Oh your eggs sound beautiful - I do like the blues & greens - so pretty!Yes; I am incubating eggs my EEs have laid. I get eggs ranging in color from dark mint green to a pretty sky blue.
I'm across the pond, in the USA, and therefore some of your terminology is lost on me. When you say you took on some "ex batts"- what does that mean? I gleaned from the rest of the paragraph that you took on additional chickens, and it sounds like they've never seen the light of day, nor the outdoors? Did you rescue them? Were they tossed out from a chicken egg or meat factory? It sounds like they desperately needed the help you are giving them.
Yes, a distraction from constantly fussing over the eggs is a grand thing. I'm currently renovating an old farmhouse built in the 1860's (which in the USA is considered a really old house). Keeps my mind off wondering how each and every little egg is developing (or not!)
Ex batts are former commercial egg laying hens - typically they’ve spent 72 weeks in a factory farm environment & they are then sold on usually for pet food or heavily processed foods ie nuggets - they aren’t really meat birds they are egg layers so their carcasses are poor. In the uk I think it’s called mechanically reclaimed meat. They can have a variety of experiences of life, some are caged indoors under artificial lighting their entire lives, others have a better quality of life & see the sun - but are still kept in conditions that maximise egg production. We have various Re-homing charities over here that try to find these girls retirement homes and save them from a thankless end to an unnatural life, or if you approach the farmer and pay more than the meat man usually they will happily sell their older birds. Our first ever hens were ex batts & ive got a real soft spot for them & plenty of guilt - despite my best efforts I know I’m guilty of buying foods that contain low welfare eggs because they are so prevalent in so many foods.... & I buy cat food..... it’s hard not to be part of the system that demands low cost foods and the consequential impact on welfare. The worst welfare farming conditions were called battery farms hence the name ex- battery or batts or batties. Thankfully that’s now illegal here, colony cages are now the British minimum standards, but they still aren’t particularly pleasant.
So when we have enough land & housing ect I do make a point of keeping ex batts alongside the pure breeds - it’s a drop in the ocean I know, but its also part of ensuring my kids understand where their food comes from and at what cost. I’m sure many of us have counted the pennies in our lifetime (I know I have), and I’m sure my kids will too, & that’s ok, but they need to understand what that means & who bears the cost. Also free range & organic are industry defined definitions.... not entirely what someones personal understanding of those terms might expect.
Soooo you never quite know what you are getting with ex batts! They tend to be well fed, & physically in great health, all will be vaccinated and they may also have been on universal antibiotic regimes. They look awful though. At 72 weeks they will have started to moult, this current batch have clearly been indoors & caged - so white wattles combs & faces, huge enlarged flabby combs (they look like scraggy zombies). It’s been survival of the fittest - they tend to be tough, they can be bullies & mean & nasty until they realise there are enough resources for all & even then they tend to turn into tough mafia chickens. Some don’t make it - leaving the sheds is too stressful, they are vulnerable to predators as they’ve zero experience of animals other than humans & other hens.
Our newbies were definitely caged - they aren’t used to walking more than a couple of feet, they have sore bruised feet from being caged on wire, they are scared of the sky, they lay where they stand, they don’t know how to eat anything other than sloppy mash - nor did they realise they had to walk to it. Getting them to drink is always first priority and can be quite a demanding task - they’ve never known anything other than a nipple drinker. Seeing them gulp down beakfuls of fresh water is an amazing sight - once they realise they can have more than a drop at a time then it’s like Christmas! Likewise I’ve never seen so much oyster shell vanish so fast, so now they can attempt lumpier foods such as pellets & grains & corn. They don’t recognise bugs or vegetation as food. It all has to be taught - & the best teacher is always another chicken.
Once they find their feet they are lovely to have around - real characters who live life to the full - but I find no fence will hold them - now they have found freedom they are never going back, hubby always jokes that under their wings they carry a crow bar, skeleton keys and knuckle dusters. They do seem to be able to walk through walls & they don’t take any nonsense from anyone - It’s going to take more than a fancy tail and a “cock a doodle do” to charm these girls.
Their life expectancy is variable, rehab takes time and at first they are so vulnerable to predators as they are so naive. Given a good diet and access to the outside world we find they mostly continue to lay beautiful eggs & very reliably too. They are definitely intelligent.... they quickly get the hang of seeking cover and foraging, and run rings around the purebreeds...
“oh look a snail!”
Cue a very fast ginger streak appear from nowhere, snatching said snail and heading for cover at an Olympic sprint.... mwah ha ha haaaa!
They can be prone to egg problems if they reach later life - by their breeding they are “egg machines”. They are F1 hybrids so we never hatch from them, and they rarely go broody. We offer a retirement home - eggs are welcome but they aren’t a condition of being offered a home for life with us - to be honest though - they tend to massively outlay the Purebreeds despite the batties being in retirement!
The sad thing is we rehomed only 30 out of 16,000 from just one commercial egg farm... and that’s nothing at all, but the economics of processed foods & petfoods depend on these farming practices. I don’t have the answers, but I will rehome a lucky few & that’s contaversial too! Some claim that Re-homing supports the industry, that’s its cruel to the birds to expect them to readjust, many fall to predators (although I’d argue many of my purebreeds go that same way!...)
I just think they deserve a chance to drink unmedicated spring water, take a dust bath, snooze in the sun & peck about for bugs....& whilst I hope the foxes & hawks don’t get them - being sold from a cage, then crammed in a new cage, transported in a lorry to then meet the end we all know these factory birds get.... I won’t describe it - perhaps meeting Mr Fox is a more humane way to go? A lovely life and one bad encounter.... at least they’ve had experience of at least one good day? Yes they have to go through hen rehab, but we take it slow.... very much at their pace.
Again I don’t pretend to have the answers.... and the ethics & morals entwined in of all of this are enormous! I’m neither preaching nor attempting to defend how we attempt to feed the world, nor how nature manages the food chain - although everything seems to eat chickens including other chickens!
Oh dear I’ve written a book - apologies!
Love the sound of your farmhouse! - how far have you got? I suspect we have something similar here - we bought a beautiful dilapidated time warp about a year ago - but I love it! - I’m just hoping to get this hatch done before the electrician returns.... although electricity in all the rooms will be very lovely!!
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