Ex battery hens - experiances etc?

seeingdouble

seeingdouble

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ok - so i know it's not horsey but i have often seen chicken posts in here so i am joining in now lol!

I am getting some ex battery hens in October, i cannot decide if they should live at the yard and free range with the ducks i rescued earlier in the year, or, if they should be a home whereby they are in a coop and run most of the time with less free ranging (its not one of the premade tiny coops and runs but a seperate hen house within its own large run).

When i get them, it will be mid october and some may not have all of the feathers - has anyone rehomed any like these and how did you find they coped? any tips?

also, if anyone fancies also rehoming some, i can pm you the details as they are available throughout the country ;-)
 
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I LOVE em!! On my second lot now. Cant advise where to keep them, they'll be happy wherever. Mine are at home in a huge run/coop and are fine. Got mine in Feb and looked a state, we didnt bother worrying about featherless-ness they snuggle up and keep warm:D Get some layers pellets and mash them them for a few weeks, then you can leave and start introducing corn and veggies. They drink LOADS of water so make sure you have plenty - they also poo in their water a lot coz they are gross:D so lift the water up - we use an auto water feeder like you get for horses and fix to hosepipe permanantly. They will stop laying while they moult, as the calcium is needed for the feathers (rather than egg shells) so dont worry if they seem to conk out. Ours did for a couple of months, im now back to 8 a day (10 hens) and sell them all to the lucky villagers!
 
My parents have rehomed hundreds of battery hens over the years (I can't myself having chicken killer dogs!!:rolleyes:) but they always have theirs free range. It does take the poor girls a while to understand that they are allowed outside of their shed home but once 1 gets brave and goes outside they do seem to follow. My dad has 2 sections of the chicken 'area' on his paddock, so they can have the old girls living alongside the new girls until they are used to each other then he opens up the sections so they can live together in the one coop. They do take a while to adapt but the pleasure from seeing these once scared, skinny no feathered creatures become happy friendly beautiful birds is worth all the effort.

If I were you I'd have them at home but purely because you get the fun of watching them more, plus keep an eye on them just in case horrible foxes decide to visit. :mad:
 
Thanks !!

when they are in cages, very often to lay for supermarkets they only have a tiny amount of space in their cage that they share with other hens, i 'think' its something crazy like an A4 sized cage has 2 or 3 hens in it! If you google battery hen cages you'll see what i mean. Obviously this means that they fight etc and some end up bald :( they dont get to go outside etc like you imagine, this is why i only ever buy Free Range eggs, and now will hopefully have my own supply and will be saving some hens at the same time :D:D
 
i quickly googled to check the A4 size thing and got this....

The facts
There are 30,000,000 chickens in this country - 85% of these are 'living' in Battery Farms.

70% of the above are kept in sheds containing 20,000 birds or more, some up to 100,000.

The minimum legal requirement of space for one bird is just under three quarters the size of an A4 sheet of paper.
Most farms have 4 or 5 birds per cage. The cages being approx. 20 inches x 20 inches (500 x 500)

Cages usually extending from one end of the shed to the other, up to six stacks high.
Why do my chums look so glum? See
The Human Battery CageWith artificial 'sunrise and sunset' plus fortified foods, the average annual egg yield of one hen is 338 per year.

Over 2,000,000 chickens die in their cages each year from disease caused by improper control of faeces clearing.

Chicken beaks are cut to stop them causing too much damage to each other.

They spend approximately 72 weeks in this condition before they are slaughtered for pet food, even pies for us.


Its heartbreaking :(:(:(:(
 
Aww poor mites, I knew battery hens were in small cages but didn't realise they were that small or that they can end up bald through fighting. Glad I buy free range :(

Well the bunch you've got coming are gonna be very lucky hens, good on u ! :D
 
That's such a crap life, well its not a life is it, its a pitifull existence.

I tell u what I don't get, when I go into asda, nearly all the eggs are barn or free range eggs and I presume its the same in other supermarkets, so I don't get the 85 percent, as only smart price eggs are battery eggs.
Are they classing barn eggs as battery hens?
I suppose a huge percentage goes into other foods and are not seen as eggs on the shelf.

Its less than a pound extra for free range, are people really so poor they can't afford this?
 
Hi No its not the same. The majority of eggs in supermarkets and other local stores are battery hens. Also unless stated the chicken we have as a sunday roast are appaulingly (spp) treated as well. As with most things higher welfare foods get sold for more money (thats the supermarkets being greedy ******) and people understandably buy whats cheap when they are on a budget. We have a happy chicken policy in our house!:D
 
From what i am also led to believe, the 'free range hens' and 'barn hens' still have a short life with the mass producers as once they have had their 1st year of laying, their egg production slows down hence they are not as profitable as younger hens hence i believe these type of places also 'dispose' of them more frequently than you or i would as pet owners!
 
We took 3 ex-batts on in February, 2 were quite well feathered but 1 wasn't.

We did have jackets made for them but they didnt like them so we just made sure they had loads of straw and shavings in their house and they were absolutely fine,never seemed cold at all.

Ours have a nice big run and coop but free range around the garden when we are at home and can keep an eye on them because of the risk of foxes.

We used to get 3 eggs a day but this reduced to 2 when one suffered a prolapse. We got her through the prolapse but she hasn't layed since but we don't mind at all- She deserves a nice retirement.

We've just aquired another 2 unwanted 'spent' commercial hens who are settling in well and we currently get 4 eggs a day from the 5 hens.

So we now have,Dippy,Chilly,Buffy, and the new one's Peggy Sue and Betty Boo ha ha-bonkers aren't we!

I never thought I'd become so fond of them but they are very much part of the family now and the kiddies love them too:D
 
Farriersfriend, how did you go on mixing the new hens with the existing ones? We had five exbats last year, and their run is bigger than a lot of people's gardens, so we keep thinking that we'll get some more.

I think that one of the reason there are so many battery hens around is that their eggs go into cooking - so a lot of us still eat battery eggs in other things, even though we buy free range eggs.

I hear that barn and free range eggs aren't that free. Its always best to find someone with real free range eggs locally. We get five a day, so all our friends and family get boxes regularly.

Ours all had feathers when they came by the way, but had no idea how to be chickens. It took six months until they'd explored the whole run and become 'real' hens. Its lovely to look at them now having a real life.

One thing they still do, is sleep all crammed into one nesting box instead of the perches - all on top of one another. I guess this is how they slept in the cage.
 
Honey08 said:
One thing they still do, is sleep all crammed into one nesting box instead of the perches - all on top of one another. I guess this is how they slept in the cage.
Click to expand...

I have hens and a cockerel that sleep like this and they were all raised by us from chicks, They used to sleep on the perches for the first summer and just lay in the nesting boxes, but during the winter they all huddled up for warmth and have been doing it ever since. :-)
 
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