Got us some ex commercial hens. <3

[Back40chick]

Yes, for as long as they last they will hopefully be happy and content. Our rooster is also much happier with some female company and dotes on them, he has already picked a favourite lady.

These ones actually have really good feet and just in general seem in pretty good fiddle. It is only that one beak that stands out and we will get that sorted!
How long did your ones last?

I can't remember. Some longer than others. A year and a half or two. Two were killed by dogs

 

[Shadrach]

After reading a bit into your thread @Shadrach I am now curious about the dust bath. Of course at the moment everything in Scotland is pretty sad and wet but I will introduce a box of dry sand and cocoa fibre in the shed I think.
See what they will do. It is the same mix I use for my pheasants and they take turns bathing every day.

Maybe throw a few mealworms in there to peak their interest. They are absolutely mad about their treats!

Things have changed rather a lot in three years and a few months. The chickens now have a new coop which I bought and i'ts raised off the ground. In desperate need, the chicken will dust bathe as best they can under the coop.
More recently I knocked up a shade shelter for them. While the shade cloth isn't waterproof it does help to keep the ground below dryer than that in the run.
Plain fine earth is I've found best for dustbaths. Oddly, all the roosters I've known have prefered slightly damp soil. I'm sure I've written about this in my thread somewhere. The only material I've added (long time ago) was hard wood ash. It looked the part but the chickens just walked past it and went and dug a hole under some plant.
Yes, they are very endearing most of them. I also find them very good looking hens, not too erm, heavy to be polite and good shaped heads with good vision.
We did have a couple of savages who may have been cage bosses at the battery. The extra freedom and reliable food melowed them out pretty quickly.

 

[Shadrach]

This is from a couple of years ago.

These are more recent.

 

[ChikaInu]

Things have changed rather a lot in three years and a few months. The chickens now have a new coop which I bought and i'ts raised off the ground. In desperate need, the chicken will dust bathe as best they can under the coop.
More recently I knocked up a shade shelter for them. While the shade cloth isn't waterproof it does help to keep the ground below dryer than that in the run.
Plain fine earth is I've found best for dustbaths. Oddly, all the roosters I've known have prefered slightly damp soil. I'm sure I've written about this in my thread somewhere. The only material I've added (long time ago) was hard wood ash. It looked the part but the chickens just walked past it and went and dug a hole under some plant.
Yes, they are very endearing most of them. I also find them very good looking hens, not too erm, heavy to be polite and good shaped heads with good vision.
We did have a couple of savages who may have been cage bosses at the battery. The extra freedom and reliable food melowed them out pretty quickly.

Haha, I can imagine!
I am on page 150-something and still in December 2021. Love the read and learning lots though!
The chickens here always dug lovely hollows in the shade to do their bathing in the summer but I find the pure dirt so complacted and miserable in the winter, even in the more sheltered areas. I thought if this is new to the battery hens they would appreciate a fluffier, more inviting substrate. The pheasants are wild for coco fibre, absolutely love the stuff!
Endearing indeed, and they simply look like your average picture of a chicken, I find. Though when growing up I always figured hens as white.

I am very much looking forward to getting to know these hens, they are pretty bossy with the ducks already though. Poor quackers.

 

[ChikaInu]

This is from a couple of years ago.
View attachment 4048029

These are more recent.
View attachment 4048027View attachment 4048028

What an amazing difference in the setup for them!

 

[ChikaInu]

I've been meaning to film the ladies now that they are more settled but I seem to forget every time I go down there. One can absolutely spot their personalities now and i feel like it's time to name them... but I'm not sure if they want to make it into a "hotel activity thing" or not.
Anyhow, I've asked for help and we are going to start work on the deformed beak this week. I've found a couple of the others also have "underbites" though not at all as severe.. but wee Beaky absolutely needs help. I feel she is way too skinny compared to the others - I am suprised she has managed so far really.

Either way they have now tried things like live mealworms, boiled eggs, spinach, peas, sweetcorn, pepper, some peanuts and plenty of fresh herbs and all come running when called.
It's delightful and our regular visitors love them! I am also happy they are such chilled ambassador hens.
A lot of our visitors have never seen chickens up close like that and for me to be able to pick them up, let people have a stroke of the feathers and show things like the overgrown beak without the birds getting too stressed is a very good thing I think. People just don't know - or they don't want to know.

 

[Shadrach]

You could buy a bag of chick crumble and add water to make a mash for those who have beak difficulties. You would need to supply calcium in the form of calcium carbonate or oyster shell if they lay eggs.

 

[ChikaInu]

You could buy a bag of chick crumble and add water to make a mash for those who have beak difficulties. You would need to supply calcium in the form of calcium carbonate or oyster shell if they lay eggs.

Thank you! At the moment they are not laying.
Could I use my high protein game feed to make mash? I've got plenty.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you! At the moment they are not laying.
Could I use my high protein game feed to make mash? I've got plenty.

How high is the protein content? If you can show the methionine and lysine content, or better still the nutritional analysis of the feed I could take a better guess.

 

[ChikaInu]

How high is the protein content? If you can show the methionine and lysine content, or better still the nutritional analysis of the feed I could take a better guess.

This is the content of the game crumble I use for the pheasants atm:

Composition​

wheat, soya feed (produced from genetically modified soya), maize, rice bran, monocalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, sunflower oil, linseed, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate

Analytical constituents​

crude protein 23.0%, crude fat 4.5%, crude ash 7.0%, crude fibre 4.0%, methionine 0.56%, lysine 1.25%, phosphorus 0.78%, calcium 1.20%, sodium 0.15%