Ex-battery Hens & Chicken Advice Generally Please

Debt_Free_Chick

craftynutters wrote: »

hi i've been thinking about getting some hens for a while do you know where i could get battery hens? I"m in Kent. thanks

Get in touch with the Battery Hen Welfare Trust - they rescued some battery hens in Kent this month, apparently.

Debt_Free_Chick

Hens will eat the kind of stuff you put in the compost bin - raw veg peelings. Mix with breadcrumbs and add a little water if too dry. Just keep a bowl in the kitchen - shove the stuff through a processor, mix, add water if necessary and give to the hens.

Supplement with feed (corn) but a bowl of scraps every other day is fine.

If you have a scruffy garden, so much the better as they will scratch around for worms & bugs etc.

If you don't have a scruffy garden - you soon will have :rotfl:

kittycat07

We used to have chickens before we moved to our current house (not feasible at the moment) and they were great - we had no problem with rats - the chickens were very tidy in ensuring no food was lying about and if you get a metal bin less chance that a rodent could find its way in. They really are fantastic and eat up all the bits that you might otherwise compost / throw away (veg peelings etc) as well as their own feed. Don't know about battery chicks I'm afraid, but the eggs you'll get from your own birds will far far far exceed those you can get anywhere in the shops. Do it!!!!

Muppet81

Yep - hens in little jumpers do feature on the BHWT site gallery. So, cute, poor little mites. These are the real oven readies with next to no feathers.

Hope you decide to go for it.

beetrootjuicer

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Hens will eat the kind of stuff you put in the compost bin - raw veg peelings. Mix with breadcrumbs and add a little water if too dry. Just keep a bowl in the kitchen - shove the stuff through a processor, mix, add water if necessary and give to the hens.

If you have a scruffy garden, so much the better as they will scratch around for worms & bugs etc.

If you don't have a scruffy garden - you soon will have :rotfl:

(Thanks Kittycat also for your post). I realised they'd eat bread scraps and things like that and enjoyed a cabbage stalk with some leaves still attached hung up to pick at but didn't realise they'd eat veg peelings. I take it that's cooked not raw? Fit in nicely with the frugal living/recycling lifestyle then don't they although have to say between us, the dog, the cats and the compost heap not much's wasted, anyway!

I have a VERY scruffy garden which has got jungly this summer :eek: . It's too large to chicken/fox proof to let them free range and was originally thinking about 2 permanent runs but wondering if a portable one and a fresh patch of ground each week would work better ie. nights in the house, days in the run (where would they lay their eggs, then, though, and how easy would they be to catch to put in the house at night? (visions of one of those excruciating scenes chasing chickens they always include in awful comedy shows about the country). Can't decide if they'll tidy the garden up or make it worse, if you see what I mean. :rolleyes:

Muppet: DD wasn't pulling my leg then about the little jumpers. It is sweet, bless them, but God, what an evil trade that gets living creatures into that state. If push comes to shove and I really can't afford organic/free range eggs and chicken then I'll go without.

scorpio_biker

Hi,

Can I ask you knowledgable people a question regarding keeping chickens?

I would like to keep a few, but my garden arrangement is little strange - I have a fair area of land but very little grass area, so I wouldn't want to keep them in a fixed run. I thought about allowing them to be free range around my land. However - my husband and I both work full time (although he does shifts) and twice a week we will both be out of the house from 7:30 to 18:00. Does anyone else keep their chickens free range while they are out of the house for that long? I live in a fairly rural area and I wasn't sure how viabale this arrangement would be in winter?

I've thought about a moveable run but my grass area is effectively my front lawn and my look a little odd!!!

So, any advice?

Magentasue

Ours free range in our secure garden all day when we're out. I've seen them in unenclosed gardens where there's no road etc but you have to be sure that no dog or fox will visit while you're out.

They need to be able to get to their nest box to lay but it doesn't have to be in the coup. Could be a cardboard box with straw but they like darkness and privacy when they lay.

You don't have to get them in at night. As it gets dark, they move nearer to the coup - they have a strong roosting instinct and don't like to be wandering in the dark. They pu themselves to bed - so long as they can get to the coup, they'll go in and jump up on their perch before dark. You have to teach ex-batteries to perch though. When we first got ours,, their 'toes' were curled under and they had to practise straightening them so that they could walk on grass. Within a week or two they're acting like real chickens though - scratching, dust bathing etc. Brilliant to watch!

kittycat07

We didn't really ever have to chase around after them - most of them tended to put themselves to bed in the evening - or at least into their hut. Ours were free while we were all out at work / school during the day most of the time (though we did have 2 runs for them too). Also we used to put veg peelings into a bucket and carry all out in that (sometimes shouting "ladies!!") - then used to put them down - they'd all soon flock and in fact seemed to recognise the routine!

We tended to give them raw peelings - carrots, potatoes whatever we had going really. It sounds a nice idea mixing with breadcrumbs and processing - I'm afriad that ours were never that spoilt though and used to just have the peelins as they were. Don't think we gave onions or citrus peel ever to them though although we also found that they were rather parital to rhubarb leaves for some reason and any fallen / rotting apples would soon be eaten by them. I don't recall ever giving them cooked food (though in theory don't see why not but would be guided by others).

If you're going to have a protable run (and I can see the logic) how about making a nesting box so that they could lay in there? I think that we bought ours at the time but really it just looked like bits of plywood together with some soft shavings / straw at the bottom in house like shape - we had 4 boxes which seemed to do about 12-15 birds - they seemed happy to share and some were happy to lay outside anyway.

beetrootjuicer

kittycat07 wrote: »

If you're going to have a protable run (and I can see the logic) how about making a nesting box so that they could lay in there? I think that we bought ours at the time but really it just looked like bits of plywood together with some soft shavings / straw at the bottom in house like shape - we had 4 boxes which seemed to do about 12-15 birds - they seemed happy to share and some were happy to lay outside anyway.

I like the idea of giving them fresh ground every week or so in a portable run but then again seems to be a shame to waste the henhouse which has built -in nestboxes - you know the sort that are built out from the side of the house and you lift a lid to access them so you don't need to actually go inside to collect the eggs? Also thinking about Magentasue's earlier point about giving them shelter in bad weather as they won't necessarily think of going back into their house, :rotfl: - this henhouse is raised off the ground about 18" so they could shelter under it. I wonder how quickly the ground would recover from their 'gardening' efforts if they alternated between 2 permanent runs? Obviously lots to think about.

beetrootjuicer

Magentasue wrote: »

When we first got ours,, their 'toes' were curled under and they had to practise straightening them so that they could walk on grass. Within a week or two they're acting like real chickens though - scratching, dust bathing etc. Brilliant to watch!

God, it's heartbreaking, isn't it. If you kept a dog or cat like that you'd be prosecuted and quite rightly, too! There must be tremendous satisfaction in seeing them recuperate - just feel sorry for the poor ones that don't get the chance!