Please Help! and have your say

[andoy]

I've done the survey. Strangely I get calls from my local council asking me if I run a poultry farm from my London back garden. I get a bit taken aback. I hatched quite a few quail a few years ago and thought I ought to register with DEFRA. Now they seem to assume I have a large scale commercial operation!

Apparently my house and a top floor flat nearby are regularly mistaken for poultry farms

Can I de-register from DEFRA as I don't keep more than 30 birds at any one time?

[sunnys]

Can I de-register from DEFRA as I don't keep more than 30 birds at any one time?

I asked this before joining but apparently once you have registered you are registered forever unless you have a significent period of time with no birds whatsoever on premises. so even if you went down to one quail you still oblidged to stay on it!

[lazaf]

Andoy I hadnt realised you were in London too

I'm in East London and also have chooks in my back garden. I might not be allowed to keep them but any "eviction" process will take a while. Do you get any problems with your "farm"?

[andoy]

So far no problem lazaf, but I have to keep numbers to sensible levels otherwise it can become unmanageable. I'm allowed to keep chickens and I keep the cockerels in sound proof houses (more like sound dampening). Though tiny Seramas are not as noisy as other breeds and I'm trying to breed quieter cockerels (one of my silkied cockerels has a quite sweet "ha-ha-HA" crow).

In this warm weather I have to change their bedding quite often otherwise it gets whiffy and flies everywhere I had to fill my bin with loads of smelly bedding the other week (I usually compost it, but compost heaps getting too hot). When the local council health officer phoned I thought it might be about that

[andoy]

Can I de-register from DEFRA as I don't keep more than 30 birds at any one time?

I asked this before joining but apparently once you have registered you are registered forever unless you have a significent period of time with no birds whatsoever on premises. so even if you went down to one quail you still oblidged to stay on it!

What a pain. What is a significant period? I recon my birds need a little holiday in the country side for a while

[lazaf]

I hear you - bedding has been a problem in this hot weather. I have been using shredded newspsper which is absorbent and can then be composted but it is all over the run thatnks to the ladies constantly shifting it about and I'm wondering whether to switch to another bedding. Glad to hear it's all going well with your chooks though

[bantamchick]

Its lovely to see lots of other London chicken keepers!

Andy, I'm not registered on the poultry register because I didn't trust what they'd do with the data, and was worried that I'd get hassled by the local council etc... So now having heard your experience I will make sure that I never 'need' to register by keeping the number of birds I keep well under the 50 benchmark! At the moment I'm ticking over on about 40, but maybe that's a bit close to the 50 bird mark!

Thank you everyone for filling the survey out, it really is very kind of you all to help me

Mary xxx

[lazaf]

Best of luck with it all and the Masters

[andoy]

well I wouldn't call it hassled Mary, it's just the heart starts pounding when you here someone introduce themselves as the local council health officer. Then followed by the question; "are you running a poultry farm?" ...you think the worst

If they want to encourage people to register, then they shouldn't be describing small backyard flocks as "poultry farm/factory" when they communicate to the local council health officer.

[bantamchick]

well I wouldn't call it hassled Mary, it's just the heart starts pounding when you here someone introduce themselves as the local council health officer. Then followed by the question; "are you running a poultry farm?" ...you think the worst

If they want to encourage people to register, then they shouldn't be describing small backyard flocks as "poultry farm/factory" when they communicate to the local council health officer.

Yes I can imagine that sort of introduction would get the heart pounding, and the term 'poultry factory' conjures up a rather unpleasant picture. Why did the council health officer ring you? What did they want to know exactly?

I agree that DEFRA could do a lot to encourage greater registration, but I'd always be suspicious that they'd take the 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' approach if the threat of bird flu increases or if public opinion changes etc..

Mary xxx

[milkmaid]

i've filled it in

[CP]

Me too.

[andoy]

Yes I can imagine that sort of introduction would get the heart pounding, and the term 'poultry factory' conjures up a rather unpleasant picture. Why did the council health officer ring you? What did they want to know exactly?

In this instance they just wanted to know if I have a massive poultry operation. They were quite surprised because they got an email from DEFRA, which they are acting on. I don't know what the email said, it might have just said that I'm registered with DEFRA as having a flock of 50 birds. The local council health officer might have just got the wrong end of the stick from DEFRA. I believe the council has to arrange health visit if I was a factory, something they hadn't made provision for (being a very built up area there have been no farms in the borough for more than 20 year, perhaps a lot longer).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for registering with DEFRA, just worried how my details could be misused/misconstrued. You get text messages from DEFRA when there is an outbreak. Also they ask me to get flu jab every year as a "poultry worker" other than that I don't hear a peep from them!

[bantamchick]

Also they ask me to get flu jab every year as a "poultry worker" other than that I don't hear a peep from them!

and do you go for your jab?

Thank you everyone who has done the survey, I now have 68 responses! which is great, do keep em coming

Mary xxx

[andoy]

Also they ask me to get flu jab every year as a "poultry worker" other than that I don't hear a peep from them!

and do you go for your jab?

Most years I do, but couldn't be bothered last year. The docs/nurses were buusy enough with the swine flu scare!