About How Many Hens Do You Think Could Fit In This Barn?

[roostersandhens]

Just out of interest, how does this rescue chicken business work? Is some place shutting down, and your taking the chickens, or why are 4000 chickens in need of rescue?

Irishhenman was just correct! A farm is going to be slaughtering 4,000 battery hens next Spring. And we are a battery hen rescue And we would team with Animal Place, which is a farm animal rescue in Northern CA.

 

[roostersandhens]

But basically the chicken rescue is doing the egg farm a favor, they get to outsource disposing of their used up chickens, and save a buck in the process. How does this then help improve conditions for chickens?Wouldn't lobbying for a ban on battery hens be more fruitful? I'm just trying to understand the logic behind this, I'm sorry if I upset someone by asking awkward questions.

Ask any questions you like! We wouldn't really be doing them a favor, but at the same time we sorta are. Because if we didn't take the hens, a slaughter house would buy them or $2 each. But if we take the hens, we wouldn't pay. And, really, I don't think trying to ban battery cages is the answer. I think the answer is for people to simply stop supporting the egg industry. And even if we could ban battery cages for good, it wouldn't change other awful things about the egg industry. And these hens are going to be killed, so we are going to/try to rescue them

 

[roostersandhens]

I asked them what the dimensions are.. Still waiting for a reply..

 

[Hokum Coco]

About how many adult White Leghorn hens could fit in this barn? (standard, not bantam) I won't be mad if you guess something off, I understand the difficulty of telling from a picture. Because I own a chicken rescue, and we are hoping to rescue 4,000 hens next Spring. We would be teaming with another rescue that agreed to take a couple thousand. I am not worried about them having lots of room in the barn, because for rescues it is all temporary. Eventually every hen will be re-homed to a place where they aren't as tightly packed. I just want to find a barn to buy soon. Plus, if we have a barn we could do larger rescues if necessary before next spring. Thanks, here is the pic of the barn I am interested in:

Thanks so much!

A LOT!

 

[Irishhenman]

Ask any questions you like! We wouldn't really be doing them a favor, but at the same time we sorta are. Because if we didn't take the hens, a slaughter house would buy them or $2 each. But if we take the hens, we wouldn't pay. And, really, I don't think trying to ban battery cages is the answer. I think the answer is for people to simply stop supporting the egg industry. And even if we could ban battery cages for good, it wouldn't change other awful things about the egg industry. And these hens are going to be killed, so we are going to/try to rescue them

I am all for the cause but I find it funny when the rescues say that the slaughter houses pay 2$/€ for each of them. Factories don't pay that much for an actually fat meat chicken (Ross broiler usually) so why would they pay it for a measly bag of bones with no meat on it at all!

 

[3riverschick]

I am all for the cause but I find it funny when the rescues say that the slaughter houses pay 2$/€ for each of them. Factories don't pay that much for an actually fat meat chicken (Ross broiler usually) so why would they pay it for a measly bag of bones with no meat on it at all!

well the barn is 43 boards wide. Presuming each board is 12' wide so call it 43 ft. wide.
It doesn't look square so maybe 1/3 again as long say, 58 ft. long. Ok, lets call the barn
40 x 60. that's 2,400 sq. ft. I presume you want cages which are 2ft. by 2 ft. for each bird.
That's 4 sq. ft. per bird which is the recommended space per bird for a nice backyard coop.
So that would be about 600 birds if you have them on one level and don't allow for any walkways.
I see you are in Calif Have you allowed for any ventilation fans for the barn? FarmTek has a
website and sells them.
Best,
Karen

 

[Ridgerunner]

Commercial laying hens are not suitable for processing for meat. They are bred specifically for egg production and have very small bodies with very little meat on them. That way almost everything they eat goes to egg production instead of being used to maintain a large body. Leghorns and many of the sex links a lot of people on this forum have are like this.

One enterprising person in this area used to collect dead chickens from the local commercial chicken farmers and use that to make compost. He did not pay for the dead chickens but he had to go collect them. Those farmers did not have to dispose of the bodies and it was the ultimate recycling. If the chickens were raised “organic” they would make organic compost.

A lot of the spent commercial egg laying hens are used as pet food. They are not worth much, but the farmers can get something for them plus they don’t have to dispose of the bodies. Again, that’s better than sending the dead chickens to the landfill.

It doesn’t matter if these are battery hens or free ranging flocks raised as organic. You still have the chickens to dispose of when they slow down laying if you are going to be profitable.

It’s not a pretty part of the business, but it is a business. It is a reality of life. What some people think “should” happen is not necessarily what is going to happen. I much prefer the chickens be recycled in some way that the bodies just dumped in a landfill.

I’m not going to guess how many hens you can handle at one time. A lot of that depends on your management techniques, but with that many chickens you are into a lot of the same problems the commercial operations face, major poop disposal and serious ventilation issues. It’s not just getting the poop out of there but how do you dispose of it.

Commercial operations have to go to great extremes to not let that poop pollute the environment. Specially designed lagoons with liners so it does not soak into the ground and pollute the ground water is one standard way. Around here farmers use that “liquid” from the lagoons as fertilizer on the hay and pasture fields. That can cause issues with runoff. Oklahoma recently sued Arkansas over that stuff polluting the Illinois River that runs not far from my home. Oklahoma lost but that was because they did not consider other things that were polluting the river, not because the runoff didn’t contribute.

Northern California is pretty strict on their water supply. One of your challenges maybe getting a permit to dispose of that poop. Good luck with it. I admire your ambition.