It’s been a while now since DEFRA brought in the legal requirement to register our pet poultry and this is a polite reminder to those who may have, for whatever reason, not submitted your registration that you need to do so.
This new legislation gives us a greater opportunity to help our hens should a notifiable disease emerge in our region, and that can only be a good thing. We need to embrace a collective awareness of disease risk so we can collectively, and effectively, protect our pets should the need arise.
We’re in touch with DEFRA regularly, and support their keenness to contact bird keepers en masse and encourage you to get your registration in if you haven’t already.
Here are the key points to be aware of :
- If you’re a keeper of less than 50 poultry or other captive birds and don’t already have a CPH (holding number), you can complete your registration using the online registration service. This easy-to-use system takes less than 10 minutes.
- APHA are currently working through a high number of new registrations from bird keepers. If you have already completed an application, you don’t need to take any further action, even if you haven’t yet received a CPH number. This includes any applications submitted by email or post while the online service was unavailable. You should receive confirmation from APHA in due course.
- These registration rules cover owners of backyard flocks, birds of prey and pigeon fanciers, but do not affect caged pet birds (excluding any poultry species) kept entirely inside a domestic dwelling, such as a parrot, canary or budgie, with no access to the open-air.
- If you keep birds in Scotland, here is a link to the rules that apply : https://keptbirdregister.service.gov.scot/Home/Terms
Please note: APHA are currently working through a high number of new registrations and if you have already completed an application, you don’t need to take any further action, even if you haven’t yet received a CPH number. This includes any applications submitted by email or post while the online service was unavailable. You should receive confirmation from APHA in due course.
