So, Lola is settled in her temporary greenhouse home (until the hen house comes along). We've given her a mirror to admire herself in (and maybe trick her into thinking there is another chicken in there with her) and she's now eating grain out of the palm pf my hand and grabbing tiny tomatoes from my fingers. She can spend hours looking at her reflection and she seems pretty settled but then, how do you know if a chicken is happy in itself or not? Because hens are sociable creatures we wanted to get her two companions. We looked into getting ex-battery hens and it's a sad tale. You might know that battery hens are kept for just about one year from point of lay (POL) as that is when they are at the peak of their laying capacity. Obviously battery eggs are all about profit which is fair enough, it is a business after all, but the welfare of the bird is very often not a priority; profit is the key. After a year of overcrowded living most are sold for meat with a few lucky ones being rescued by the few battery hen rescue groups.
Although European law has recently changed and all farms in Britain have come into line there are still producers selling in Britain but producing in other countries who have not taken the new guide lines on. Battery hens have a brief and pathetic life; starting with when an egg has hatched and the chicken is sexed. If it is male it is killed and can be used as food for reptiles amongst other things. If it is female it will be expected to live in crowded accommodation, with no access to a dust bath or perch and has just over an A4 space to move in. We've paid up to £26 for one of our chickens before now but battery hens can be purchased from as little as fifty pence each (we could have got 52 hens for the price of Buck Bucky). These overworked hens, once they have reached the end of their maximum productivity are not worth keeping - the producers can get new stock in and see no dip in the amount of eggs they can produce. However, the hens will still produce eggs, just not as regularly.
The ex battery hens that are rescued often appear in a very poor state of health (which has to have an effect on the egg quality). They are often too weak to jump onto a perch and can break their legs jumping down again. They will often have very few feathers and a limp comb and look very sorry for themselves. Amazingly though they do perk up, feather up and make lovely pets although they have never instinctively sought out a nesting box as they have just laid their daily egg where they are. So for the rest of the chicken's life it will probably just lay when it has the urge to lay, never mind where it is. This is like having a little Easter egg hunt all year round if you keep a few in your back garden. If you fancy looking into rescuing some hens and live in Britain, take a look online at http://www.bhwt.org.uk
Although European law has recently changed and all farms in Britain have come into line there are still producers selling in Britain but producing in other countries who have not taken the new guide lines on. Battery hens have a brief and pathetic life; starting with when an egg has hatched and the chicken is sexed. If it is male it is killed and can be used as food for reptiles amongst other things. If it is female it will be expected to live in crowded accommodation, with no access to a dust bath or perch and has just over an A4 space to move in. We've paid up to £26 for one of our chickens before now but battery hens can be purchased from as little as fifty pence each (we could have got 52 hens for the price of Buck Bucky). These overworked hens, once they have reached the end of their maximum productivity are not worth keeping - the producers can get new stock in and see no dip in the amount of eggs they can produce. However, the hens will still produce eggs, just not as regularly.
The ex battery hens that are rescued often appear in a very poor state of health (which has to have an effect on the egg quality). They are often too weak to jump onto a perch and can break their legs jumping down again. They will often have very few feathers and a limp comb and look very sorry for themselves. Amazingly though they do perk up, feather up and make lovely pets although they have never instinctively sought out a nesting box as they have just laid their daily egg where they are. So for the rest of the chicken's life it will probably just lay when it has the urge to lay, never mind where it is. This is like having a little Easter egg hunt all year round if you keep a few in your back garden. If you fancy looking into rescuing some hens and live in Britain, take a look online at http://www.bhwt.org.uk
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