Single hen

[nancyfancyfowl]

HELP! We've had a pair of ex-battery chicken for 1 week now and one of them can't get the hang of getting into the cube at night and needs lifting in. The other chicken, bald and scraggy manages just fine, but the more robust girl just doesn't get it - any ideas?

[Egluntyne]

Welcome to the forum.

 

My ex batts couldn't get up the cube ladder either at first.

 

Their muscles are in very poor order when they are first rescued.

 

I put a log at the bottom, and they could manage it then.

 

Some folk have put a ramp instead of the ladder.

[nancyfancyfowl]

Thanks for your advice - we'll see what we can rig up to help her get in as the 'leave her to it' attutude is not working!

 

As well as not being able to get into Peckingham Palace, they also don't seem to display 'normal' chicken behaviour, like scratching around or laying in the nesting box. Does this come are they too institutionalised? It doesn't matter of course, I'm just curious.

[Egluntyne]

Yes....it will come. Mine just stood in a daze for a week or so.

 

I kept them in a separate Eglu to the other hens at first as a sort of quarantine thingy. Also I like to take my intros slowly.

 

The other hens were close by though, and I think observing and then mingling with them helped them to learn how to be hens.

 

Have they got names?

[Guest]

we got a cube recently and our girls found it daunting and difficult but they soon got the hang of it. we had to lift a cple of them in via the roof for a cple of days but they worked it our for themselves in the end. If your girls are quite new out of the cage they may need some help until they get their strength back.

 

DH told me that Fatima came down the ladder the other day like an extreme sports woman! (she slid all the way down the side with her wings out)

 

we've had our girls almost 12 months and were our first chickens, it didn't take them long to revert to instinct and start doing chickeny things.

[Ardene5]

Hello

When we got our ex battery hens Ian built a form of ladder for them.

It was an made from a shelf wood which we had bought but never used

and some rungs from some spare wood we had in the garage.

We also covered the plastic rungs of the cube in strips of a bath mat.

The extension ( hand made) ladder was the put up to the rubber covered

steps and the hens just walked up and into the cube.

 

Best regards

 

Ian & Valerie

William & Harry

Missy & Millie dogs

9 Hens

+ + a large covered walk in run

[Starkey]

We kept our new ex-bats in a separate eglu for about a week while they got used to the new surroundings and built their strength up a bit. Then introduced them to the cube with a length of pallet forming a ramp up to the cube and they soon got the hang. Watching the other hens helped and now, two months on, you can't tell the difference between them.

Great fun.

Fiona

[Mrs Slats]

We have put an upturned flower pot at the bottom of the ladder to help them up the first step. It's that first stretch up to the bottom rung that's the hardest, they just can't reach it.

 

They will work it out eventually. Have you also tried the trick of putting a torch in the cube to encourage her up? It'll help her work out where she's supposed to go at bedtime.

 

You'll find they'll learn to scratch around soon enough... especially once they've tasted their first slug

Ours are proper chickens now... although they still have not worked out what dustbathing is... we put one in the run and they just ate it ... so we gave up

[dancing cloud]

It took my ex-batts 4 days to get them all using the ladder, but Chance didn't know she'd got wings so she really struggled to balance.

 

She discovered her left wing moved after 4 days, so could just about get up the ladder and after two weeks found she had a right wing that moved as well . Her first full flap was a real cause for celebration!

 

Mine do things in stops and starts - usually one tries something and the others follow - and just when you give up on something, they do it like they've done it all their lives. Watching them learn how to be "real" chickens certainly gave me a wonderful summer and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they cope with their first ice and snow