Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

The Big Book of Garden P*rn is taking pre-orders! Over 500 pages of impossibly delectable plant photos are waiting just for you!

https://www.rareseeds.com/2026-the-...FVBDWOvn0IOYE8ADg-XwkDYQhJ-5YGFXVoEEw0.VaMbkj

(Sorry, I’ll supply new chicken pics for tax tomorrow)

 

[Perris]

This is him wondering what he should do about the jackdaws eating the feed he spilt out of the tray when he stood in it.
Sylph went round shortly after this picture and ran at the jackdaws who of course scattered. Not sure if Glais was impressed or not.

It what's he's familiar with - if anyone does, it's always the hens that chase off the sparrows, dunnocks, robins, pheasants etc. from the feed stations here.

Glad to read that Glais is finding his feet and thriving in his new home. And that you two are getting along as well as I expected you would.

 

[kattabelly]

few is not zero

Ok, zero predators here where replacing chicken wire with welded mesh would make much or any difference, given my chickens aren't locked in in any way most of the time.

Chicken wire works fine to keep smaller chicks or other very vulnerable birds where they should be and stop them wandering into danger or getting lost.

It would be my preference but I'm sick of trying to deal with the rescue people who are in some cases well intentioned but hopeless to deal with. I could get a couple of Ex Battery hens tomorrow but they have been kept at one of the rescue centers for an undisclosed length of time and having seen a couple of these places and how they are run, particularly with regard to bio security I would rather not risk it. In fact I know of a person that did take 4 Ex Battery rescues from one of these centers and they all died within a couple of months.
Being battery hens, they have no resistance to anything found in a natural environment. One needs to get them the day they are rescued and these rescue days seem to be organised at extremely short notice.

That's really frustrating, especially if it's down to the people organising the rehoming. One of the bigger national organisations had hens in Aberdeenshire recently and they were advertising that pickup day - the day after they collect the birds themselves, I believe - weeks and weeks in advance.

Someone here has taken orders and then arranged to bring everyone's hens back on the boat from one of those days in the past but I don't think they're doing it any more. Locally there are only smaller producers and the one I actually know definitely lets theirs fully free range during the day. Along with the fully free-range goats, which were a bit of a surprise when I went to pick up those POL pullets I ended up with after the communication mix-up (I'd asked if they'd be replacing some of theirs with the new batch and have older hens available)

 

[Perris]

some on this thread might find this interesting
S Javed, AR Rahmani, Flocking and habitat use pattern of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in Dudwa National Park, India
Tropical Ecology 41(1): 11-16, 2000
https://www.academia.edu/download/79876143/kp41102.pdf

 

[BDutch]

It would be my preference but I'm sick of trying to deal with the rescue people who are in some cases well intentioned but hopeless to deal with. I could get a couple of Ex Battery hens tomorrow but they have been kept at one of the rescue centers for an undisclosed length of time and having seen a couple of these places and how they are run, particularly with regard to bio security I would rather not risk it. In fact I know of a person that did take 4 Ex Battery rescues from one of these centers and they all died within a couple of months.
Being battery hens, they have no resistance to anything found in a natural environment. One needs to get them the day they are rescued and these rescue days seem to be organised at extremely short notice.

I’m not a fan of rescue ex-bats anyway, bc the breeding programs made egg laying machines of chickens. All for a 20 months before trey are turned into soup chicken, animal feed or UPF.
The health problems lots of these production hybrids encounter after being saved are probably more than I wish to handle. Nice for the strong-hearted, the knowledgeable amateur vets or wealthy owners who don’t mind paying excessive bills for the necessary vet visits.
I’m neither.

A high risk in bringing new diseases into your flock with ex-bat is new to me. It makes me happy if you don’t take that risk.

All you have to do now is wait until spring (broody) and if you cant wait, you have a superb address now if Perris want to rehome a few more of her hens.
.

Non chicken tax for annoying comments

Organic garden I visited yesterday, where they sell vegetables and plants 2 days a week.

 

[kattabelly]

I’m not a fan of rescue ex-bats anyway

I have very mixed feelings.

I think it's great that at least some caged and barn hens get a chance at a better life, at least for a while. It's always brilliant to see an animal getting to be outdoors and act naturally for the first time and slowly starting to thrive. There's also an argument to be made that it's better to take on an animal that already exists and needs a home, than it is to add to the demand for yet more to be born or hatched.

The "demand" for ex caged hens likely wouldn't be affected if people stopped rehoming them because that isn't their main purpose or "value" (from the point of view of the people producing them). I've seen quite a few breeders say that - along with bird flu - lower demand for their birds due to the increasing popularity of rehoming retired hens is one of the main reasons that they're having to downsize or give up breeding completely, though. I know there are issues with keeping "pure" breeds, especially when there's already a small population with very little genetic diversity or when people are line breeding over multiple generations without adding new blood, but I also don't want to see those breeds die out entirely. (I definitely see the sense in @Perris' approach of preserving the genetics rather than the breeds; I'm maybe too much of a meddler/perfectionist/control freak to ever completely go down that route myself ) A lot of knowledge and experience would be lost if all the smaller breeders closed up shop and left things to the big commercial operations too. I can even appreciate the effort and expertise that goes into producing show-winning exhibition birds, when that's done by responsible breeders who won't inbreed or chase a particular trait at the expense of their flock's long-term health.

Short version / TLDR : it's complicated and I'm not really sure what I think.

At the moment I have two Hylines Plus pullets that I bought as POL pullets because of the mix-up I mentioned above. I wouldn't buy more but I will probably take on some older hens from the same place in future, when they're available and I have space. The health problems are such a shame because they'd actually be brilliant chickens for a "backyard" type keeper if they laid less intensely and lived longer - they're friendly, curious, chatty characters that seem to generally be vigorous and robust until the reproductive issues start. I've never met one I couldn't scoop up one-handed with a (lukewarm!) cup of tea in my other hand. I have both "pure" including "heritage" and rare breeds, and barnyard mixes too. I'll probably continue to keep all those types together and hatch from both mystery mixes and intentional pairings.

 

[BDutch]

I think it's great that at least some caged and barn hens get a chance at a better life, at least for a while.

Agree on this part,…. at someone else his property. It’s not something I want for myself.
Hadn’t really thought about the other points (breeders /heritage breed).

Edited a little bc I was to eager to respond.

 

[kattabelly]

Agree on this part,…. at someone else his property. It’s not something I want for myself.
Hadn’t really thought about yout second point (breeders /heritage breed) and

Sorry, that'll make no sense now I've edited. Unless you also edit and then this post will make no sense

(For the benefit of readers from the future: I accidentally hit "post reply" too early, so my post ended halfway through a sentence before I went back and finished writing)

 

[Vulpes vulpes]

some on this thread might find this interesting
S Javed, AR Rahmani, Flocking and habitat use pattern of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in Dudwa National Park, India
Tropical Ecology 41(1): 11-16, 2000
https://www.academia.edu/download/79876143/kp41102.pdf

It's me! I find this interesting! I'll have to find a way to access it that doesn't require logging in

 

[ChickenshedStudio]

We've had super stormy weather here today, so in between building a small shanty town for the chickens to give them some better protection where they are, I've done a lot of catching up on the thread!

@Perris I was so interested about the study you posted about production hens only being fed wheat alongside foraging - that's what my hens were having before we got here (just nowhere near enough per hen), so it made me feel much better! they're now on about 50% wheat and the rest is my fermenting experiments and grower's pellets (which no-one likes much)

This is Pancake (she was broody when we named her) and behind her is Muffin's re-growing bum they sat, and hatched, and are raising the 3 chicks together.