Avian flu confirmed in backyard flock in Yorkshire 6-1-17

MotherOfChickens

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cobgoblin

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ok, so? you seem very focused on this point and I wonder why? would you rather they free ranged at any cost? who cares if the eggs are free range or not in view of a major bird flu pandemic?

You are being ridiculous!

It goes back to my previous post about what's going to happen at the end of February......and also replying to Teacups post.

I think the general public may baulk at paying a premium for free range products when they clearly are not.
 

popsdosh

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You are being ridiculous!

It goes back to my previous post about what's going to happen at the end of February......and also replying to Teacups post.

I think the general public may baulk at paying a premium for free range products when they clearly are not.

I think most of the general public will have issue with the price of eggs if we start losing high numbers of hens due to not housing them.
Im sure most of the public will understand why! rather than seeing skips full of dead birds being chucked in the incinerators. There is every chance the 12 weeks will be extended it only takes a variation from Brussels and they already have more of a problem over there.
I dont think anybody in their right mind will object to an extension under unprecedented circumstances.
 
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cobgoblin

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Im sure most of the public will understand why! rather than seeing skips full of dead birds being chucked in the incinerators. There is every chance the 12 weeks will be extended it only takes a variation from Brussels and they already have more of a problem over there.
I dont think anybody in their right mind will object to an extension under unprecedented circumstances.

I don't think anyone will object to an extension....but will they pay extra for anything marked free range?
 

popsdosh

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I don't think anyone will object to an extension....but will they pay extra for anything marked free range?

They will have to think themselves lucky they have any. Have you even thought that the cost of production actually goes up on Free range units if the are housed 24/7 as more labour is needed.
 

cobgoblin

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They will have to think themselves lucky they have any. Have you even thought that the cost of production actually goes up on Free range units if the are housed 24/7 as more labour is needed.

Yes I do realise that! That is why free range eggs have always commanded a premium price....but they are now all barn eggs, that is simply a fact that no dictat from Defra can alter. So far, and until the end of February, these eggs and poultry have been able to be marketed as still being free range.....I want to know if that status is going to be magically maintained after the 12 week limit or if they will have to be marked as barn eggs and barn reared?
 

Cecile

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People around me are not doing anything, just carrying on as normal, poultry out during the day and in at night

I take this back, today a group of workmen arrived and there is masses of blue tarpaulin going up to cover the entire chickens and ducks area in a neighbouring property
 

Alec Swan

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The problem will be, or already is, that for those who are free range, and who are running a commercial enterprise, then production will be falling through the floor and feed costs will be escalating, I'd have thought.

My neighbour advises me that he has adequate insurance to protect him, though I wonder if that insurance is against the loss of his flock through infection, or the loss of sales.

Alec.
 

jrp204

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It is possible that they will eat slightly less when fully housed as they don't need energy to keep warm or to free range? They actuallly eat very little outside and all their food and water will be indoors.
The chance to take out extra insurance was very short lived as once the risk became over a certain level the insurers closed the books. For a commercial unit a cull would be crippling, unlike most notifieable diseases there is no compensation paid to the farmer. The disposal and clean up costs will be massive and it will probably be hard to restock since most commercial hatcheries will only hatch what they have orders for.
 

popsdosh

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The problem will be, or already is, that for those who are free range, and who are running a commercial enterprise, then production will be falling through the floor and feed costs will be escalating, I'd have thought.

My neighbour advises me that he has adequate insurance to protect him, though I wonder if that insurance is against the loss of his flock through infection, or the loss of sales.

Alec.

To be fair most of the free range guys around here say production is staying up and feed costs have dropped all the reasons eggs were always cheaper to produce inside. Most of the housing is designed to cover this eventuality so they are fine from a welfare point. I know one that looked at depopulating early but cannot get guaranteed replacement birds as they are produced to order. with at least 6 months lead time.
 

Alec Swan

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Oh, that's interesting and thanks jrp204 and popsdosh. Perhaps it's that as the birds are now kept in they're now warm and so the feed requirements are conversely, less than might have been imagined.

One of my next door neighbour's sites with 24k birds is due to be emptied very soon, and presumably as the replacements were ordered before the scare, he'll be committed to them. He previously had his cull birds taken away for nothing with no exchange of payment. Now I suspect that he will need to pay something for their disposal, even though the go to our fish and chip shops, from what I can make of it!

Would birds which are known to be infected be permitted in to our food chain, does anyone know?

Alec.
 

popsdosh

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Oh, that's interesting and thanks jrp204 and popsdosh. Perhaps it's that as the birds are now kept in they're now warm and so the feed requirements are conversely, less than might have been imagined.

One of my next door neighbour's sites with 24k birds is due to be emptied very soon, and presumably as the replacements were ordered before the scare, he'll be committed to them. He previously had his cull birds taken away for nothing with no exchange of payment. Now I suspect that he will need to pay something for their disposal, even though the go to our fish and chip shops, from what I can make of it!

Would birds which are known to be infected be permitted in to our food chain, does anyone know?

Alec.

Infected birds are culled and destroyed ,dont really see it impacting your neighbour as the trade is as normal the only restrictions are on gatherings of birds ie shows and auctions etc. Sale to killing is not a problem as in theory are other sales.
 

jrp204

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Agree with Pops, the outgoing birds will have a value, I think when we cleared out our shed we got 25p/bird, they were taken to Birmingham for pies etc.
If a farm had an outbreak the birds would have to be incinerated.
 

Alec Swan

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Whether the figure of 10k birds is journalistic licence, we won't know because that would probably equate to 250k poults to rear, which is an awful lot, but that said, unless the owner has adequate insurance, it's likely that their entire breeding stock for this year is wiped out in one go and without the said insurance, could well spell bankruptcy. It would also be highly unlikely, I'd have thought, for that many game birds as laying stock to be kept housed as commercial poultry would be.

With the sporadic reports arriving with no apparent link to each other, we have to wonder if this particular virus is far more widespread than we imagine and if it doesn't become a matter which we're going to have to live with, for some while yet. I wonder if in wild birds the infected cases are also only a small percentage of the given population and with infection spreading amongst those birds which are contained, so the concentration of birds is where the problem lays. If I'm right, then the situation has the capacity to worsen, and considerably so. Worrying times for anyone who has large flocks, from the viewpoint of the attendant culling programmes.

Alec.
 

popsdosh

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Whether the figure of 10k birds is journalistic licence, we won't know because that would probably equate to 250k poults to rear, which is an awful lot, but that said, unless the owner has adequate insurance, it's likely that their entire breeding stock for this year is wiped out in one go and without the said insurance, could well spell bankruptcy. It would also be highly unlikely, I'd have thought, for that many game birds as laying stock to be kept housed as commercial poultry would be.

With the sporadic reports arriving with no apparent link to each other, we have to wonder if this particular virus is far more widespread than we imagine and if it doesn't become a matter which we're going to have to live with, for some while yet. I wonder if in wild birds the infected cases are also only a small percentage of the given population and with infection spreading amongst those birds which are contained, so the concentration of birds is where the problem lays. If I'm right, then the situation has the capacity to worsen, and considerably so. Worrying times for anyone who has large flocks, from the viewpoint of the attendant culling programmes.

Alec.

Its is an accurate figure ! I believe its Hy Fly game( on good authority) and they set .25m pheasant eggs a week in season the biggest game farm in UK .It may cause major issues for shoots next season!
 

Alec Swan

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Its is an accurate figure ! I believe its Hy Fly game( on good authority) and they set .25m pheasant eggs a week in season the biggest game farm in UK .It may cause major issues for shoots next season!

Is your figure of .25m a quarter-million or 25 million? I'd imagine the former because with each hen producing app 25 eggs over a 12 week period and with a hatching rate of app 85-90% the protracted figures would be unachievable on a weekly basis. But even then, that still speaks of about 3 million birds which is an awful lot! I would imagine that it is High-Fly Hatcheries as you say and as much as anything to reduce the risk of any disease spread, so they will have various sites and 10k hens on one site sounds about right. Assuming that the disease doesn't spread, they should be able to absorb those losses.

When I was a 'keeper we used to pick up our first eggs from the laying pens fairly regularly on or about the 28th. March. The time for the busy time for Game Farmers is rapidly approaching and if there are any further and more serious outbreaks, it has us wondering just what they'll do with the birds which they have and as poults will go to their new homes every 6 weeks or so, the log-jam doesn't bear thinking about. I'm wondering if DEFRA have a contingency plan should the worst happen.

Alec.
 
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