Adopting battery hens

Find your local egg producers for starters. They typically will cull all their hens by 2 years so they will have many hens available all the time. They will get $1-5 per hen for dog food so they aren't "free". If you have a small livestock auction in the area, you might find some hens there as well.

I looked into getting some organic X battery hens when a local producer was having $$ problems but chose not to once I saw the hens. They were covered in mites (because they were organic they could not treat them with pesticides) and didn't want to chance it with my existing flock. They had also been debeaked and were a rough and tumble group. If they are the only chickens on your property, those are a non issue.

If it's what your heart is telling you to do than by all means do it. They will still give you a few eggs a week and will eat your bugs and grubs (with some time). I have heard of people who have lost their entire flocks when adding battery hens so that would be my only caveat.

 

If you have a flock of birds now, I would hesitate to add battery hens to my current flock. Most people do not have adequate space to properly quarantine birds. If you don't properly quarantine birds, you may as well not even separate them.

To properly quarantine, the birds need to be confined away from your current flock, by several hundred feet, and after you handle one flock, you need to change your clothes down to your shoes and wash your hands. All feed bowls and waters need to be washed separately. It is intensive and a lot of work to properly quarantine.

If this is going to be your flock, as in you do not have any birds, it is ok, but if you do have a flock, you are going to have a rather big possibility of a great deal of conflict, and perhaps disease entering your original flock. Some people have lost their whole flock.

I myself, would not do this to my flock.

Mrs K

 

Basically, what they said. It can be a great thought, but think it through about the risk to any existing birds you have.

 

X2! A fine thing to do if you do not currently have chickens. If you do have an existing flock the risk is great. Keep in mind that any diseases brought to your farm can contaminate your area for a very long time as well as surviving birds remaining carriers of it for their lifetime. I agree that it would be nice if these birds could live out their lives in comfort but we also have to be proactive in protecting birds we already own.