Intro (and question about ex-battery hens)

[vicChickenLover]

Hello!
I just joined the group so thought I should post
I currently own 7 chickens. Two Pekin Bantams, two golden laced wyandotte's, a plymouth, aroucana and an ex-battery hen. On saturday I had to put down my chicken Merpy who was also an ex-battery hen, she was gorgeous and had egg peritonitis (or a possible tumour.)
I spend a lot of time googling about how to look after my chickens well and how best to make their lives the best possible. I love them a little bit too much probably
Anyways! I have some questions about battery hens I was hoping maybe somebody could answer...
1. How do you get in contact with battery farms in victoria, Australia directly? I bought scruffy from a woman who I suspect only did it for profit rather than the wellbeing of my birds, which would be fine if she wasn't advertising herself as a chicken "rescuer" and just advertised as a poultry farm.
2. How do you stop aggression within a flock? Scruffy is overly dominant and I'm not worried about her injuring the other birds because she has been de-beaked but I would really like her to be more a member of the flock rather than an outsider who bullies the others...
That is about it I think... Hm.

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

So glad you decided to join our community! I might want to connect with others in the Australia thread on finding some ex-battery hens. I am sure someone there can help you with this...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/598568/australia-six-states-and-that-funny-little-island

As for aggressive hens, you can't make they be more nice. Some birds are just cranky and that is their nature. I have a hen, (and generally if you keep a rooster, there is peace within the flock but I don't keep one) that used to be a bit aggressive with the hens and even me early on in her life starting at a few months old. So I had her wear pinless peepers on and off for these past 3 years for a few months at a time. She has much improved, however more likely due to her age. So pinless peepers is an option. Some people will tell you to separate them for several weeks so they lose their place in the order and the others regain ground within this order as well. This never worked with my flock.

Well, this should get you started. Great to have you aboard and welcome to our flock!

 

[ThomasMcD]

Welcome

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about Merpy, it is hard to lose the old girls. TwoCrows gave you some good suggestions about Scruffy, the commercial birds often seem to be dominant types and bossy in mixed flocks, somebody does have to be at the top of the pecking order, and as long as she is not drawing blood or really hurting the other hens you may just want to let it play out, sometimes it takes quite a while for the social order to adjust itself and the hens to get comfortable with the order. With finding more battery hens, if you can't get leads on the thread TwoCrows linked for you, if you have farmers markets etc in the area you may be able to find a local egg farm that will place spent hens with you when they rotate their flock. One other odd thing to try might be egg cartons from the store, some of ours here that are from co-ops etc have contact information on them.

 

[gander007]

 

[vicChickenLover]

Thanks for the replies guys
Scruffy has settled down in the end, which is great. She is doing well.

 

[drumstick diva]

I think Scruffy had to be aggressive to survive in her former home - so kept on the defensive expecting trouble with your flock. When the others didn't fight her - maybe she mellowed. Good luck with her.