Parji, 60, says he had cleaned the coop for a new breed of broiler chickens to replace those just sold when a massive earthquake struck here on May 27, flattening most of the houses in this area in Yogyakarta province.

Having no other place to stay, he and 24 relatives took shelter in the bamboo shed, which withstood the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed more than 5,800 people and left more than 420,000 homeless.

He shrugs off any risk of bird flu, which has hit some areas in the region but is not known to have broken out here. Bird flu has killed 37 people in Indonesia.

"Tents have come, but they are not enough. As I'm in charge of the coordinating post here, I must prioritise my neighbors," Parji says, flies buzzing around him as he speaks.

Two color TVs, a refrigerator and a gas stove have been installed in the shed. Two sacks of rice are stacked in one corner, and vegetables in another.

More than 100 of his neighbors had earlier taken shelter in five other chicken sheds nearby, but they moved following the arrival of 50 tents, mostly donated by the government of Saudi Arabia.

Parji says food aid came swiftly one day after the quake and has continued to pour in. He has asked for more tents for his other neighbors who are crowded into those they have but says he and his family are not in a hurry to move.

"Here it's fine, I have nothing to worry about," he says as his wife Suwarni and a nephew nod in agreement.

But some in the area find their move a little odd.

"I find it strange people should live in a chicken coop, even if it is an emergency situation," says Harjoko, a soldier posted in the village.

Parji says he does not believe his family is at risk of bird flu because he says the chickens that once occupied the shed showed no signs of the disease.

"This place has been fumigated. A doctor came two days ago and he said there's no problem here -- although I must admit there are still many flies," he says.

"I guess I'm immune to diseases. For more than 20 years I have hardly got sick," he boasts.

The London-based aid group Merlin warned at the weekend that homeless quake survivors were exposing themselves to the risk of contracting bird flu and other diseases by staying in chicken sheds.

"It's sad that people who have lost their homes now have no option but to take shelter in places where they are at risk of contracting viruses," said Paula Sansom, who is leading Merlin's team in the quake zone.

But Merlin noted that there had not been any outbreaks of bird flu in the district of which Pentong is part.

Peter Mala, a World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist working in the quake zone on disease surveillance, says he cannot say if Parji and his family are at any increased risk of being infected with the virus.

"Certainly it's not an ideal situation. We can't say there's a risk because we don't know whether the chickens that were there were infected or not," he tells AFP.

The WHO has confirmed 37 human bird flu deaths in Indonesia -- the world's second highest number after Vietnam and the highest number of deaths this year globally.

Parji says he will ask for compensation from the government so he can build his own wooden house instead of having a house rebuilt in concrete and brick -- the typical materials used in this area.

"I think a house like this -- of course without chicken droppings -- is a good idea," he says. "It costs little to build and it's safe when there's an earthquake."

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