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There's a small piece in the January 21st edition of Vet Times saying "backyard poultry keepers ignore vets, finds study." It refers to a paper by the RVC which it states is online at www.tandfonline.com/toc/cbps20/current and which concerns a small study of 30 backyard chicken keepers in the London area in 2010.
Apparently three quarters of owners did not realise feeding kitchen waste to their chickens was not permitted, and 40 per cent admitted burying dead poultry in the garden.
It's a fair cop...when we had backyard chickens I did feed some of Caroline's cooking to them...but only the inedible stuff...OK, I admit, there was quite a lot of it. And yes, a rat did pop out of the compost heap and help itself to it. When the next door neighbour's dog broke in and killed 'Rachel' (one of the silkies as I remember) then yes, I did bury it in the garden along with the other pets. And I can't plead ignorance m'lud, I've been on the Poultry Course at Compton and worked with industrial chicken and egg producers.
Better clap me in irons now then.
On a more serious note, the article quotes that nearly half said they would not seek veterinary help in case of illness in their chickens. One of the authors, Iveta Karabozhilova said, "Making information available and easily accessible through the most widely used channels is of high priority from a disease control perspective, in particular for notifiable exotic diseases characterised by quick spread and devastating effect, such as avian influenza and Newcastle disease."
Also , I find it very funny that a so-called poultry expert doesn't know the difference between a silkie and a pekin - besides, we've never owned silkies!! Ha ha!