Government demand for people to register chicken ownership leads to influx of people registering roast chickens

Pranksters crashed the website with chickens from Tesco...

DEFRA is requiring anyone who owns chickens or other birds in England or Wales to register them by October 1.

The new law has been introduced with the aim of stopping the spread of avian flu, which resulted in millions of birds being culled in 2021 after 360 cases were detected.

The rules mean that if you have less than 50 chickens, you have to register them, and those who fail to do so will be classed as breaking the law.

Birds such as budgies and parrots do not to be registered if they are fully housed indoors with no access to open air.

Any poultry that has access to the outdoors does have to be registered, though.

Owners should give their contact details, as well as details of the birds and where they are housed.

However, a surge in registrations led to the website crashing after people took things a step too far.

"Our online service is currently unavailable due to technical issues," a message on the website reads.

"You can still register by using the form to register to be a keeper of less than 50 poultry or other captive birds.

"We are experiencing an extremely high volume of applications. We currently aim to process applications within 30 days."

"If you have already submitted an application, do not submit another," the message adds.

Turns out, some people were going so far as to register the roast chickens they'd bought from Tesco, and the government site just couldn't cope.

The first reports of online registration being down came from last week, with the site still not appearing to be back up and running.

Not everyone has welcomed the new rules, with people accusing the government of 'bureaucracy gone mad'.

"I keep a small flock of chickens on my allotment for their eggs," one owner told the Mail Online.

"I moved them indoors, at great expense, during the recent bird flu outbreak, and there’s never been a problem with this.

"I know other keepers who say they’d be prepared to move the few birds they own into their loft to avoid detection rather than register them."