UK Members Please Say HI

[ChickenshedStudio]

getting everyone registered is a new thing, so there isn't really precedent for what they're asking of you. I imagine the authorities will approach backyard hobbyists with kid gloves in order not to risk compliance with registration at least till that's bedded in.

Wales hasn't followed, at least yet - we get far fewer cases than the east of England.

Yes that makes sense, I hadn't thought about how recent the mandatory registration is. I'm just delighted that my lot don't have to be inside for the moment.
Thankfully we're in a less poultry heavy part of Suffolk, but the wild birds are a different matter!

 

[Perris]

the wild birds

It's waterfowl and coastal birds that are particularly prone to spreading and/or suffering it, rather than garden or song birds.

It's worth being careful with your footwear and tyres / where you park wherever you get your feed; such places can and do act as hubs of infection whence it spreads out from one infected site to others in the neighbourhood, leading to clusters in one locality. 'Fomites' is the technical term for human-related spread on clothes/boots/wheels etc.

 

[ChickenshedStudio]

It's waterfowl and coastal birds that are particularly prone to spreading and/or suffering it, rather than garden or song birds.

It's worth being careful with your footwear and tyres / where you park wherever you get your feed; such places can and do act as hubs of infection whence it spreads out from one infected site to others in the neighbourhood, leading to clusters in one locality. 'Fomites' is the technical term for human-related spread on clothes/boots/wheels etc.

Really good advice, thanks!

 

[Perris]

Did anyone here know about this rule change? I didn't.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-...never-steps-outside-being-sold-as-free-range/

I think it's outrageous. The label 'free-range' was misleading before and now it's just false for commercial operations in England at least. The commercial producers of eggs and meat will be laughing all the way to the bank and there will be not just no incentive but *a disincentive* to lift the housing order.

 

[kattabelly]

Did anyone here know about this rule change? I didn't.

I thought it had already come in last year but maybe that was only for eggs, or only in a certain part of the UK, or just an announcement about a change that hadn't happened yet.

I have less of a problem with the change than with the standards in general. It was already possible to sell meat or eggs as "free range" even if the birds hadn't been allowed outdoors for several months and only had access to a pretty empty, sterile outside space (can't remember the exact requirements off the top of my head) which they maybe never even used before that.

 

[Perris]

It was already possible to sell meat or eggs as "free range" even if the birds hadn't been allowed outdoors for several months and only had access to a pretty empty, sterile outside space (can't remember the exact requirements off the top of my head) which they maybe never even used before that.

that's what I meant by 'it was misleading before', but now they don't even have to pretend that the birds have EVER seen daylight or breathed fresh air, never mind have the option (however unlikely) to get onto anything that deserves the name 'range'.

 

[Perris]

oh, and there were apparently 14 (yes, fourteen) responses to the consultation on it, every single one of them from vested commercial interests. So that was a well publicised consultation, wasn't it? And its results are obviously what everyone thinks is OK, yes?

 

[Perris]

Given that a housing order is already out for England, and maybe NI, Wales and Scotland will follow soon if not already (I don't know), this might be of interest. Open Access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09737-x
The focus is on the US but much is relevant to us too.

 

[ChickenshedStudio]

oh, and there were apparently 14 (yes, fourteen) responses to the consultation on it, every single one of them from vested commercial interests. So that was a well publicised consultation, wasn't it? And its results are obviously what everyone thinks is OK, yes?

I'm not sure there's an appropriate emoji for this one...

 

[ChickenshedStudio]

Given that a housing order is already out for England, and maybe NI, Wales and Scotland will follow soon if not already (I don't know), this might be of interest. Open Access
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09737-x
The focus is on the US but much is relevant to us too.

Thanks! this is really interesting