"surprise"chickens purchased but not really prepared 4 that , advice wanted plse

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As for your question re temperatures: I do not think I would bring them in my house! Simply be sure they have a dry coop that is draft free.

To help them to re-grow their feathers you can give them more protein. Can you buy a (not medicated) feed that is 18 - 20% protein there in Belgium? If that is not an option, perhaps you can give them some animal protein, even some eggs, or a bit of cat food (short term)

I wish you the best with your efforts.
 
strangeanimal said:
well , tomorrow I am visiting one and honestly ? I was warned by that man that I will come outside crying , we are in total with only 3 people now saving the 50.000 hens and all just because of a " surprise " :) but I can't ignore this anymore now , just like you I did not know a little thing of it but seeing these hens ? gives you just a clue of what is going (WR)on(G) here ... one has no feathers at all on her back , tail is bold etc , and she even pecked ( tells enough I say !! ) , this battery had to close the doors , so these chickens need to be rehomed , ofcourse we can never save all of them because "meatproduction '' is also still active and in my opinion should go on but not on that way ! today that man rehomed 50 hens ! I just joined and tomorrow I got an order for (yes! ) 25 hens in ONE family and 10 in another ! that is something that gives hope , really , now the one asking for 10 wished for 10 brown hens and she even mentioned it like this : hello do you still have 10 hens and are they brown ? I like the brown from the batteries very much , they are very gentle and I always had these so please let me know " . These words sounded like music ! just notified the man who came here and we are going to make some room at his place by putting hens in here given the fact there is enough space left , so people located closer to me will be directed to me and the other go to the other one and so we keep going . But honestly ? you will be surprised by their amazing character , these hens are the sweet innocent itself ! and now they do not know how to learn to be a chicken but soon they will be happy , I am sure of it !
Click to expand...
that is awesome good luck finding them homes
 
FlyingNunFarm said:
If I lived closer I would take a few. (Sending them around the would would be a little rough.)
You were meant to answer that add! And with 50 chickens in the coop they won't be cold. :p It really is such a wonderful thing you are doing.
Click to expand...
You are awesome :) ! today we had orders over the 60 !! with more it goes so much better ! But still , it is not me behind all this good ! it is this man who decided to take them ! and rehoming them in a very bright way haha ! you know this is the best psychologic approach to buyers in fact , why ? because first of all , money is asked but the price is too good to leave that be ! secondly ? he was so smart not to mention the fact they carry a horrible history and look like , well naked chickens or plucked , they are in fact .. and since he offers a delivery service people are laaaaazyyyy so they contact this man ! and when he arrives ? well , yes could be difficult to decline ! because you just met the chickens already and you see how they need love , the love you are willing to give , right ? and those who do not wanna be so close to their flock ? well they just think it is fine because they do not mind their outlook etc , they are healthy and are toplaying hens , I could not decline even tough this man noticed I got shocked and really had to keep myself from crying he offered to take them back and get other ones but that moment I could not even stand it to think about the fact they would have travelled so long for no reason while they were so kind towards me ( ok 1 of them said hi by pecking at me and screaming but she is , now that I have spend a little bit of time with them obviously sevearly damaged in every possible way :( ) .

So here a little update on the hens ! and warning , very horrifying things have happened , it has been a busy day and quite heartbreaking ...

Last night the chickens were taken in , they were even shaking of the cold and it was not that cold at all and they had shelter so obviously this has to do with their nibbled of and plucked out feathers , now I just have selected some babyclothing from my little girl who has totally grown out of it because the night inside has been a disaster ( heartbreaking they have told a huge part of their story in that way + they are NOT safe , these chickens are just exactly the kind of person they would lock up in a psych. ward , really , they are not even safe from eachother despite so much effords to distract them to keep them busy , they are deeply ' poisened and wounded " ) . ... I will spare the psychologic mambo jambo because I am writing an article about certain things as in the prime instincts etc ..

so , this morning , oh a sunny day ? nice , the chickens are gonna have a blast ! mh gonna sleep an extra hour . now I was woken up by excessive screams coming from downstairs and i could not even tell that it was a chicken ! I was clueless and ok in the morning I react kinda slow -_- , which in this case almost costed the life of the smallest one with the more injuries and the clearly pecked of feathers , she only has some fluff left underneath her bum .
She was sticking her head in a bucket of feed like a giant I dont know whats it called but letterly she has let it all happen , given the fact she was eating while getting pecked on I did not immediately replied to this , you'd xpect it wouldn't be in her flesh ofcourse but guess what ? As I went for the girls to get them some babyclothing on i didn't know what I just witnessed , the two other girls were simply EATING HER ALIVE !! she now has an excessive wound on her tigh and she is not even complaining about it this was already shock major nr 1 because usually chickens do not peck just out of the blue untill they get the meat out of you and a hen that gets pecked in a sevear way usually does scream but she was not screaming anymore ?
I assumed a little fight in the new pecking order , nothing more or less but still caution .
This afternoon I see the same hen after being ' dressed ' hanging on the tub ( used for warm days with water but now with some sprouts in it for the chickens ) she was hanging with one wing TROUGH the vassel ?? how did she do that , so I decide the following : ok enough bullying there , lets seperate you !
I got this hen out of the whole from the vassel but now the most shocking and really questionable part ... this hen has now two broken wings wherefrom one is openwounded to the bone , two broken legs AND FEET ( covered with massive injuries ) she is eggbound , does not drink on her own and just lets the other ones peck her if they could , now everyone says to put her down but no , why not ? this hen is under age of a year and CAN recover , if she would be older she would indeed be lost , if she is not lost yet ( I am hoping she is not and she gets medical attention , while living inside the house for her recovery and I can only cross my fingers here ) .
Now what did i see , what did I learn from this ?
in the batteries I assume the dead ones just get eaten , or halfdeath is also fine ? The fact the hens are so cannibalistic to eachother is a clear red flag from having experienced anything a chicken is NOT ment to be . And if I then again would give anyone advice on taking these hens ? then read this please :
1. Be certain that you have other chickens if they are under age of 2 years and honestly just in all cases it would be good ,
why ? chickens , are social animals as we all know BUT we are at this point not dealing with just any chicken at all , they are horrible because this is what they are used to , no matter what kind of distraction u have given them , it is now in their nature to act like this , just like drinking a coffee , would you suddenly stop drinking coffee and take water instead ? no you are in a pattern .
If the chickens get exposed to an invorenment where there already are ' normal ' chickens ? they will learn from those ( you know as well as I do how a chicken loves it when you imitate them right ? so do they ;-) )
2. Be prepared emotionally about their outlook and characters at the start because it tells their story !
3. be prepared for things like dissapointments , losses , deaths , and anything you honestly did not expected to happen because to be fair , they are kind to you one time , the other time they run of screaming bloody murder and the other time they attack chickens or you . or they kill their family To say the last thing just short and flat ,
these chickens do not always just start to learn about " cool , what is this green ? I love it , they call this grass ! " they have acted .... like abused kids , teenagers . and not anything like chickens and yes I am aware they can be cannibalistic but in this case ... it is very much uncommon behavior ...
4. do NOT give up on them because they are far from stupid and can learn very fast and become your loviest healthy chicken as in a CHICKEN !!
5. Do not blame yourself if things go wrong , just observe , learn from it and soon you are on track without asking questions here given the fact they are still individuals and each case in keeping chickens is individual ( with overlapses here and there and there ;-) ofcourse )
I also like to thank all the people giving advice and having a heart and the common sense to know that these chickens deserve a new chance in life , it is true .
Wishing you all much of love from a warm house with its own cross :)
 
one more thing ?

Just managed to get out ALL 50.000 hens !!
they are in bad shape and will first go elsewhere ofcourse but anyone in Europe being interested in hens , let me know PLEASE ! 50.000 hens CAN get transported to the countries around Belgium !
 
lazy gardener said:
As for your question re temperatures: I do not think I would bring them in my house! Simply be sure they have a dry coop that is draft free.

To help them to re-grow their feathers you can give them more protein. Can you buy a (not medicated) feed that is 18 - 20% protein there in Belgium? If that is not an option, perhaps you can give them some animal protein, even some eggs, or a bit of cat food (short term)

I wish you the best with your efforts.
Click to expand...
I have now given them ( 4 the first time in their one year of existence :s ) a lot of oatmeal , some fresh butternut and some eggyolks mixed under the oats , they loved it ! but at first they were pecking next to the feeder , so weird right ? and guess what surprise I got in return ? 2 eggs from one , 1 from the other and the poor other girl is not so lucky , eggbound and less chances on surviving ... she is less than a year old ! I cant believe this , she was probably only laying about a month there ! that is just beyond comprehension ... I cant get this , forgive for that but I can not ...
 

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