Adopted 4 x battery hens

SusanK · **Joined:** Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:46 pm **Posts:** 2

I am home now Val

byslow · **Joined:** Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:32 pm **Posts:** 1

Out of all the hens I have the 5 ex battery hens have turned out the best of all they are such nice girls and easy going

ash1 · **Joined:** Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:25 pm **Posts:** 94

We adopted six ex-battery girls about six or so months ago and they are lovely girls and soooo enjoying "real" life. It didn't take them long to settle in and now they spend all day foraging. It has been such a pleasure to watch their metamorphsis.

When I let everyone out of their respective houses in the morning they stumble all over each other in their race to get to the feed shed (I have a shed in the middle of the chookie yard that has constant food and water, so I can lock it up at night to thwart any rats or mice). Every afternoon I go in to the yard with a bucket of scraps and the ex-battery girls are the first to greet me, tripping me up in their eagerness to get the "good stuff".

All but one now look like ordinary chooks (albeit with clipped beaks

) except this one girl who still looks like she is straight out of the battery cage. For some reason she has not grown all her feathers back and is still very patchy and half naked. Doesn't seem to bother her at all, if anything she is the most outgoing one of the bunch.

fowlfun · **Joined:** Fri Nov 30, 2012 5:31 pm **Posts:** 1

What should I pay for the exbattery hens is $16 each too much do you think

Katy · **Posted:** Sat Dec 01, 2012 6:24 am

I have seen them for $25 each so 16 I think is ok

ash1 · **Joined:** Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:25 pm **Posts:** 94

We paid $18 each for ours, the reasoning for the highish cost of the birds is because apparently when they used to give them away free, they had people rock up who were obviously going to put them straight in the pot. The rescuers wanted better for these poor birds than that, so they made them a price that would deter people coming to get a free/cheap feed. They wanted these birds, who had lived a torturous life for the last year and a half, to be able to live out the rest of their natural lives in proper chicken fashion.

Katy · **Posted:** Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:46 am

Maybe thats why I also saw them for $25 so they would go to good homes?

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Dec 02, 2012 1:59 pm

Hello exbatthens, I see it is a couple of weeks since you posted so you've probably worked it all out by now. My four were caged when I got them about 20wks old with trimmed beaks. It doesn't take long for them to work it all out for themselves.

The things I did when I got them were -

1. Kept them undercover and away from temperature changes and draughts for a couple of weeks. They came from a temperature controlled shed with no wind, rain or sun, so they needed protection from those changes till they settled in.

2. Online advice is to not change their diet suddenly, so I fed mainly layers pellets for a few days in a deep bowl because they couldn't pick up anything from the ground with their trimmed beaks. Each day I introduced something new which they usually didn't eat on the first try. Silverbeet, earthworms etc were pecked at then left the first time they saw them.

3. Remember that their trimmed beaks mean they can't pick anything up or peck anything to pieces. But it doesn't take long till they find out they can pick things up with their tongues instead of beaks, and soon mine were eating worms and grain from the ground with their tongues flying in and out!

4. Without sharp beaks to peck greens into pieces, they'll learn to tear off bits of green instead. Tough leaved greens, cabbages etc, will never be eaten unless you shred them for them.

5. Their calcium reserves are sure to be depleted from egglaying without sunlight and natural food, and I was told often on this forum to remember to keep up the shellgrit and greens to help them with that. Good advice.

I think a lot of the natural instincts stay with them. Even the day after I got them, some were playacting a dustbath on the concrete floor they were on. There was no dirt and they'd never been on dirt before, but they were going through the motions anyway. Ex caged hens are a delight. When you know the life they had and watch them learn how to do things, scratch the ground, take a sun and dustbath with their eyes closed, you just can't help falling in love with them. And they even say thank you by laying some eggs. :-D

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Dec 02, 2012 2:15 pm

fowlfun wrote:

What should I pay for the exbattery hens is $16 each too much do you think

The egg farm I got my four younger birds from (Western Melbourne outer suburb) charged $4 for "older hens". Some will disagree with me, but in my opinion it's better to go straight to an eggfarm to ask for their older hens where you get to see first hand the conditions they live in. 'Rescue' organisations that make deals with egg farms to be given large numbers of older hens do a good job handling large numbers of chickens but seem to charge a lot for them. I don't think it does the hens much good to be transported and resettled several times before they get to you if you can get them yourself.

Hens and Hobbits · **Posted:** Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:41 pm

Wagners in Coldstream charge $3 for 18 month old 1st season girls, their POL hybrids are $17.

I've seen "rescued" girls advertised for around $6 on various sites and local newspapers etc.

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