As you can probably imagine, we at Merrymac are urgently worried about avian flu right now. We’ve devoted a lot of time over the past month to research and consulting with veterinarians and state officials to determine the best personal protective equipment, infection control practices, and housing solutions we can adopt to attempt to mitigate the risk to our birds. We’ve developed new protocols and ordered protective gear for staff and volunteer use. IN ADDITION, we need to transform our birds’ housing to something more secure. In an ideal world our birds should always have access to sunshine and outdoor areas at all times, but we are not dealing with an ideal world at the moment. To protect our flock we will need to have them in enclosed structures where they have room to stretch out and enjoy natural behaviors but not be exposed to the pathogens carried by wild birds. This means that we need to expand our bird structures and fence/net/roof each outside area.
New Items Needed:
2 New 8 x 10 Coops
1 New 6 x 8 Coop
6 Additional Fence Panels/Gates
Bird Netting
Metal Roofing
Protective gear - boot covers, disinfectant, gloves, masks, buckets, and trough
We have secured a great deal on the 3 coops from Johnny's Custom Sheds here locally for $4,800. Huge shout out to him for giving us a fantastic price. And we expect about $1,000 additional will be needed for fencing, netting, roofing, and equipment.
This was NOT something we were expecting, and WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS YEAR'S BUDGET.
That means we need help from our community to cover the $5,800 cost! Bird flu is not “on the way”, there are cases here in Vermont right now. We need to get this done as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for helping us protect our flock of 40 + ducks, 20+ chickens, and 6 turkeys.
