Other Regulations

You must keep a record of any medicines you give to your birds if you sell or give away eggs. This covers you for a number of things that come up in other regulations such as the Food Hygiene regulations and the Code of Recommendations for Laying Hens. For example:

  • You can provide proof that you have been providing timely veterinary care for your animals under the 3rd freedom.
  • For food entering the food chain, you must be able to show that food for human consumption is safe (this includes eggs as well as meat from table birds).
  • Finally, you can show that medicines you have used are licensed for this use in the U.K.

Of course if you keep receipts and veterinary bills, this can really help in this final area. I keep a small book that has details of everything to do with my flock – their ring numbers to when they are wormed – including the product, the dose and the receipt when I bought it.

Record keeping when breeding chickens is also important because within a few months, you will soon forget what you did.

6 Comments

    • There are a few places that vaccinate… But I have personally never done so. I lose a chicken every couple of years but considering I have over 40, that’s not bad.

      I believe their diet, my husbandry, keeping a closed flock and their free ranging makes a huge difference but it is a personal choice.

      Vaccines can normally only be bought in vials of 1000 doses and have to be done at certain times. They don’t keep for long either so it’s hard for a small flock to be vaccinated.

  1. Can you tell if there are any regulations as to how close to a house the chicken coup is allowed to be. We have neighbours with chickens who have put the chicken coup up against our conservatory is this permissible ?

    • I’m sorry, I don’t think there are any rules against this when the coop is on your neighbour’s property (at least I haven’t come across any rules).
      If they are causing a disturbance, you might have some way of getting them moved, however I would always encourage talking to them politely first to try to compromise.

  2. We have a neighbour whom has chickens and whilst they are causing a smell problem, they are also nesting in the trees that our neighbour has (which branches grow over onto our side of the property), and their faeces are now coming into our driveway where we leave our cars and where our young children play. Is there any legislation around this as I know that chicken face can carry some really nasty diseases?

    • I’m not sure exactly but they are responsible for keeping their chickens within their boundary (and droppings of course).

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