Back in March 2011 I approached a local battery hen farmer and managed to talk him into letting me buy a few of his barn hens. I've been keeping hens now for about eight years and have been converted from the lovely large pure breed chickens to well,..... the scrawny, balding and anaemic varieties also known as the ex-battery hens. I bought three about four years ago and only have one left now and she has been a lovely little red hen and has laid lots of eggs for us over that time, but now she is pretty much in retirement and only lays a few eggs a year.
So here are the new hens straight from the barn and re-homed with me in March 2011......
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| And here is the OAP. |
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| And again. |
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| Our old Seven year old Light Sussex also an OAP now nesting in the hen house. |
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This is how they look now.
Two of the battery hens from March 2011 looking alot brighter and stronger and laying lovely eggs every day! |
Battery hens should be outlawed and 'm so glad that people like you take them in and treat them with respect. xx
ReplyDeleteYour hens are lovely! It must be amazing eating such fresh eggs :)
ReplyDeleteAww, there's something very lovely about well loved hens. Your ex-battery hens remind me of Gina, an ex-battery herself who was just hilarious to have around and layed wonderful eggs (but sadly is no longer with us). We still have Georgie - she's a beauty too.
ReplyDeleteI so admire what you are doing. I hate the idea of battery hens and will only buy free range as my tiny ontribution, but of course this will never change all the time the consumer wants cheap eggs. I feel so angry about what those poor little creatures have to live like. You are doing a wonderful job and they look amazing with that touch of love and care. Surely there is no need to keep birds caged up anymore and as Rosa Lily says they should be outlawed by now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments this post seems to have sturred up some strong emotions about our little feathered friends.It does feel like you are doing something good for these hens when taking them on and then there is the thing that they are such good egg layers and still have years of egg laying left. Intense farming is an ugly thing at times but in many ways we have to lay blame at the door of the consumer and the supermarkets for demanding cheaper produce.
ReplyDeleteThe hens I got in March 2011 were in quite good condition compared to the three I got four years ago. They took weeks to recover and must have been kept in cages as they could barely stand let alone drink, scratch or eat, quite appalling really,the farmer I approached this time kept hens in barns and they must have had space because they were scratching around in the grass before the day was out and drinking and behaving like a normal hen I think they were just deprived of sunlight and grass.