The Five Freedoms is a framework that was created by The Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC) and the British Veterinary Association. It will be the wish of any good chicken keeper to uphold this framework. At Weaste the Community Chickens require a team of volunteers to ensure that all five freedoms occur. Plot holders give their time to many voluntary roles on the site. For this task it was a need for someone to go in during the morning to check the water and feed. During laying time any eggs were collected and put in the Community Hut for plot holders to buy. Money used for chicken feed, bedding and general coop maintenance. In the evening a visit to ensure the chickens were back inside before the door shut.
Despite the strange nature of the pandemic it had been possible to maintain daily tasks for all chickens on the allotment site by all chicken keepers supporting each other . Careful use of sanitiser and a rota that meant there was no human to human contact! The chickens were not going to get COVID or spread it. The avian flu of course was a different matter and the rules relating to that were upheld across the allotment site. This relates to not allowing any disease to move to wild birds, so the chickens were locked in and wild bird proofed.
Free-Range Freedoms
If we want more water we simply go to a tap and turn it on, or for those with the money it can be bought in bottles. A chicken appreciates having water delivered daily. Fresh and clean. Together with some chicken food. This can be bought in and added to with dandelions. When weeding our plot we had a weed bucket and a ‘for the chickens’ bucket. It was good to know it was giving them a bit of extra greens. A balanced diet is good to maintain a healthy chuck and give it energy. That laying is tiring!
So more of the Five Freedoms; they need a good area to rest in. The chicken coops across the site are set up to give the chickens a place to roost, lay and also (when allowed) to run around. They do like a good scrabble and scratch in the dirt. Little dips created in which they nestle. All of that needs to have weather considerations. It rains a lot in the North West. The chickens don’t mind the odd shower, but a deluge is not good for the feathers. So covered areas are provided, both naturally with some bushes and using tarps.
Health and Wellbeing
The space provided is laid out in a way to make sure that they can move around safely. Ramps to laying spaces are gently inclined and wide enough for them to go up. The twice daily visits of the volunteers mean that they get to know the birds well and spot any thing out of the ordinary quickly. Any limping, feather damage or dropping, or other signs of fighting or attach or injury quickly picked up and dealt with. A bit of over-zealous pecking and nudging does go on amongst the chucks.
All of this leads to the final freedom where it is in everyone’s interest to ensure there is no mental suffering. Fear and distress is often caused by outside sources such as foxes or rats. A check of the fencing and gates tends to keep the former at bay. Rats are more difficult and feeders have been changed in some coops to try to reduce their nuisance. All of the allotment holders children that visited were very respectful of the chickens. Some even grew lettuce especially for them.
Health and Wellbeing
Sadly due to changes in circumstance the Community chickens have been disbanded at the start of this year (2022). Volunteers have always offered what time they could and it has been much appreciated by the chickens and the recipients of their eggs. However without a sufficient team to ensure that all standards can be maintained they had to be given new homes. Of course the chickens have not gone far and were carefully moved so that there was no distress. Two of the chicken keepers on site re-homed the birds after a good check to make sure they were healthy (the chickens not the keepers!). All have settled well.