Ex commercial hens - Introducing Fresh Start for Hens

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Mother Hen

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Hi, I help run Fresh Start for hens, a not for profit, Community Interest company, rehoming ex commercial hens. We are run entirely by volunteers.

We operate throughout England and Wales and have regular rehomings of 72 week old, ex commercial egg layers (although cannot guarantee any one particular hen will continue to lay) who we aim to rehome as pets.

Last year alone we rehomed over 67,000 hens, almost 3000 ducks and numerous cockerels and others!

We ask a minimum donation of £2.50 per hen and have a maximum number of 25 hens per person per rehoming - sometimes they need a little more attention and care, depending on what sort of farm they come from, and we do not want to put them into another commercial situation!

If you would be interested in rehoming from us, please visit our website, www.freshstartforhens.co.uk

I am happy to answer any questions :)
 
Mother Hen said:
Hi, I help run Fresh Start for hens, a not for profit, Community Interest company, rehoming ex commercial hens. We are run entirely by volunteers.

We operate throughout England and Wales and have regular rehomings of 72 week old, ex commercial egg layers (although cannot guarantee any one particular hen will continue to lay) who we aim to rehome as pets.

Last year alone we rehomed over 67,000 hens, almost 3000 ducks and numerous cockerels and others!

We ask a minimum donation of £2.50 per hen and have a maximum number of 25 hens per person per rehoming - sometimes they need a little more attention and care, depending on what sort of farm they come from, and we do not want to put them into another commercial situation!

If you would be interested in rehoming from us, please visit our website, www.freshstartforhens.co.uk

I am happy to answer any questions :)
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Well done. I have previously volunteered for the BHWT and loved it. We were lucky enough (partner and I) to rehome a total of eight hens which we really enjoyed. We had the facilities and the room then when we lived on 250 acres! Dad built us a lovely coop and we had a 20ft run for them although every day they free ranged for hours whilst we sat on the decking watching them. The dog was terrified of them as she has a big red wart on her leg and they thought it was a juicy berry and tried to peck it.

One day she had a bone and the 'top dog' hen tried to take it off her. She barked at it but didn't go for it as it wasn't in her nature, and it stood on its legs really tall with wings out and scared her to death, - it had her bone! We used to call them our 'girlies' and would call them from the bottom of the garden, they would run so fast towards us that the one nearly used to go ars* over tip! :)
If we took the shovel down to the bottom they'd be at our feet waiting for us to dig up big earthworms and slugs for them.

I loved volunteering and I went to one of the farms, it wasn't battery cages but a big barn and I can remember when taking them out of the barn and passing them down the 'ladder row' to the next person to be loaded into crates being very worried when I was passed three upside down hens for each hand!

That day we loaded and rehomed 649 hens, very sadly one of the hens had died during the passing from farmer, to me, to next person to person loading in the crate. It always struck me that although we'd saved 649 little lives that day, that poor hen was so very near to freedom...
 
Great work, I have had a few over the years, it is amazing how quickly they settle in and start scratching the earth and developing personalities. People who have not had contact with hens don't realise how clever they are and they all have their individual characters. I love watching them run up for feeding, they always make me think that they have their pants down which is restricting their movement. Absolutely huge timewasters, but wouldn't be without them.
 
I am collecting three new girls from FreshStart in a few hours time ? My large run has been divided in half so they can see the world and their new neighbours from a safe distance. Very excited and even if they never lay me an egg it doesn’t matter. They will live out their remaining days with sunshine on their feathers and lots of dust to roll in not to mention good food, fruit and the odd snail or worm as a treat.
 
Archangel said:
How exciting, we will need some photos.
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They are a bit shell shocked but out of the carrier and had a drink and now pecking and scratching. All minus rather a lot of feathers and I’ve already had an egg ? Will take some photos later on as I want to track the feather recovery.
 
My dad did building work at a battery farm many decades ago. We lived rurally and had our own hens, ducks and geese.
He felt sorry for the hens, at the end of his work contract there he ended up bringing 6 back with him to recuperate with our gang.
I could ‘t believe my young 12yr old eyes when I saw them - they were almost bald and so small. In terrible condition.

It was amazing the turnaround of them - within weeks their feathers were growing and they got bigger , became part of the gang running around our large half acre garden. They didnt lay initially but soon started laying again when they got healthier. There was about 20 hens in total - i was over-run with eggs and pedalled around the village selling them for 10p each!
It was so nice to witness them becoming happy hens...to know that their cage life hadn’t traumatised them for life.

You work must be very fulfilling mother hen....good idea to post here ?
 
Archangel said:
How are the girls this morning?
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They are all fine thank you. I have had another egg but I need to sort out some larger sleeping quarters for them with a low perch and a nesting box. They have been introduced to corn as well as their usual layers mash and they liked the grapes and strawberries although they only had a few bits as I don’t want to upset their tummies. I have photos but they are to big and won’t load so I will have another go.
 
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Thanks MC I’ve managed to resize them. I have spent ages in the run with them this morning and as they were desperate to meet the others I took the partition down. The very friendly one I have named Tilly sits on my lap and follows me everywhere, the most dominant one is still a bit jumpy but relaxing more and more and the paler one is eating well but is more lethargic and does doze more than the other two. They like the Arc and have already made it home but I have also made them two covered nesting boxes just in case they need more space.
 
The cockerel affectionately known as Chicken Stew is such a friendly chap and a bit younger than them so they are a well matched flock in age. He has put himself to bed in one of the temporary nesting boxes while Tilly is sitting on top of them and looks as though she is going to lay an egg. It is a shame I can’t let out into the orchard as the foxes would get them but at least aren’t in a noisy shed anymore. Will take weekly feather photos.
 
A quick update on my rescue hens Tilly, Tammy and Talulah.

These three have turned into such friendly girls and they have without fail laid me an egg every day since they came home. Brenda my original bantam now renamed bossy knickers got herself into a proper tizz and sulked for three months. Didn’t lay any eggs but happily sat on theirs ?, refused to come out of the arc and squawked at them if they so much as dared go near her so after two weeks I had to evict her every morning so she would eat and drink. Chicken Stew took to polygamy like a duck to water and is a really good husband although sometimes he takes his conjugal rights a little to seriously. Their feathers are returning and they all look so much healthier and not pale any longer and although I didn’t think two of them would fully feather back up I noticed Talulah has small shafts appearing over her back which weren’t there three days ago. They are now allowed out into the orchard if I’m around to keep an eye on them and they have a varied diet of layers mash with half a melon a day, blueberries, figs, left overs, natural yoghurt, grapes and their favourite red cabbage.
 
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