Measures to combat Avian Flu

Avian Flu is now in Vermont and in order to protect our beloved chickens and ducks from this deadly virus we are unfortunately not going to be letting them free range and pasture feed until further notice. This is a shame as we enjoy seeing them wandering around, love the increased variety in nutrition that they are able to obtain when left to forage for themselves and like that they eat the dreaded tics! It is necessary though especially as we have a large pond which attracts wild waterfowl who could transmit it to our birds directly or indirectly through fecal matter.

Our ducks and chickens are housed in large stalls in our barn with plenty of space to walk around, perches to climb on and in the case of the ducks clean water to swim in. They are perfectly happy housed in our barn during the winter and we supplement their grain diet with bugs, fruit and vegetables to keep them healthy and there is no noticeable difference in the flavor, size or quality of their eggs. We are also taking measures to make sure we don’t bring the virus inside to our birds such as special shoes/clothing when in their stalls and sanitizing equipment, feed bags etc as we bring them inside (it feels like the early days of Covid once again!). We had planned on getting additional chickens and ducks this year but we are not going to risk poultry swaps and the like until this virus is over.

We will be using our eggs in our baked goods and selling boxes of eggs on the farm stand as usual but if we notice any signs of illness in the birds we will of course cease to do so. Fingers crossed our measures keep our birds safe!