keeping chickens - help and advice (merged)

jumblejack

....I have just had another thought. I saw on a programme recently that male chicks are gassed at birth as they are no good for egg production. Is there any way of caring for these to save them from a horrible fate? I wouldn't personally as there is the disadvantage of noise which would irritate the neighbours but some people out there with big hearts and even bigger gardens may wish to rescue these poor creatures!!!!!

churchrat

hi
we had a dog who was great with the hens, didn't even look at them. We now have a dog who looks at them as if they are dinner!! think it depends on the dog (helpful answer!!) I think I would get the hens when the dog is a puppy. He will be easier to control and will quckly learn that they are not to be touched.
Do you intend to have the chickens completely "free range" in your garden? they can do a great deal of damage to plants and leave poo just where you don't want it.

cheeks--never had a rat problem so far, I've kept hens in this garden for about 4yrs. Always bring the food in at night and never leave any extra food in the chicken run. Like IKa I use dust mite powder, bought a HUGH tub a few yrs ago and still got loads left. Are hens true MSE pets?? do they really pay for themselves?? well my lot certainly don't. stupid hens. forgotten how to lay eggs, I just feed them and they look beautiful:T

Also--sad news, a fox got one of my hens the other day. It was the middle of the day, we live in sunny suburbia and lots of people were about. We see a lot of foxes at night, never during the day. I think this one must have been desperate, because it ran off with the hen, even stopping to pick it up despite seeing me and dog chasing down the garden. A risk to take, I suppose, when looking after hens.

peigirl

hi there. well done in homing some of these poor hens! I always have FREE RANGE EGGS but would be very interested in giving a home to some of these. How do you do this?

Many thanks

jmarko

well done lka200 and anyone else that does this! i don't think i have enough space (at the mo) to rescue battery hens and anyway there are a lot of cats around here.

but to those who do :T :T :T :T :T

c021752c

We got our girls from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust:

www.bhwt.org.uk/ :A

Cookiecrumble

We collected 8 ex-battery hens on Saturday from BHWT Dorset, we've never had hens before so everything is new. I did a lot of research first www.ex-battery-hens.com is another useful site and chat forum with lots of helpful members who will answer any questions.
It's amazing how quickly the hens return to being normal hens after they have been in cages nearly all thier lives.
My DH who said he wanted nothing to do with chickens, converted part of the shed and built a lovely run. Is now fussing over them, and checking for eggs several times a day. I think he's getting quite attached to them, but he won't admit it. I even found my 16 year old son sitting in the run yesterday talking to them, and my 21 year old bought three of his mates round to show them the chickens! These hens are certainly having an affect on the men in this house.

mibmrd6

hi
i have rescued 88 ex batteries and i sell the eggs from my gate
you will never eat a tastier egg
they look so sorry for themselves when they first arrive but they soon perk up
i agree that cages are barbaric and should be outlawed totally and so should the new enriched cages. free range all the way
good luck to anyone who takes on some ex batts
i still sit and watch mine as they all have their own individual characters:j

churchrat

hi
quick question to anyone who has kept ex-bats for a while. Did you find that they had any props caused by thier early mistreatment? or did they just age like "ordinary"hens?
many thanks
cr

mibmrd6

hi
i have had my longest rescue hens for 20 months.
some have sadly died for no reason apart from, i am guessing, the stress they have suffered being caged up as they are all cared for in the same way on our farm.
most of them have survived and are leading a very happy free range life.
they did look a sorry sight when they first came home and but once they have moulted and had a few sunny days on thier backs they look sooo much happier.
they also look very confused for a while at all the space, perch's and dust baths.
they must be quite intelligent as they knew what to do with it all!
good luck to any new rescuers out there.
the rewards for rescuing the hens is huge.
:T

Eager_Elephant

Hi everyone

I'm glad everyone is getting in on this chicken keeping lark!!

We have about 70 hens in total, we have 45 on an allotment, of these 10 are battery hen rescues and the rest we rehomed from someone who no longer had time for them. They were pitiful when we got them but they are doing really well.
The funniest thing was just after we got them we were up on our allotment when it started raining, our other hens all ran for cover and the battery hens stayed outside - they loved the rain!!!

Just remember when you get the battery hens, if you eat the eggs for the first 3 - 5 days they are likely to contain antibiotics from the farm so we had ours penned in seperately and the eggs went to the dog.

In our garden we have the rest running around as well as loads of chicks which we have hatched.

We are getting about 50 eggs a day which we sell to neighbours and work colleagues - we can't keep up with demand and have to do without ourselves!!!

I feed mine layers pellets, mixed corn and vegetables.

I buy big sacks of carrots which my allotment hens live but the garden ones are too posh for veg.

Fire away if you have any questions.

EE