• the Effects of Avian Flu • Clicker Training with Chickens • Win A
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Issue No.15 Spring 2017 Welfare and Food Together • The effects of avian flu • Clicker training with chickens • Win a weekend cookery course! • Herbs for hens • Talking chocolate Inside this issue P6 Eggy News Eggy Brekkies at Harvester P8 Avian Influenza Reflecting on the last three months P12 Eggs, eggs and more eggs! Celebrating all their goodness P16 There’s something seedy going on An exciting new partnership P21 A different kind of hen party! How the BHWT could be a part of your big day P24 Clicker training chickens Our feathered friends prove they’re not bird brained P26 Competition time! This prize is one you won't want to miss… P32 Celeb sCoop A chocolatier tells us their secrets P36 Spring has sprung! Check out the spring chickens in this issue's gallery P51 Gaynor’s Tips Our Gaynor talks egg production and broody hens P59 Another competition, Surely not…?! Contact Us British Hen Welfare Trust Hen Nutrition Queries? Hope Chapel, Rose Ash BHWT Careline South Molton Tel: 01362 822904 Devon, EX36 4RF Email: bhwtcareline@ smallholderfeed.co.ukChicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. Tel: 01884 860084 Email: [email protected] Company No: 8057493 Web: www.bhwt.org.uk Registered Charity No: 1147356 This issue's front cover is a stunner - wouldn't you agree?! It features Evvie Lynn and her favourite ex-bat Betty. Thanks to her mum, Elizabeth, for kindly sharing it with us. 3 Dear Supporters Spring has sprung and it’s time for new beginnings, fresh growth and all our latest news. Inevitably we throw the spotlight on Avian Flu, the impact of the recent DEFRA restrictions on hen keepers in backyard flocks as well as commercial farms, and the importance of biosecurity as most of us return to free ranging our hens. With Easter upon us, we explain the history of the Easter egg and have a crackingly zany interview with Choccywoccydoodah … if you haven't seen some of their amazing, fantastical creations, turn to page 32! We have competitions including the chance to win a cookery course and two nights' accommodation worth over £450 at Ashburton Cookery School! A fabulous prize! You can learn about clicker training your hens, we give you an update on our fundraising appeal for the new welfare and education centre here at Hope Chapel, and of course it wouldn't be Chicken & Egg if we didn't include a clutch of happy hens and your lovely stories. So read on for all things chickeny … Warm wishes Jane Howorth MBE Founder Chicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. 5 RISE & ShiNe the Eggy brekkies all round way We’re delighted to be celebrating the yumminess of free range eggs with the News launch of Harvester’s Wake Up the Eggy Harvester Way campaign in April. Harvester use British free range eggs in their dishes so the first meal of the day becomes altogether more satisfying with brilliant breakfast baps, wicked waffles and exciting eggs. Customers waking up the Harvester way will also get to hear about the British Hen Welfare Trust with Stop those our logo emblazoned on the Kids’ Cookery mosquito bites... Club pack as well as the menus. If you’re heading off on holiday this year, we have a great idea to keep the mozzies at bay – take your hens! Research has shown mosquitoes actively stay away from a room if it has a chicken in it! This theory was tested by putting volunteers (perhaps they didn’t know what they were signing up for!) in beds surrounded by untreated mosquito nets. THERE’S A FRESH THOUGHT Some volunteers had either a live chicken or chicken feathers near their bed and a trap was set up to catch any mosquitoes which flew in. The result was – you guessed it – there were FindTHERE’S Athe FRESH THOUGHT Golden Egg far fewer mosquitoes in the rooms with the chickens and feathers! So thanks to the team which carried out the research for giving us a reason to take our feathered friends with us wherever they go! Now, pass the suncream… & Competition Winners Our Sarah Boddy competition was won by lucky Jeanette Muirhead who, by now, is well stocked up on some of Sarah’s fabulous homeware to the tune of £125. To enter our latest competition visit page 26. Talking of The winner of the Golden Egg competition from our last issue was Sara Holden who bagged holidays... herself some chicken-themed goodies from Samuel Lamont. Our next prize is a copy of The If, like us, you’re dreaming of your Vintage Picnic Book by Jeremy Hobson – perfect for planning your next spring picnic! The next holiday then you’ve come to book is packed to the rafters with picnic ideas, recipes and tales of picnics past to help you the right place. We have teamed plan memorable meals outdoors. It’s historical, factual, informative and quirky, all rolled up up with the lovely folks at Sykes into one lovely book! If you’d like to enter just find the Golden Egg hidden among these Cottages who have kindly offered pages and email the page number to competitions@ to donate 10% of any booking bhwt.co.uk with the title: Golden Egg Competition. made via our website to the BHWT. The Vintage Good cluck! The competition closes on 30 April 2017. Picnic Book Imagine that, you can book Creating Memorable yourself into a gorgeous cosy Meals Outdoors cottage by the seaside knowing that you’ve helped save the lives Did you of even more hens! Bliss. know? Just visit bhwt.org.uk/information/ The greatest height at which a raw egg has been sykes-cottages or call us for more dropped and remained intact is 213m, from a information. helicopter onto a golf course in Blackpool. By J.C. Jeremy Hobson 6 Chicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. Chicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. 7 All cooped up and nowhere to go! At the time of writing this article some of us have been able to let our birds free range again, but others are still cooped up (even on lovely sunny days like today), and we thought it would be interesting to give you some background on how backyard hen keepers and the egg industry coped with the DEFRA Prevention Zone restrictions put in place on 6th December. Coping at Home Suddenly our chooks were unable to enjoy the everyday activities they took for granted and being cooped up wasn’t their idea of a free range retirement. We gave you lots of information about how you could keep your hens entertained during the long incarceration, such as: • Hanging up cabbages, sweet potatoes and other veg with a piece of string through the middle Managing Commercial Flocks • Hanging up CDs – hens love shiny We all experienced the changes to routine, Keeping regular hours of light and dark, things (as budgies like mirrors) the extra bedding needed, the additional providing clean, friable litter (material the bio security and boredom busters required, hens can scratch about and dust bathe in), • Emptying small plastic bottles filled with but how about managing a flock of 4,000 and adding fibre into feed to replace the loss H5 or more during restrictions? of plant material (such as grass) all helped to N8 corn, then puncturing a few holes so the minimise welfare issues, and maintain egg A simple name with huge implications. corn could fall out as the hens moved it Farmers were advised to maintain good production. The Avian Influenza (AI) strain H5 N8 was around ventilation and control temperature so their first detected in Asia in 2014. Like many hens had fresh air without creating drafts Lowered lighting, providing enrichment AI strains, this virus can exist in wild bird • Hanging up treat dispensers and varying or chilling them. Checking ammonia levels such as objects to peck including grit and populations without ill effect before going the treats daily (we have great treats in our became more important as droppings all even radio all helped to keep hens happy. on to infect domestic and commercial online shop!) landed inside the house. poultry with devastating consequences. Despite the additional challenges H5 N8 Between October 2016 and January 2017 • Providing a dust bath – a mix of dry soil Farmers were advised to watch for signs presented to all of us, as with all things, there were 761 outbreaks across Europe, with ash in a plastic box, together with a of stress such as alarm calling, smothering prevention was better than cure and the 51% in poultry and the remainder in wild handful of diatomaceous earth makes a and feather pecking. short term impact of confinement preferable birds. H5 N8 has also been found in Asia, lovely bath that helps to control parasites to the risk of AI getting a grip in the UK. Africa and the Middle East. at the same time 8 Chicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. Chicken & Egg. Welfare and Food Together. 9 What happens to Free Range Eggs if hens are still housed in high risk areas? Whilst some farmers were able to let their hens out at the end of February but others were not, Defra decided that all free range eggs should carry temporary labelling to keep consumers fully and clearly informed. Temporary signage began to appear on supermarket shelves and labelling on free range egg boxes advising shoppers that hens laying free range eggs were not necessarily able to free range due to the AI threat. Signage also appeared on processed foods that contained eggs, and it was encouraging to see that both egg industry and retailers were keen to offer transparency.