Hens at Garden Centre

Oh please don't get me started on that one!     Our local GC first got hens about 3 years ago.  Cramped, hungry, thirsty, and some looked ill.  Vastly over priced, then last year I think it was, they had what looked like ex battery hens for the same stupid price! 

Then, after we had complained about the conditions they hens were kept in, they called me to ask if I would like to keep them supplied with POL's! 

I won't tell you what I said to them!   

Do you mind?   I was reputable!       So reputable that I told them where to stick their offer to buy my POL's!   

I know what you mean though CQ, but it wasn't just that they are buying chooks where they can get them cheap, but the conditions they were being kept in that I didn't like.  The hens were obviously unhappy.  When our GC first got them, they were inside the GC on a really hot day, with no water as they had tipped it over.

When I complained, the girls said oh I'll have to find the person who deals with it, but while we were there, no one else came to see the hens.  I reported them to the RSPCA, but we all know what they are like!  Didn't do a thing!  

Now that you mention it, there WASN'T any water for them.  Poor dears.  I think one of them had a cold too.  I bought my hens from a highly recommended breeder and they were perfect.  This was my first experience with GC hens and I wasn't happy one bit.  I will avoid them like the plague.  Although I am very partial to the 'Buy or Die' table for plants.  I always make a bee line for that one. 

I went  to the local Dobbies, they had hens nice large run food and water, they looked very healthy.

Our local Dobbies doesn't sell them but does have a little area kinda like a petting zoo (except you can't pet).  All the animals are very well looked after it seems.  Last time I was there was March when it was really hot and thye were putting up extra shading and hadn't brought some of the animals out, like a big fat piggy cos it wasn't suitable for them.

I can't complain at all really, sad to hear others can.  Mind I live in Cumbria, no one in their right mind would buy animals from a garden centre in this county, we are surrounded by farmers