Picked up my factory hens....pictures and story

[dlhunicorn]

Poor birdies... you are right about it being important for their health to "stop" laying but to achieve this it is not so easy... (wait to do this till they are settled in a bit)...if you would like to get them to stop laying (a GREAT idea for improving their health)...start a "step down" lighting program which is to reduce the amount of light they get each day by one hour untill they are only getting like 6 or 7 hours of daylight... you will need to "reduce" their feed (you can do this without starving them by mixing scratch and human oats for instance >slowly bit by bit... changing their diet is also stressful for the birds)...you should add a poultry vitamin to their waterer too as this will help them retain their immune function even though the nutritional value of their feed is being reduced. Once they have stopped lay then start increasing the light again and slowly returning their diet to "normal" . This should have initiated a molt (loosing feathers)... you will need now to give poultry supplemental vitamins to help them through this ... once the molt is completed (couple months) ...this break should give them a "restart" and then according to reports such battery birds can go on to lay happily a few years after (at a normal pace and with seasonal breaks). Good Luck!!!

 

[Kelly FG]

how are they doing now?
i hope they are getting adjusted to their wonderful new life!!!

 

[catballou24]

omg...

i am speechless...

you are truly a saint to save these poor creatures...

thank goodness there are people like you in this world. those poor babies!!

 

[SeaChick]

Grrr. That makes me SO MAD!! How can you treat a living thing like that? By the way, we eat free-range organic.

-Olivia

 

[mudhen]

I'm looking forward to another update on these girls. In those last pictures, they looked so much happier and better off. So glad they can have a shot at a better life!

I agree with whomever mentioned they are BYC's unofficial mascots.

 

[dumblond]

I haven't heard any updates these girls. How are they? If no one has heard about this, this is what would have happened to those poor girls. This factory is 30 minutes from me. Here's the story, be sure to watch the video, it's horrible.

http://www.organization.org/farm/news/ournews/Moark_settles_case.html

 

[leghorns_rule]

WOW

!!!!!! i wus thinking bout geting some retired battery hens because of how cheap they were and because i didnt want them to suffer in those conditions but now im really geing them..... thankx for the thread

 

[Sweet Mercy Farm]

Anyone who thinks animals have no emotions should take a look at these pics. These chickens look sad and abused

I am so glad you took them in. I am looking forward to see what they look like in a month from now!
I bought some phoenixes from a man with a very overcrowded shed of birds. There were no windows/access to the outside, filthy buckets for water and piles of chicken poo on the floor for bedding. He said that the birds never layed eggs for him and he has had no luck with them. He had 23 birds in a 3x4 space with no nesting areas and one crap-covered roost! I didn't see any evidence of feed or grit on both occasions I went there. I brought the birdies home and all of them had very pale combs, lice, mites, naked backs, vents and throats and 5 of them were almost completely bald. Their toenails were also so long they curled around to the other toes or right underneath their feet! When I got them home I gave them all a good wiping with a damp towel and dusted them with louse powder. I cut their toenails and talons and vaselined their legs for the mites. They were terrified of me for the first couple of days and screamed whenever I went near the coop. I feed them turkey mash every other day and vitamins, meat bird ration and greens everyday. They also get calcium and sand to dust in/eat and most of the leftovers that come from the house. The first day I gave them fruit and veg they were scared of them, and now they practically attack me when they see me coming with the salad bowl. One roo even takes raisins from my hand now. The biggest thrill for me was seeing them go out the coop door and 'free rangin' around the acreage with my other birds. They ate so many slugs and flies I thought they would explode!! Today one of them came 'nose to beak' with a chipmunk and they formed some sort of a symbiotic interspecies relationship for the rest of the day. They don't scream when they see me anymore and make the most satisfying clucking and chirping sounds when they eat it makes me teary eyed. The most amazing part is every hen gives me one egg a day in their nesting boxes. I thank them for their gift of these perfect little eggs

Your birdies are very lucky they found someone who does not see them as a piece of farm equipment. I wish the public was more aware of where their food comes from, this kind of cruelty will only stop when we demand better conditions!

 

[eggcetra_farms]

I am printing out the poster's story and the pictures of these poor chickens at the request of my husband. He wants to take it to his step-mother to show her how these poor animals have to suffer. She won't eat any eggs that don't come from the grocery store - including ours. Yeah, get this: she didn't want to eat our eggs because the yolks were a "weird orange color"!!!!!! Hopefully this will open her eyes. Thanks for posting this incredible story. I hope you will post an update with pictures soon.

 

[LindaN]

Since it's been 2 months since this was originally posted, can we get an update? This story is hard to get out of my mind and I'm wondering how the hens are recovering!