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Good home needed for 3 hens

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Good home needed for my 3 ex-bats Mabel, Bella and Dusty!

 

3 lovely girls, good layers, 1 year old, just the poo is getting too much in our small garden!

 

Really want them to a good home so prepared to deliver them in the Berkshire/Oxfordshire Area

 

Please let me know if you can help!

 

Thanks

XXX :(

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If the droppings are a problem, keeping the run in a fixed position means that the rest of your garden stays droppings free. If you put something like hemcore or aubiose as a base for the run, the droppings almost disappear too which makes the hens much easier to look after. There's a guide to building a permanent run on the Omlet website here and it's worth a try before rehoming your hens.

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we have a small garden too with 5 girls in a fixed run. They free range from time to time and then I scoop up after them and chuck it on the borders (great fertiliser) or on the compost heap or in the green bin.

 

have a look at these pics http://club.omlet.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=22866

 

is your garden smaller than ours? What's your set up like? We might be able to make some suggestions so you can keep your girls.

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Hi

We have 5 ex battery hens so have more poo but we have found by fast washing with water it becomes a solution and goes into the ground so the grass grows or the flowers grow nicely.

Therefore no problems.

Hope this helps.

Best regards

 

Ian & Valerie

William & Harry

Missy & Millie Dogs girls

5 ex battery hens GNR

(duck) x 2 (white duck) x 1

(cube purple)(purple eglu)

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hey everyone thanks for your replies, basically they have a coop and a small run but i was too generous and fenced off half the garden for them so that grass has just turned to muddy poo, smells a lot and attracts LOADS of flies! I could just keep them in a run but i'd feel mean now as they are used to being free range ! I have some friends with free range chickens so i'm going to try them first but i would really like to keep them! I need a bigger garden so i can have an eglu and move it around!

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poet - that is a very impressive run ! and yes my garden is actually smaller than your's ! we live in a victorian terrace so the girls take up most grass! thanks for the pics though, i will def get more chickens when we move house!

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I also had my garden turned into a smelly mud field by a bunch of free-ranging chickens (13!).

 

I had a little enclosure built, where I put the egloo and reconditioned my old shed (put shelves, spread a mixture of some sort of soft dry grass that I got recommended by the lady at the horse shop - who also keeps chickens) and reseeded the lawn.

 

The chickens are happy - they are laying more eggs than they did before. And some evenings and weekends I let them out - for a 'slug patrol' and to fertilise the garden. They love it! :)

 

Grass has grown and it looks great! (Snails and slugs are still eating my young lupins though... :( )

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My garden is tiny but we've devoted the bottom third to the girls. They don't have any grass at all but have an open run with lots of soil to dig in and a covered area where their Cube lives. I have 6 hens in this are and they have plenty of room. The rest of the garden is ours and is poo free :lol: ! We have grass, flowers, veggies etc and the girls are perfectly happy in their run.

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I have allocated an area of my garden to the hens too. They scratch away and poo to their hearts content.

 

I sprinkle a bit of garden lime around , and poo pick or get the hospepipe out every so often.

 

It works well. Maybe you could try something similar.:D

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I have two girls and they can poo for Great Britain, however I have a fixed run up one corner of the garden, it looks now like it's always been there, it doesn't look out of place.

 

It's be a shame to have to rehome them, I bet they have really changed and improved since you got them. :)

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yeah they have ! they are all feathery now ! i hope i can find a good home for them at least i resuced them from being pie i suppose ! its more the hubbie to be that wants rid! he doesn't like the smell and flies in his shed ! men!

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poet - that is a very impressive run ! .....

 

hubbie built it, it wasn't difficult, just time consuming. If you could do something similar and put a roof on it and aubiose on the floor, you might find it's not so muddy?

 

Our run is on soil with aubiose on top and surround by flags. Or you could put your run on concrete flags with aubiose on top?

 

If you really don't want to keep your girls, I hope they find a really good, loving home. xxxx

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I find auboise on slabs is soo much easier to manage than on the grass. We had to move our girls on to grass for 2-3 weeks at the end of last month and I couldn't wait to move them back - no smell, no lumps of wet poo on the surface and so easy to clean out.

 

Ours free range on the grass, but I just poo pick that when I get a moment, but not a big job - I would recommend a permanent site with a bedding material.

 

Tracy

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I can think of another solution to ditching the hens ...
i'm not going to eat them !

 

Although they are based on the Rhode Island Red, which is a dual purpose bird, the battery hen breeds are bred for egg production and so are unlkikely to be any good as a table bird.

 

Not sure they'd make good eating anyway. Don't forget they are pumped full of all sorts of stuff to keep them disease free in the battery environment

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If they came from a BHWT rescue, perhaps you could contact the BHWT and see if they can help you re-rehome the girls.

 

good thinking, most of them have waiting lists!

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Hi Rie, I loved your posting because I've been weighing up what to do myself. I have probably a bigger garden than you, and feel that I have a similar problem. I have five chooks and I agree, the amount they poo is incredible!! I thought it all through very carefully, for a long, long time, but still wasn't prepared for the changes to my life and the garden! It looks like a small farmyard down the bottom of the garden. But I'm getting used to that now, I have to say. But when it rains it brings me right down, because it so quickly turns into a horrible smelly mudbath.

 

I have a Cube and 1 metre run, surrounded by the Omlet netting run. I feel so sorry for them, though, that I let them out, to pootle around and destroy the garden. I think I'm going to cut back on how long and how often I let them out. I don't have the energy to tidy up much after them, so it's about finding a compromise. But I'm wondering whether Iv'e taken on too much with these lovely creatures. They are farm animals, after all, and to me it all looks cleaner and easier on the Omlet site and people's photos than the reality, I think :lol:

 

Like you, it sounds, I do love them, but it's hard working something manageable out, isn't it. I use citronella, hemcore, Flitraps etc but they do still smell, to my mind, despite poo-picking for England!

 

do you have a hose or jet wash? A lot of people recommend this, but I haven't got a hose set up as yet. That'll be the next expense :shock: I think I'm going to give it a go for a full year, to see what it's like through the seasons, and if my energy levels have improved (I've been ill), and then take stock in the Spring again.

 

Good luck with your situation, however it works out for you.

 

Caroline

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