[joyfull]

Traacyken - like you I also got my girls as I wanted pets and eggs which is why I didn't get exbatts. I admire people for giving them a new lease of life and showing them how a chickens life should be but not something I could do xx.

[joyfull]

Nellies, so sorry to read about your hen, but I'm sure if you read the posts from some of the others with exbatts you will see that owing to their unfortunate first life problems can and often do arise throuh no fault of their caring keepers. It sounds like you gave her a wonderful and caring retirement and I'm sure she passed away knowing that she was so well loved by you xxx

[traacyken]

no offence taken if i had some land apart from my garden id prob get  alot more chickens and ex bats, for most of us we have them in our gardens, so for me i had to go for the  eggs as well as having the girls. v kind thing to do taking ex batts on. must be awful to loose them.

[Nellies]

Thank you to everyone who answered me , I am truly grateful.
I do find loosing any animal really hard , I'm sure you all do,you seem never to really find out why which is where the blame and guilt starts nagging at you, it's something I will never get use to and little Nol was my first chicken to go.You want so much to give them everything but I couldn't give her more time here.
I never considered having chickens before and  then I saw a programme on tv about lives of battery hens . I thought it so terribly sad , these places seem helpless but I never forgot , then one day I I picked up a book in the library and it had a short story that went:

A man was walking down the beach that was covered in thousands and thousands of starfish that had been washed up and were dying. In the distance he could see a man picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the sea.When he reached the man he said, ' Why are you throwing them into the sea?', the man replied , 'I want to save them by giving them back their life.'But you can't possibly save all of them , there are so many, you can't make that much of a difference.'The man them bent down and picked up a starfish and threw it as far out to sea as he possibly  could , then he turned to the man and said, 'That's true but it made a big difference to that one.

That was it within no time I got my 6 girls and haven't regretted a thing .I never got them for eggs ,oddly I'm allergic,but  my neighbour loves them!
It doesn't matter why we have them , ex -batts or not as long as they are happy and loved, even we don't always get that!

 

[joyfull]

what a lovely short story 

[Henlady]

I have never read the rainbow bridge before and when I read the first bit I thought how unfair, what about the animals who weren't loved, then I was in tears.

By the way I got my hens for eggs, I use a lot each week.  But I love sitting out with my ladies each evening when I get home from work and I even enjoy poo picking the lawn and garden -I can see where they have been exploring each day.  Just because I got them for the eggs it doesn't mean they are any less loved or fussed.

[dizzylizzie]

We all have our own reasons or wanting to do anything....getting animals, having/not having kids, the work we do, etc etc etc....
I have ex-batts because im ashamed to live in a society that is capable of inflicting so much pain and suffereing because of profit....its my way of trying to give something back. I do, however LOVE getting eggs so i got some 'posh' birds to lay as i knew i couldnt expect eggs from the ex-batts any we got from them was a bonus. The posh girls are loved in the same way, are spoilt the same, but i expect eggs from them. When they retire they will still be loved,and wont be culled, but for now they need to earn their keep and lay thoes perfect, beautiful eggs

[Brushcutter]

I feel for you,  its hard to loose a chook. But life is a circle, death is a part of that. Im happy you are able to look after your ex batts, more and more people are apreciating free range eggs for taste and moral reasons. One day lets hope there will be no more battery chooks to be looked after.