Official BYC Poll: What Are You Doing to Protect Your Flock From Bird Flu (H5N1) Infection?

[ChicFil- A]

Chicken Little thought the sky was falling because she was hit by an acorn.

Trust but verify, Then there’s no way to think it’s an acorn because you’ll know for sure… like I said earlier when chicken keepers with years of experience who know the difference between a molt and weather and shorter days. and when a chicken completely stop laying… I believe them, what earthly reason would someone claim differently? They is to many coincidence to many people of different diversities … but that’s me… just making an observation

 

[RubelliteRose]

Anyone feeding their chickens Green Tea? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119401600
I love that people want to do these studies.

Do notice that they used green tea by-products, not green tea leaves: "a diet supplemented with lyophilized green tea by-product extract (1, 4, or 10 g/kg of feed) or drinking water containing green tea by-product extract "
I thought caffeine was toxic to chickens? We always compost our used tea leaves in our no chickens allowed bin. They have free access to the main compost bin

 

[Rurumo]

Do notice that they used green tea by-products, not green tea leaves: "a diet supplemented with lyophilized green tea by-product extract (1, 4, or 10 g/kg of feed) or drinking water containing green tea by-product extract "
I thought caffeine was toxic to chickens? We always compost our used tea leaves in our no chickens allowed bin. They have free access to the main compost bin

Green tea has been on my radar a long time for chickens, originally because of this study on coccidiosis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17027157/. At .5% of the diet, I don't think that amount of caffeine would hurt them, but it's always good to be careful.

 

[BDutch]

I have not done anything different. Why? because i’ve lost faith in 3 letter governmental authorities! I believe for what ever reason our food manufacturers food growers and everything in our food chain has been attacked including baby formula and chicken feed… there are days i feel like something is undermining Americans!!! sorry about rant but i’m serious.

Not just Americans. All over the world we have problems with the effects of extreme industrialising. Nog only in keeping too much animals in factory farms. Also with growing crops (for feed) on a large scale. These farmers are poisoning our food and our land with insecticides and herbicides. Even the flower industry is polluting out land and health (Parkinson’s)

European or/and Asian farmers are responsible for this very contagious bird flu. They investigated where and how all variations of hpai spread. Just as they did with Covid.

This month our black-headed gulls got contaminated. They expect many dead when the mating season starts.

 

[David61]

I am not worried as i don't live in the path of Chinese balloons.
I'm not a large farm with 100's/1000's of chickens living in a confined space. The odds one of my few chickens getting is so much lower. Then my other chickens catching it from the other is still low because of my large sq. ft. per bird living space. You top that off with the stress free living conditions , care, food , treats.... Las Vegas wouldn't take bet on my chickens getting bird flu.
Unless i was in the flight path of Chinese balloons of coarse.

 

[Rurumo]

I just saw an article that said 2 people in Cambodia acquired H5N1 from their flock. This is why the authorities are so cull happy here-anything to reduce the chance of it jumping to humans.

 

[David61]

I just saw an article that said 2 people in Cambodia acquired H5N1 from their flock. This is why the authorities are so cull happy here-anything to reduce the chance of it jumping to humans.

Did it say what living conditions those people were living in? A dirt hut? with the chickens walk in and out of their dirt hut home?
Again, Las Vegas will not take odds on this happing in a developed country with good hygiene.

 

[ChicFil- A]

Did it say what living conditions those people were living in? A dirt hut? with the chickens walk in and out of their dirt hut home?
Again, Los Vegas will not take odds on this happing in a developed country with good hygiene.

I to believe fresh air and not overcrowding is the key, plenty of fresh water and nutritional feed and natural as possible environment, I’ve never had a problem with my flock they seem to be thriving and happy. So i’m not going to borrow trouble. (Psalms 91) and I am in the path of the “ balloon “…near Oakridge and the balloon hovered over the facility for a while We’re living in troubled times.

 

[calboy147]

If I tried to tarp their run, any wind would scare them senseless and any rain would cause the entire thing to collapse.

My girls don't free range because I don't want to accept the risk. We have a hawk's nest on our property and my house cameras have caught fox and coyote at night; I've also seen a red fox roll up during the day.

The past two years have been a great reminder that the risk profile matters. If every wild bird carried the deadly flu, my flock would be locked in my barn. But - according to the data - the chances of them getting anything from a stray bird turd are slim to none, so I'm not going to lock them inside and make them miserable for months on end.

And also, the risk of them killing each other while locked in a space that's wing-to-wing 24/7 is greater than the bird flu. So, they'll keep living their happy chicken lives, unaware that the sky is falling. And if it does, I'll play the lottery, because those would be some serious odds.

It took my birds about three days to get used to the noise the tarp on my temp coop makes in strong winds. An a little slope made it virtually water proof and easy to brace for rain.

 

[ChicFil- A]

It took my birds about three days to get used to the noise the tarp on my temp coop makes in strong winds. An a little slope made it virtually water proof and easy to brace for rain.

Hello BYC friends, This has been my experience.
I have a hoop coop are from cattle panels it looks similarly to a small green house, We first covered th coop with clear plastic we fashioned it as tight as could be theni used bungee cords to keep the wind from blowing it away, I made their perch across the entire back,
then laid on straw, that little coop is warm and dry and made it through that horrible wind event with winds in excess of 80 mph.
I also wrapped it with an 18 in. apron of hardware cloth to keep the predators out.
So far they are very happy.
I don’t dare free range there lots of vermin and vermont’s