[Robster]

I lost my hens (5) to the fox in November.  I contacted the British Hen Welfare Trust to to rehome  some ex batts, which I did on the 29th December.  It was a dead easy process the people there were very helpful.  I made a donation to the trust which was optional of £4 each which is a lot cheaper than buying POL birds.

The birds quickly started to adopt all the propper chickeny behaviours and it was very pleasing to see.  All laying well and refeathering (slowly)

Just wanted to share this with anyone looking to start with hens or restock

[bygrace]

Good on you! I got my first chooks in October and wondered whether to get ex-batts. Decided in the end not to - thought I would be better to cut my teeth so to speak on birds that were healthier to start with. Now I have just a tad of experience I'd feel more confident with ex-batts next time around.
Thanks for sharing...BG

[Robster]

BG, I made exactly the same decision as you with my first chickens.  Never regretted it.  Enjoy

[Mother-Hen]

Re-homing ex- batts can be very rewarding but be warned that sometimes the girls can come to you in a very bad state. I have just taken on another 10 ex-batts, unfortunately I lost one of them today as she was just to weak to survive. The others are doing well, weakened due to the previous life but all eating well and starting to come round thankfully though it 's early days yet. Good luck and best wishes if you do decide to go down the ex-batt route as they really do deserve a second chance

 Nicky