Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[blackgold]

I got my 3 ex batts last Saturday. The first couple of days they didnt seem to eat a lot. Today they are eating a lot better. They are loosing feathers not a lot but probably half a dozen between the 3 of them each day. Is this normal? They havent laid any eggs and i am not sure how old they are either.The weather is cold so they do go and sit in the kennel during the day and huddle up. Is this the no neck other people were talking about? They came out tonight while I was cleaning their eglu and wandered about the dog yard so they seem to be ok. Compared with the omlet hens and the faverolles I keep with my friend over the road at her house, these hens are very quiet. they are starting to approach me now to take grape halves from my fingers and they dont run away when i walk in the pen. I would hate any of them to be sick and me not know.

[Egluntyne]

It takes them a while to learn to be hens.

 

They have had a year or so of living in a tiny cage and suddenly they are overwhelmed by space, sounds and sights.

 

Give them a month and you will see a huge change in them.

[dancing cloud]

I'm entirely with Egluntine here. They will not have seen humans much before, let alone the rest of the world, and are probably a bit overwhelmed. Mine were very reticent initially, except Joy who was a little troublemaker from the start , but now are very confident and cheeky with it! Dandelion still runs away if I try to stroke her, but she's first in the queue for any goodies

 

I've no experiene of other hens, so nothing to compare them with, but a bit of calm reassurance and tlc seems to go a very long way with ex-batts, and once they get going there's no stopping them. That they're already recognising you and coming to you sounds like a very good start