Allotment Security and Housing Chickens Ark

New and Improved Gates

The site is now sporting a new look gate, covered with weld mesh and bright green. Far more secure than the previous version as well. The chaps doing the job weren’t very helpful though. I asked if they could just connect the high voltage power lines that cross the site to the fence and they said no. Seemed like a 30,000 volt fence would offer great security to me.

Met Lawrence (site rep) and we did a fence walk looking for the hole where Benjamin Bunny is getting in but we couldn’t see it.

Finished emptying the leafmould bin on plot 29 onto the bed where I had potatoes. Doesn’t sound much in one line but it was a couple of hours work.

Chicken House

My sister has offered me her old chicken ark as they are upgrading (probably to gold plated, with platinum screws – Sorry Sis!) I’m really pleased.

I do have a wonderful sense of timing – deciding to keep chickens as every item on the news is about the inexorable progress of bird flu. If you believe the media, this is the worst thing to happen since the black death and we’re all doomed.

Of course it is and should be a concern but I do feel it is being over egged. The disease is being spread by wild birds so the mass culls in the style of the foot and mouth crisis are pointless. Killing healthy domestic birds in an area will not prevent the spread.

Yes, you can catch this from a chicken but it is not contagious unless the bird has it and there should be some preventative measures.

The drug stockpile is in case the flu mutates (flu is a virus that does mutate frequently, most being unviable, of course). There is no telling when or if it will mutate but we are due a new flu epidemic.

Confusing and no clear threat assessment I can find.

Oh well, I won’t be doing anything until the spring when things should be clearer.