Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: upert on July 01, 2018, 22:42
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What do you do with your dead chickens?
I used to bury them yet I'm not sure this isn't frowned upon nowadays. I might be out of date buy I read somewhere Defra would prefer only pets were buried or cremated and chickens do not count as pets according to them. They ought to be bagged and binned according to the page I read.
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Your local vet will dispose of any dead animals, but it will cost you a fair bit.
I know people do bury them, but obviously you need to dig a deep hole to prevent foxes digging them back up. DEFRA are going to say no as they are worried about the spread of disease, nuisance to neighbours and so on. If you had numerous birds and were regularly having to dispose of bodies, you can see their point.
If it is your own land and you only bury the odd bird, the common sense answer is that no-one will know if you do it properly. If you are going to bag and bin them, make sure you wrap well as they are going to start to smell very quickly as they have the guts still inside them. Not pleasant for you or the bin men :(
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I buried them deep in a wild area on our site. I feel a little sentimental I guess about Mr Fox ravaging them but also felt it better all round if they're out of the way.
Naturally, their carcasses would be appreciated by scavengers etc but I have to think of others.
Whilst searching for firm rules I was somewhat surprised that Defra hadn't caught up with so many people keeping chickens again.
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I bag and bin mine, couple of carrier bags and the a black bin bag.
They smell far less than dead mice do. :mad:
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I bag and bin. A large drink afterwards always goes well
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Since there seemed to be a lot of mixed advice about this matter I contacted Animal Health. This is their reply:
A dead chicken is a category 2 animal by product. As such it must be disposed of:
1. Your local vet may agree to take (if you take body there in a double bag), and probably may charge?
2. Your local knacker man, same procedure.
3. A handling plant that has an incinerator.
You may not bury the carcase(s).
These measure are very important for disease prevention.
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Hi and welcome to the forum :)
Since there seemed to be a lot of mixed advice about this matter I contacted Animal Health. This is their reply:
A dead chicken is a category 2 animal by product. As such it must be disposed of:
1. Your local vet may agree to take (if you take body there in a double bag), and probably may charge?
2. Your local knacker man, same procedure.
3. A handling plant that has an incinerator.
You may not bury the carcase(s).
These measure are very important for disease prevention.
Thank you for your input, but as I said earlier in this thread.
I know people do bury them, but obviously you need to dig a deep hole to prevent foxes digging them back up. DEFRA are going to say no as they are worried about the spread of disease, nuisance to neighbours and so on. If you had numerous birds and were regularly having to dispose of bodies, you can see their point.
So yes, according to the rules burying is not an option, but common sense alternatives were suggested similar to those people would use for small pets that died or animals killed on the road, or dead vermin.
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Our council did object to a dead pheasant in the recycling bin :lol:
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Our council did object to a dead pheasant in the recycling bin :lol:
Well it is a push to think how it would be recycled :lol:
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I was informed bag and bin was the way to go. I read a Govt website:
You can only dispose of category 2 ABPs by:
incinerating or co-incinerating without processing or with prior processing, when resulting material has to be marked with glyceroltriheptanoate (GTH)
sending them to authorised landfill after processing by pressure sterilisation and marking with GTH
making them into organic fertilisers/ soil improvers, after processing and marking with GTH
composting or anaerobic digestion after processing by pressure sterilisation and marking with GTH (milk, milk products, eggs, egg products, digestive tract content, manure do not need processing, providing no risk of spreading serious transmissible disease)
applying them to land, in the case of manure, digestive tract content, milk, milk products and colostrum, this can be done without processing
using them in composting or anaerobic digestion, if they are materials coming from aquatic animals ensiled
using them as fuel for combustion
using them for manufacture of certain cosmetic products, medical devices and safe industrial or technical uses
I'm not sure what GTH is yet I'm pretty sure I haven't any.
When I buried them I did bury deep and none were dug up. I can understand a few reasons why they wouldn't want us to bury them as there's a lot of domestic chickens these days.
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If you have a fire bin on you allotment you can incinerate your dead birds.