Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: jorj on July 19, 2008, 00:02
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I have just taken possession of 6 battery hens tonight. Poor little things, they are bald and their combs are all tattered and nearly white. I dont know how old they are but if they can have some quality of life it will be worth it. My other hens are not taking too kindly to these intruders and have chased them out of the hen house but I am hoping they will get their pecking order sorted out soon. I suppose I will need to watch that they are not infected with anything in case they pass it onto my otherwise healthy, overfed, happy hens. :lol:
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Good luck, hope they all settle down together. It's great to think how much better their life will be now. :)
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It's best really if you can keep them apart for a while to make sure they don't pass anything on to your existing girls! also, they could have the dreaded red mite like I think our ex batts did, and they are the very devil to get rid of!!!!
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You ought to be commended for your efforts, Jorj!
If you can get a hold of a large wire cage for the battery girls that would help, as your others can look at them and check them out but not attack them. Then when both lots have gotten used to each other you can let them out of their cage. And if any of the existing birds continue to bully them you can threaten them with 'being grounded' in the smaller cage! They will soon learn to get along, especially if they 'do some time' in the cage! :tongue2:
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Hiya jorj, congratulations on your new additions. I was told mine were between 1 1/2 and 2 years old when we got ours.
We actually had to do what Skip suggested. We used a rabbit run and put the ex batts in there for a while and then swapped them with our healthy girls. Within a couple of days they were all getting along great and weve had no problems since.
I wish i could figure out how to put pictures on here as i could show you a before and after of our exbatts, Babe has some good ones of Evie though. Within 2 months ours had all their feathers, within a week though we could see a big change in them. We couldnt believe how placid they were when they had had so little human contact before we got them.
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They are 72 weeks old now when the farms get rid, but these newer hybrids, like the Amberlinks they say go on laying well for 80 weeks.
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Well done. Lots of TLC fresh air dustbathing good food etc and they will be fine girls in a few weeks.
Some pic's would be good.
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Absolutely, would love some pics of the new girls when they are ready to 'strut their stuff.'
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well done, youve done a fantastic thing for these girls, I get my batty girls next sunday and very excited :D