Battery Hen Thread!

[LindaCT]

I just adopted 2 ex-battery hens yesterday. Dirty and threadbare looking white hens with large pale pink combs. The combs will shrink and get brighter eventually. They came from the battery farm yesterday morning and I am amazed by how feisty they are but that's a chicken for you!

They are not supposed to get treats yet because it might upset their tummies but I figured fresh corn on the cob wouldn't hurt. At first they had no idea what it was but now they love it. They go mad for any green growing thing and are eating a lot of grit and dirt too. I got tears in my eyes when one of them sat in the sun and stretched out her leg for the first time... Of course they have no idea about going to sleep when it's dark, and just squat down and lay an egg anywhere. The chicken instincts will come back and they were already scratching a bit and actually running a bit today. It must take them a while to get to their proper strength and learn how to jump and perch.

 

[Johnn]

Before:





After:





















BALDY before:


BALDY now:

 

[LindaCT]

Love the pics!!

 

[DvanderSlik]

Central NC folks, there is a new (very small) placement network for "spent" production hens used in large egg farms. Check out this blog posted on the Raleigh Tour D'Coop's page:
http://www.tourdcoop.com/blog/2013/04/hen-rescues.html

 

[kerry-anne]

I'm expecting a few ex battery hens in June through littlehenrescue which is based here in the uk. They explain everything to you such as what conditions the chickens will arrive in and that sometimes the won't live long. All I have to do was pay a small fee per hen (£2.50p). I can't wait for the poor hens to arrive and hopefully give them a decent quality of life away from the overcrowded, tiny, dirt ridden cages they were In.

 

[Jude Turkman]

hey guy's, I like the sound of rescuing battery hens, but I have one simple question. WHAT IS A BATTERY HEN!?

hey there...battery hens are those layer type hens kept in cage all through out their lives to lay excessive eggs unnaturally. 5 or so hens are congested in a very tiny wire cage that even their wings can be stretched. they stomp each other just to move around. they are debeaked. They suffer alot in their cages and how they are handled for production purposes. and once they are a year old or so they are exterminated by some poultry companies that do not allow selling of them, and if lucky YOU CAN HELP EVEN ONE THEM TO REHABILITATE THEM IN YOUR WARM CARE AND LET THEM EXPERIENCE WHY GOD MADE THEM.

 

[appps]

Wonder how the cages got that name?  Is there a history behind it?  Thanks for the info by the way!!

Now this is totally conjecture but I've often wondered if it had its beginnings in military jargon.

"An artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems.[citation needed] The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships."

So battery hens would be a group of hens so arranged to provide better control and dispersion of eggs.

 

[Frizzle13]

I had 30 last year for my laying birds

Click them to enlarge

They got live out their lives in our paddock in a hen house the size of a small stable and the old tractor shed with endless dust baths and random places to lay including the tractor seat

I only have one left now after the buzzard found them along with the fox and the snow but she still has a nice time in with my main flock

 

[Frizzle13]

Just found this lovely one

 

[roostersandhens]

Sorry to bring up an old thread! I think this is a great thread! Well, I really want to rescue some battery hens, I was wondering what do I need to be prepared for? Will they have lice or mites? What care will they need before being out with healthy chickens?