End of chicken lockdown
louisa Ellerker
Chicken Lockdown is lifted!
This week on the farm we celebrated the lifting of avian bird flu housing measures. Watching the hens go back onto fresh pasture is a great relief after six months of restricted housing for our hens. They are now busy scratching in the grass, pecking at insects and enjoying the sunshine.
The past three consecutive years we have had lockdown measures in place in the winter and each year we try to improve our lockdown housing. This year you may have seen the bright blue net floating in the field where the chicken tunnel is. This structure created an outdoor netted area for the hens. In general, it did work, however, I could not keep up with the immense amount of mud created as a result of all the rain we had this winter and spring. There were many moments of facing the elements and questioning what I was doing! We also moved one of the outdoor tunnel flocks into two of our empty chicken barns, which you can imagine has increased the workload and time spent mucking out. Nevertheless, the hens are so forgiving and have still laid incredibly well. I am so happy they can once again enjoy the freedom of being outdoors.
Farming is a constant reminder that we need to be resilient, dynamic and adaptable which is a great strength we have at Plaw Hatch. Creating an outdoor structure is a team effort and the gardeners have always been a great help with the extra hands and muscle required. Nevertheless, there are many questions I find myself faced with; is ‘flockdown’ going to be a yearly occurrence? Should we change our systems to incorporate chicken lockdown housing? Should we invest in new materials to make the outdoor netting better? It’s a lot to think about, but right now we’re focusing on enjoying the happy hens.
So, next time you buy a dozen from us - notice how orange the yolk is. The more orange the yolk, the more grass that hen has converted into goodness for us!
