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Hens
Hi.
Just being nosey but does anyone else keep hens?
I started with 8 ex-battery hens 18 or so months ago, now down to 5. But, i'm picking up another 4 tomorrow 2 Blue Hybrid Hens, and 2 Cuckoo Maran Hybrids. Both are I think various shades of grey (Before you ask the only Shades of Gray book i've read is by Jasper FForde).
Excited about picking them up tomorrow. I hope they like their new home.
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We had 3 ex-batterys for a couple of years and the last one 'left us' just this week. We have now got a Sussex star and 2 Black Rocks, one where the main colouring is black and the other golden. Their names are Harriet, Betty and Doris. If we had a bigger garden then I suspect my missus would want loads as she is a batty old bird herself !
All my ex bats have been named after dragons.
So i always called them our baby dragons.
Not sure about these, think it might be time to change to more fluffy names.
fluffy names? wouldnt feathery be more apt?
I never realised you could obtain 'rescue hens'.
Just curious, but under what circumstances do they gain freedom from the factory farm? Is it because the farm no longer wants them or because they have been rescued in some way? Are they any harder to keep than hens which have had freedom all their lives (i.e. psychologically damaged perhaps)?
I quite like the idea of keeping hens and having fresh eggs every morning, I just wouldn't want the responsibility that goes with keeping them. I'm also quite precious about my lawn too, so would end up throttling them if they messed it up.
pudge this should give some info
Here’s what we do in a nutshell (or you could say eggshell):
http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/about-us/
How big a garden do you need for them?
Not very
we have a run as when you let them wander over the whole garden they literally eat all the grass.
So we have a 6ft x 4ft shed that we cut down so it's a bit tidier, and we also created a egg laying box off the side which they all snuggle up in together when it's really cold in winter and want to stay warm at night, and off the side of this we have a fully enclosed 2.5m x 1.5m run, and this leads into a patch of garden that is about the same size again, maybe a bit smaller, this outer run just has fencing to stop our dog getting in and pestering them. The inner run can be fully sealed so is Fox Proof.
We have a labrador and there are no problems... but I understand if you have smaller dogs there can be issues of them fancying a nibble of chicken....
any chance of a picture of your run/shed booktrunk?
We get more eggs then we could ever hope to eat, and they cost us a total of around £15 per month when we had 8 to feed and change their bedding.
£15 per month for unlimited eggs, and the fun of talking to your hens, they are great and each have their own personalities, we give our extra eggs away to neighbours in the street. If anyone needs a couple of eggs and haven't got any in they just knock on the door and ask if we have a spare or two
I quite like the idea of keeping hens but not where we live now. Not ony do we have a thriving local fox population but I reckon some of the locals would be round after them too.
You talk to yours too ? You sound as batty as my missus
She even has them inside on her knee when she is watching tv !
We have got an eglu (made by Omlete) - they are easier to maintain than a wooden house (with a wooden house you can get some insect festations I believe). They arent cheap but my missus swears by it and I think they will last a lifetime where wooden houses can obviously rot over time.
We also have an 18 month springer spaniel who is as mad as a box of frogs. He likes chasing the chickens when they are out so we have to try and seperate them or one day I can see him killing one of them.
If you like your grass then chickens are most definitely not for you ! If you have some land you can fence off then that would be ideal.
Our ex batteries stopped laying egs when they got to about 3 years old and their life expectancy is to about 4 or 5. The ones we have now will give us about 300 each per year, they tend to stop laying when it gets really cold. Egg sarnies have never tasted so good
I think you have to (or should do) check with the council to see if you can keep them. We live in a Victorian house so you can definitely keep them, if you live in a newer house (and I'm not sure how old a house is beforre it's classed as new) then it's likely you cant keep them, but I also think it can vary from council to council
Our ex batteries stopped laying egs when they got to about 3 years old and their life expectancy is to about 4 or 5. The ones we have now will give us about 300 each per year, they tend to stop laying when it gets really cold. Egg sarnies have never tasted so good
So, once they stop delivering the goods as it were, do you allow them to continue to live rent-free at Chez Eglu, or do they make it onto a roasting plate?
Sorry to ask, as it sounds lke they are your pets as much as your livestock, but I am genuinely curious.
Love the funky colour of the coop!
The top photo is before we finished the outer run that just has a 3ft high flimsy fense to stop the dog getting in and the side opens completely for us to walk in. But the hens actually sometimes get bored and just jump out.... they can flap up onto the top and then just hop down into the garden so we still sometimes have them wandering around the garden, Tiamat (Yes the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon dragon) is the worse culprit she gets out and wanders around at least 2 or 3 times a week, we sometimes go out and find her snuggled down in the grass with the labrador laying in front of her just staring at her.
The blue paint is just cuprinol, but it looks fantastic
Well, I would definitely say they are pets of the missus, not so much mine. They can be quite entertaining, especially at egg laying time when afterwards they tend to screech for a few minutes. Apparently, and I qoute, "it's because they are female and they like to tell everyone what they've done" - the quote came from the British Hen Welfare Trust I believe.
Battery hens are bred to deliver eggs and nothing else. So, if you threw one in the oven on gas mark 6 for a couple of hours it is like eating a pair of old leather boots.
Pudge: regarding pets / livestock. They are pets that happen to give us eggs. I euthanaised a chicken last saturday (ghod it was horrible) but it was very poorly and judging from what happened to our others it was just dying and I didn't want to leave it basically starving / dehydrating to death. So I put it out of it's misery.
They are both. But I love them to death, when they stop laying they can grow old gracefully and have as much fun as they want, but if they have a bad illness I'm not going to take them to the vets. They are wonderful and it's a bit of a juggling act.
Much like most of my wife's cooking, so nothing new there!
And is she a batty old bird too ?
I looked at eating them but by the time you've cut the heads off and bled them out it's just not worth the hassle... Mine lead long happy lives and then they go to the great wheely bin in the sky.
I eat chicken but I keep hens... that probably sounds daft but to me a chicken is a beast for eating a hen is a pet that happens to give me more eggs then I could ever eat!!
I'm sure you are aware but you can get a toold called dispatchers to do the deed for you ? I've known people struggle when doing it 'manually' but these dispatchers do the job properly
No I wasn't aware i'll have a look on the internet, hopefully I won't get arrested by the police thinking i'm looking for a device to bump off my oh!!
I was stupid and was trying to be nice... The only way to be nice is to be violent and just get it over with ASAP.
Indeed she is. She doesn't lay eggs though (as far as I know)
Many eggs = lots of baking = lots of chocolate cake !
Get on eBay and search on poultry dispatchers, they look a bit like a pair of pliers !
Thanks carterusm.... on that happy note...
I thought you killed them by breaking their necks - that's what the OHs dad does anyway - then again he is a retired farm worker with arms about as thick as most people's legs.
You do, but they are very flexible. I like the idea of the tool... Just makes it that little bit quicker.