Winter's Avian flu + chicken lockdown - Blogmas day 8 - Lifestyle Monday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
Unfortunately, there's been a new virus outbreak. Not the one currently happening in London and Kent, although that is awful too, but the outbreak of the Avian flu amongst all birds. I don't exactly know when the Avian flu was first brought to government attention but I do know that around the 11th of December, people started to talk about the possibility of having to quarantine their poultry in order to prevent the risk of further infection. If you don't know what the Avian flu is, it's a virus that transcends down from aquatic birds worldwide and it has the ability to infect domestic birds, poultry, and potentially other animals like humans, although it's not really a high risk. Symptoms of the Avian flu in birds can be lack of co-ordination, purple discoloration of the legs, nasal discharge, lack of energy or appetite, diarrhoea, and swelling of the eyes or the head. Other more serious symptoms include death without any visible signs, which would probably be a massive red flag to farm owners as they would have to put the whole flock of birds down. Hence the importance of trying to keep this virus at bay whilst it isn't too much of a threat. From the 14th of December, we've been keeping our chickens in their pen so that they don't come into contact with wild birds and they were not happy about it. In light of Boris Johnson's speech on Saturday evening, let's cheer ourselves up by talking about the daily struggles of keeping your chickens inside for the foreseeable future!😂💜
I feel like if you even try to open the door to their pen, the chickens would just see it as their queue to leave and go straight for the soil to have a good scratch. I always dread giving them food and water because I have to actually go inside the pen and close the door behind me so that they don't leave. It was probably a mistake to get them this used to going outside but I liked watching them be free and not all couped up in the pen like they are now. It just means that we have to shovel them back in and close the door and hopefully not accidentally trap their heads as the desperately eat the leaves just outside the door. I think cleaning out their coup is a lot easier than feeding them because you have to go inside anyway. When you're feeding the chickens, you have to be careful that they don't escape from in between your feet and head straight for the salad. One time Alice, my sister, was giving them food and when I got back from putting the newspaper in the bin, all I could see were three chickens gouging themselves on the rest of the lettuce. We had to get the dried meal worms out to coax them back into the pen. I feel bad to have to keep on putting them back in the pen but I'd much rather have this than to have them all down with the flu! Such is the biology of the situation. Now they know how it feels to be in lockdown.😂💜💜
Do you have domestic birds? How are you dealing with them being inside? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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