Nova Scotia: articles and viewpoints

The coop is built in the barn, Cul, in a way that the birds never come into contact with other animals. We have concrete floors topped with planks then pine bedding. We have recycled windows separating the coop from the barn aisleway and a porch so that the ferals can't visit the birds. No birds have been raised in this space before, at least not for 75 years and the buildings from that period were taken down in the 1960's.

The run is roofed and isolated from the surrounding land (which is on the edge of the woods) by hardware cloth and barriers that seal the eaves. Extra hardware cloth extends underground and the flock is 'closed', meaning only hubby and I tend the birds.

We're careful with our footwear, and spilled bedding is swept out of the coop, never in. We treat the perimeters and floors with DE and Stable Boy both on open surfaces, dirt and under the bedding. Clothing worn to the coop goes into the laundry if we leave the property and clean clothes go on for the evening maintenance. We spot-clean all manure from roosts , boxes and platforms twice a day and all manure is treated with a little DE before being composted. In the porch we hang an active no-pest strip impregnated with pyrethins so that a small amount of insect control is possible from the barn side. This strip is also effective for mites, ticks and fleas and is of the kind used commonly in commercial barns, coops, homes and restaurants.

In other words we're past compliance with flock regs coming through in Jan. 2009. I'm not sure how enforceable those rules were be, but when an animal comes to us it's for the duration of its life, and if we were targeted I want to be able to defend my setup. We have so many wild predators that we would have done much of this anyway, but the pest and microbe precautions give us a little more. We're on a main road, easily visible, and though we are zoned 'resource-agricultural', we can't 'hide' from a myriad of inspectors who cross this county on our road.

We're new to birds and may be over-reacting, but we were very careful when we got into horses many years ago and had few problems. We obtained our birds innoculated, locally and they were 12 hours old. So far 100% healthy, friendly and ready to begin laying.

Details shown in pics on the home page link, below...
cool.png
 
Last edited:
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work and effort! What regs are you referring too, I went back through your posts and didn't find anything detailed enough to see what must be complied with?

Cul
 
According to a prof at the Truro AC, these are federal regs. Technically, they will apply to anyone selling meat or eggs. But if your flock is diagnosed with a reportable disease, even if you don't sell, your birds can be seized/culled.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom