Hello from Birmingham, England.

[mrscollardgreen]

So glad that you joined us. Great big welcome from Florida.

 

[Roxannemc]

Well how dumb am I? Of course battered chickens

 

[Chick pea]

Hi Mo, Battery hens are the hens kept in very small cages in commercial farms. The poor things have hardly any room & spend a lot of time pecking each other. They end up semi bald with over large combs due to the heat. Their muscles are very weak. After a year the farmer gets rid of them for animal feed so over here the hen rescue tries to save as many as possible & rehome them.

It is so sad, they are very weak in the legs, very scraggy looking & they stink! It is lovely to see their natural instincts kick in as they try to scratch in the dirt & have a sunbathe. The pic of the Ginger hen is an Ex Battery hen called Nutmeg. She died after a year out but at least she had a happy retirement scratching around with her pals. The law has been changed here now (the beginning of the year) & they have to have "enhanced" cages where they can roost & move around more. Still not the free range life they should have though. They are such characters. The one Ex Batt I have left "Buttercup" is nearly 3 1/2 years old now so doing well for an Ex Batt. The oldest one was 4 1/2 before she died. I will try to put some pics on of my Ex Batts before their feathers grew back so you can see the difference.

Our chickens have the top third of our garden for their run. I do let them have the run of the whole garden in winter. As soon as spring arrives they eat every green shoot that pops out of the ground so they get banished to the top end again. My husband built their coop in part of our brick out houses. When it rains I'm under cover inside the large out house when collecting the eggs & cleaning them out which is brilliant. The chickens go in & out through what used to be a window & is now their pop hole.

All the best, Karen

 

[Fierlin1182]

Hello and

I'm from the UK, awesome times!! I think it's great that you took on battery hens. I've always wanted to do that, maybe I will when I save a lil more money.

You sound like us, we banish our chickens to the end section of the garden too, they wreak havoc on the vegetable garden whenever we let them out.

Anywho, see you round!
Don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have, and enjoy the site.