We had been expecting it so it was no surprise when the government announced it: all poultry to be caged to tackle the spread of avian flu from wild (and particularly migratory) birds to domesticated chickens and ducks. This is now the 4th flockdown we have experienced and it means all our birds must remain until further notice in runs which are netted over. We had left most of the infrastructure of last year's flockdown in place, guessing correctly that the restrictions would be reintroduced. Nevertheless, we have more birds so another run was required. This was built up against the goat house on our Nearside plot. The goats were moved in the summer to our farm so the spare building was brought back into use.
We have no idea when the flockdown will end. The last one only ended in May and we are now heading towards a situation in which the birds will spend more time confined to runs than they will be free range.
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