Hello....

[Anonymous]

...from deepest, darkest Suffolk!

I'm Sarah, married to Simon, 4 children (aged 15, 10 (will be 11 tomorrow), 7 & 4), 2 springer spaniels (Max & Millie, 7-8 months old), 2 cats (Raffie aged 5, Sox aged 4) & 11 chickens.

We started off with 8 ex-batt/barn hens & added 3 more when 1 of our original hens died. Almost 2 years later we found ourselves with just 4 ladies (Sunday-Roast, Psycho Norman, Dragon & Eggie) thanks to age, illness & someone elses dog, so thought it time to get a few more. We now have a Light Sussex (Target), a Speckled Sussex (Speckle), a Blue Orpington (Cassie), 2 white Leghorns (Barbara & Margot) & a couple of cockerels - a Copper Maran who started off as Belle & was re-Christened Copper when we realised she was a he & a Pekin cross called Stitch who came to us when his original owner was told she couldn't have cockerels where she lived.

Am planning on getting a few more ex-batts at some point this year (exactly when depends on when I convert a shed to make a bigger hen house) & sometime in the next few weeks my eldest daughter will be getting some bantams (need to finish off sorting a run before we get them).

 

[Rebelodicus]

Hiya. I'm new here too, but everyone is friendly and talkative. I recon you'll like it here.

I heard a rumour that Battery farming was going to become illegal in the next few years. (stroll on that day), but my ex bats served me well for the last year. Little darlin's Do you go to the BHWT ?

 

[Davidd]

Hello Sarah and welcome to the forum
regards, David

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the welcomes!

Rebelodicus - We didn't go through a rescue organisation for our batties/barns. A friend had heard that we were looking for some cheap & cheerful hens to have as pets/egg-layers & he knew someone who'd rehomed a mixture of battery hens & a few ex-barn hens from another aquaintance. Sadly the novelty had worn off after a few months & the hens started to be neglected & they just wanted to get rid of them. We went along to have a look at them & choose the 3-4 we wanted & I was so upset at the conditions they were in we took all 10 (luckily we have plenty of space & the hen house we had then was made out of a converted storage box that typically held over a ton of potatoes, so with a few extra perches & nest boxes there was room for all 10). Sadly 2 of them died on the trip to ours (they were in a terrible state & it broke my heart to think they never had a chance) but in time the remaining 8 thrived. It took ages for them to regrow their feathers & we had 2 that were "damaged" permanently (1 was blind in 1 eye due to an injury she got sometime in her past, the other had badly infected feet & even when better she couldn't perch due to all the scarring on them).

We'd just got them back to good health & lost 1 to sour crop then our friend who'd pointed us in the direction of the hens initially said someone had given him their excess barn hens (apparently they order more than they'll need to allow for losses or something of that ilke) - our friend took them on but didn't have space for 3 of them so they came to us. Within weeks we'd lost 2 more hens to dogs (dog walkers "accidentally" strayed away from the public woodland over the other side of the main road - claim they didn't see the signs saying this was all private or notice the locked gate that they actually climbed over to get down here :roll: :evil: ) - we would have lost more if it hadn't been for a neighbour from through the woods out for her daily run. We lost another when another neighbours dog got into the run 1 evening about a year ago (that opened our eyes to how insecure our run was when it came to predators), 1 to egg peritonitis, 1 to prolapse last summer (both were treated & recovered, but their problems kept recurring so we finally had to make the decision to have them put to sleep) & just before Christmas Bob (our hen with bad feet) had either a stroke or a brain anuerism & died within seconds of collapsing.

For our next rescue hens we'll be going through BHWT or similar - am replacing our current hen house with a converted shed, then the current hen house will become a quarantine/hospital area for any new/rescued hens...or may end up being a permanent home for hens who are too damaged from battery cages to be able to run with normal, strong hens - haven't decided yet, but then I have plenty of time to think about it as it'll be a while before the shed conversion's done.

You know I think it's good that everyone's friendly & talkative, as I do have a tendency to waffle on (just in case you hadn't noticed :lol: ).

 

[Tim]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

Thanks for joining us.

I heard a rumour that Battery farming was going to become illegal in the next few years. (stroll on that day), but my ex bats served me well for the last year. Little darlin's

Sadly not - Farmers will still be able to use "enriched" cages, which have more space - 600sq cm per bird - plus a nest box, perch and litter.

This is better - but it's still small and it's still a cage. The big danger is many companies might then buy cheaper egg (much of it is dried for use in food production) from outside of Europe where many have been ramping up production, buying the old battery cages from farmers around Europe. I have even had enquiries on here from Asia from people looking to buy old cages 06

I don't buy caged hens eggs or products that contain egg unless they are free range eggs. This is very difficult I find and can take time checking ingredients when shopping but I feel I'm doing my bit..