bonfire night & fireworks

[purplelady]

This is our first year of having chickens, & i'm worried about how they will be with fireworks going off all night.
It's easy to bring our guinnea pigs in, not quite so easy to bring the chickens in.
Would like to know what other people have done? :(

[Al B]

This is worrying me too, as there will be a display on the village green behind our house. We have a big dog crate so i am thinking of putting the girls in there overnight. I can probably even rig up a perch inside it and then cover it with a cloth. I usually play loud music in the house for the dog so they will have to put up with that, or I may put them in the car in the garage.(In the crate of course - imgine the mess if they weren't!)

This is obviously more difficult if you have larger numbers of chooks.
Does anyone sell chicken earmuffs? Ebay?? This could be another great invention along with Gannet Goggles to protect the retinas of seabirds' eyes when they dive in the sea!

[melons]

been there done it already, I live where they are manufactured, I wont go into a major rant, but we got some soft shelled eggs, so the process of egg making must have been disrupted at some point, the girls were otherwise fine with it, we have them most weekends & I just prefered to leave them were they have familiar surroundings.
It's me who has the major issues with it, I've seen horses lose foals during labour, cattle killed while charging during displays, believe me, it is horrific what it does to animals, ban them, the lot of them

[AnnaB]

melons

Couldn't agree more...my last new girls had a baptism by fire when they first came. There is a local 'stately home' that puts on events throughout the year and that night they had fireworks. It wasn't enough that the poor girls had had 2 longish journeys and strange surroundings to get used to they had the noise of fireworks.

They were all huddled in the nest boxes - I spoke softly to them and stroked them and they settled. I feel if you move them too often they may go off lay (has happened to me in the past when coops were swapped).

Ban fireworks!

[Richard]

I agree about the fireworks being a nuisance - just an excuse for a booze up and a complete waste of money thrown in!

We have had fairly big and long firework parties in the Pub Garden, about 100 meters away and behind a wall.

I must say that mine didn't seem too disturbed atall. Each time they have one I go and check up on them, but don't hear anymore than the usual little grunty noises they make at night.

However, some and some. I know people with similar tales with horses and another where they've gone completely stressed.

Maybe I have a few and they keep eachother company.

Other than closing them in a garage all night, I can't really think of anything else.

Richard

Halloween, Fireworks, Christmas - All aimed at ridiculous commercial profit, usually through kids - but that's another post!!

[melons]

I have to admit I used to work there it was local & it helped to fund my studying when I did my embalming diploma.
It was truly horrendous, they'd send out vans full the rafters every weekend, for music in the park affairs, it used to break my heart to hear all the baby ducklings trying to find their mums in the pitch black, it just destroys the wildlife, & as for what goes up, must come down, the mess left by plastic & wire is horrific, I wouldn't want any of my animals anywhere near it, it lasts for years, it's all cheap chinese plastic tat.
I've just seen the true impact of what goes on behind the scenes. So yes I go wild when every weekend someone thinks the rest of us are interested in the fact they got married today, I know I'm a misery, but it's got way out of hand, it's literally every weekend. & there's me worried about someone complaining about my 5 girls singing for their supper each night bless em, it's coz their happy little girls
So no sparklers in this household.

[Speckledhen]

No Melons, your're not a misery. I entirely agree with you, they're a shocking waste of money and a bloody nuisance to anyone with dogs. The sooner the public sale of the things is banned the better! I dread those stories you get in the papers every year of dogs having fireworks tied to them by some little so and so.

We have a chap who lives further up our road who has a party every Bonfire weekend and at New Year, which might not be so bad if he had any kids living at home!! Not looking forward to this year did think about putting a radio down there in the shed with my girls.

Michele

[purplelady]

Thanks 4 the replies, wouldn't be so bad if it was just 1 night, here in bristol it will go on all weekend.