine and can't roam on the space they usually have! We are going to woodchip the ground inside the polytunnel to stop it churning up and we

managed to enclose a small tree inside it, so we can hang things to try and entertain them a bit. Will put some other things in there too I guess, logs, chairs and so on.