Welfare of poultry in periurban environments
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Keeping Poultry in periurban areas
Policy
Poultry may be kept in periurban environments as long as they are provided with their basic nutritional, health, space and shelter requirements and they are regularly inspected. Local authority regulations must be complied with.
Background
Nationwide, rural land is being converted to urban development with the resultant loss of suitable land to keep animals. More people are keeping animals to provide extra animal protein sources for their diets, to produce organically and free range food close to home or as a hobby.
Guidelines - general
The following points need to be considered:
- Paddocks/ living areas must be well drained, have no sharp projections from fences or enclosed objects and be free of poisonous plants;
- Adequate feed and fresh water must be provided;
- The owner needs to be familiar with local authority regulations in peri-urban areas including waste disposal, noise, pollution and offensive odours;
- Leave contact phone numbers or email contacts with adjoining properties in case there is an emergency.
Poultry
The basic needs for poultry are free access to: feed, water, space to move, lie down, perch, protection from weather conditions and predation and to maintain contact with other poultry.
Owners have a responsibility to provide minimum required conditions and birds behaviour in rural and urban areas under their control.
Backyard birds require well drained and maintained pens and/or paddocks. Part of the area must be covered in order to provide protection against strong sun, rain and other extreme weather conditions. The land where birds are permitted to range must be conducive to welfare by having shade, shelter and palatable vegetation and must be capable of sustainable production of vegetation.
Hygiene and cleanings of cages, aviaries and nest boxes have to be maintained at all times to prevent disease and bad smell.
These are minimum requirements based on birds physiological and behavioural needs:
- Birds should have unrestricted access to easily move between outside and inside areas.
- Birds must be provided with minimum of 8 hours of darkness.
- Birds need sufficient supply of cool, clean fresh water and correct feed.
- Food for birds must be available at least once in every 24 hours.
- Laying birds should be provided with no less than 1 nest laying place per 5 birds.
- Nest boxes and nest material need to be regularly replaced (weekly).
- Nest box material should be clean and dry.
- Daily inspection of the birds for diseases and changes in living conditions.
- Wide perches need to be provided for perching with minimum of 200mm per bird.
- Perches can not have sharp edges.
- Birds must be provided with area for dust bathing.
- Implement basic principles of biosecurity.
- Birds have to be protected against all predators including wild and aggressive domestic animals.
- Sick birds must be removed and adequately treated.
- Incurable birds or those with irreversible deformities have to be removed and culled. Culling of birds must be done humanely.
- Dead birds must be removed promptly, at least daily, and disposed of hygienically
- Replacement area should be used in the case of a muddy paddock.
- On concrete floors deep litter material needs to be introduced.
- Caked litter material must be replaced.
- Birds in cages and aviaries systems must have space to be able to stand at normal height
- Cages and aviary systems must have a door size so birds can be removed without suffering injuries.
- Birds in cages and aviary systems must have a floor constructed to support each forward pointing toe and slope angle of no more than 8 degrees.
- Multi level cages have to be constructed so that birds on a lower level are not exposed to excrement from higher level cages.
- Cages and aviary systems must have minimum of 150mm feeding space for each birds.
- Cages and aviary systems must have minimum of 150mm water trough space per bird, or 1 nipple per 2 birds.
- Identification wing and leg bands may be used but must be checked and loosened regularly in order not to injure or create harm to the birds.
Beak trimming, dubbing, webbing (between the toes), toe removal and toenail trimming should be avoided. In the case of necessity this may be performed only by an accredited operator under the supervision of practising veterinarian or accredited trainer as a part of an accreditation training program or accreditation process.
All other use of impairing equipment is an unacceptable practice and must not be undertaken!
Acknowledgements
The AVPA acknowledges the help of Branko Karaconji, Bruce Remington, Lyn Tan and Ben Wells in forming the policy.
See also
- Australasian Veterinary Poultry Association (AVPA)
- Poultry welfare
- General tips for small scale poultry production
- Poultry Agskills (book)
