[Viv]

Hi everyone been a bit busy lately, work has had to take a bit more of my time.  But, it does bring in the money to spend on my plot  hubby and I picked up 15 battery hens last night, what a sorry sitght to behold. My hubby was quite dismayed at the state of them, :roll: and, these weren't as bad as a lot that the rescuers have brought back.
Most seem to be wing feathers missing, one or two look like they have lost all their body feathers :cry:  Seemed very confused by what was happening to the. Lots of TLC over the next few weeks/months and hopefully they will begin to feel better.
Any suggestions from the group would be appreciated. I have put chicken spice in their water and am feeding layers mash.

[jmx]

You're doing all the right things .  One thing which may be worth me mentioning is, a week after I got my ex. battery hens, one of them was very lame when I opened the pop hole in the morning.  She was fine the evening before.  It turned out she had a broken leg.  My vet said it was probably due to her falling of the perch (which was only a foot off the ground) but as alot of battery hens suffer from osteoporosis (due to bad diet & lack of exercise), it doesn't take much.  Unfortunately due to the position of the break he reccommended putting her to sleep.  They do seem very weak in the early days, so make perches as low as possible and they will soon improve.

[babe]

does it still amaze anyone else that people still buy battery eggs in the supermarket just to save a few pence.
they should be made to put up a picture of these poor chooks so people can see what goes on. no other animal is kept so appaulingly.
if someone had a bird in a cage that had been treated like this the rspca would have em.

rant over - sorry  :oops:

[Bagpuss]

Hi Viv,  I've had my four battery hens two months and they are nearly all fully feathered now.  The one that was practically bald has the most feathers of all, so don't worry. Mine have never used the perch and are happy snuggling up in the straw and settled in very quickly.  They are so confident and enjoy foraging around now, it's as if they've completely forgotten their former life, which I hope they have.  You think they would hate people after what has been done to them, but they always run up and are happy to see us.  Good luck and I hope you enjoy them.

Rant on Happyvalley!  I read somewhere that if everyone stopped buying battery eggs for two weeks, the whole industry would collapse.  If only it would.

[alan42]

i share 4 allotments with a friend he does the growing lark and i do the birds and building thing. i get about 3 dozen eggs a week at the moment my family get all of them because his family say the bantie eggs are to yellow and to small  the shells have muck on them and some have white shells and they like brown shells so they happily buy a tray of eggs a week from battery hens. i would rather not eat another egg again than eat battery eggs.
well done for rescuing them.
alan

[slowef]

Hi everyone been a bit busy lately, work has had to take a bit more of my time.  But, it does bring in the money to spend on my plot  hubby and I picked up 15 battery hens last night, what a sorry sitght to behold. My hubby was quite dismayed at the state of them, :roll: and, these weren't as bad as a lot that the rescuers have brought back.
Most seem to be wing feathers missing, one or two look like they have lost all their body feathers :cry:  Seemed very confused by what was happening to the. Lots of TLC over the next few weeks/months and hopefully they will begin to feel better.
Any suggestions from the group would be appreciated. I have put chicken spice in their water and am feeding layers mash.

Well done Viv, it would be great to see the before and after photo's, not just for our pleasure of seeing happy chickens but because I am sure some people only want "Pretty birds".  It might help them see what can be achieved and that its a great thing it is to rescue.
:-)