Yorkshire turkey farmer uses apples, carrots and pumpkins to entertain birds stuck inside because of deadly flu outbreak

For years hundreds of turkeys proudly strutting and jumping up and down off straw bales at John Wright’s farm at Wyton near Hull have been a familiar – and amusing – sight in the run up to Christmas.

But two weeks ago John had to take the normally free-range birds inside in a bid to avoid the UK’s largest ever outbreak of bird flu, which has seen a rapid escalation in the number of cases on commercial farms and in backyard birds across England. Areas which specialise in turkeys – like Norfolk – have been hit hard and there have been warnings of shortages in the run up to Christmas.

About 5.5m birds have died or been culled as a result of the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus strain since October 2021 – including around 2.3m birds just last month, the BBC reported.

John, whose father, also John, started turkey farming at Holmes Farm in 1962, is taking strict biosecurity measures to protect his 1,200 birds, but admits he is “absolutely petrified” and has been having nightmares.

He's been feeding the birds apples, carrots and pumpkins left over from Halloween, so the birds can keep occupied by foraging, preventing them from getting distressed or into fights while they are cooped up inside.

He said: "I’m feeding them apples, carrots and pumpkins to try and keep them entertained, to keep them occupied otherwise they would be getting quite distressed.

"It is quite a confined space compared to what they are used to – they’ve been outside ever since they were little and came in two weeks ago.

"I was genuinely scared that they were going to start fighting and scrapping – males can be quite aggressive when they start flashing their crests. If anything they are quite happy – while they are foraging it is keeping the males and females occupied.”

Normally John would rear 1,500 birds but cut down on numbers earlier this year, as he realised he may have to bring them inside.

He said a lot of farmers had come out of turkey rearing because of the flu outbreak, adding: “It’s getting very scary and hard – it’s the full flock at risk.”

There have been warnings of shortages of fresh birds, with around a third of free-range production (1m birds) directly affected by the disease, the British Poultry Council said.

John says his – priced at £10 a kilo – are not completely sold out, although they are selling very quickly.

All in all it’s been a really tough year with prices rocketing for everything from feed to electricity for lighting and for the chillers where the birds are stored after they have been killed.

John said he’d done his very best to keep prices down. In the meantime he’s carrying on trying to do all he can to prevent disease getting into his flock – including not going for a walk in a wood where wild birds have been.

To order visit http://www.johnwrightturkeys.co.uk/