'Hugh's Chicken Run' A Moral Dilemna for DFWs?

rog2

sammiboo wrote: »

But i do want to keep Chickens myself - but will have to wait till i have a bigger garden

Well said sammiboo - there's a good thread developing on the 'greenfingered moneysaving' board - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=678815 with some excellent links to feed suppliers, types of chicken coops etc.

sammiboo

THanks ROg.

Just been looking at the thread and gave some advice on duck keeping. I forgot to mention I used to keep ducks

Some good advice on there, I still have quite a few contacts from my previous job

KangaRue

Does anyone know if rescued battery hens will keep laying eggs? I would love to have some egg hens now that we've got a garden big enough. Someone told me that former battery hens will lay for a few weeks then won't produce another egg, but not sure if that's true or not??

(Land_of)_Maz

I'm no expert but the woman who was on Jamies Fowl Dinners from the rescue place for battery hens, said they could lay for another 10 years or something, but not in great volumes.....

someone will come along and correct me in a minute. no doubt!

rog2

KangaRue wrote: »

Does anyone know if rescued battery hens will keep laying eggs? I would love to have some egg hens now that we've got a garden big enough. Someone told me that former battery hens will lay for a few weeks then won't produce another egg, but not sure if that's true or not??

Apparently they will continue laying, but at a rate of 40 - 50%, ie every other day. Have a look at; www.bhwt.org.uk

Lotus-eater

They will continue to lay eggs, but when they are getting used to the new enviroment they will usually slow down the production of eggs. However read this post
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=7879677#post7879677

sammiboo

As said above, they should continue laying but it may take a while for them to get settled and lay regularly. It has been known that they might stop altogether but this isnt common.

The battery hens that I had at work took a while to get into the swing of things, the shells were soft to begin with so needed a course of vitamins. Their feathers were also a mess, lots missing and dry as they didnt have any oil in their feathers due to not being "weathered".