Just rescued some more Battery Hens *pics*

[ChickenPeep]

Forgive my ignornace but what exactly is a battery hen?

A hen that's been sitting in a miserable cramped cage laying eggs all her life. It disgusts me.

That's why I love it to hear stories of people rescuing them like this!

 

[Johnn]

Good for you, Johnn!

Did you get them for free? You are giving those poor hens such a great life. All those poor things have even been doing is sitting in a cage and laying eggs.

Now they get to enjoy freedom! Yay!

I got them from a rescue just this once and tehy asked for a donation of £5. But i usually just get them straight from the farm and they are £1 each

 

[Johnn]

Forgive my ignornace but what exactly is a battery hen?

A battery hen is a hen who is first hatched out in a hatchery, all the boys are threw into a mincer and the girls go on to live in a shed until they reach POL. Once they ate POL, they are transported to the farm were they are crammed into cages. 5 or 6 into one cage with only a A4 sheet of paper to themselves. If they are at the bottom of the pecking order, their cage mates beat them up, rip their feathers out and there is no getting away from them. If they get trapped in the cage, they are left to starve to death because no one releases them. Also dead hens stay in the cage and rot away and their cages mates have to sleep on the body. Once they reach 18 month old they are considered "spent" and are sent to slaughter. They live a short, cruel, imhumane life. The lucky few that get rescued are then called "Ex battery hens", "ex batts" for short.

 

[Johnn]

Suprise coming soon....

 

[LDev]

Forgive my ignornace but what exactly is a battery hen?

They are commercial hens who basically spend their whole life inside a tiny cage in a factory set up with thousands of other hens in cages, purely to lay eggs for supermarkets and shops. They are fed, and watered and only recently law came in here in the UK to enrich their cages....this meant a few extra centimetres of space, a perch and a nest area but they have a pretty horrible existence. i have 2 rescue ex commercial hens as well and they are a joy....especially when they get outside in the air for the first time!

 

[Dwkuska]

Anyone here know where a Western washington chicken lover can find battery hens?

 

[LDev]

Anyone here know where a Western washington chicken lover can find battery hens?

We have rescue charities here but from what I have seen there doesn't seem to be a similar set up in the U.S. Maybe you can find out where the chicken farms are near you and contact them directly. I paid a donation of £3.50 each for my hens to the charity (is that around $5?) They are all slaughtered here when they reach 18 months before they reach moult (production would obviously drop then so they are not commercially viable) . Mine still lay 6 days out of 7

 

[Johnn]

Anyone here know where a Western washington chicken lover can find battery hens?

If you can't find any rescues then if i was you i would find the contacts of a battery farm and ring and ask if you could have some when they are ready to go. They wont ask for much, usually only £1 in the UK when you get them from the farm but they ask for a bigger donation when you get them from a chicken rescue.

 

[TheNuttyChick]

Suprise coming soon....

Ooohh! I love surprises

 

[Johnn]