4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Tombull10]

Hi,

 

I am finally picking up my 3 ex-batts next week. I just wanted to ask everyone, because i'm new to this, what can i do to help them settle in?

 

I'll obviously have the eglu all set up ready to go and will have layers mash in the grub as somehing they'll recognise. Are there any treats that i can offer them? And silly question i know but when giving them vegetables, what should be cooked and what can be given raw?? Also, what bedding is best for the nesting box? I was thinking of using dust extracted sawdust as this sounds easiest and perhaps something more familiar. What other options are there?? I just want to make sure they get everything they need when they first arrive.

 

Thanks for your help. Wish me and my lawn luck!!

[stoice]

Hi Tombull10

 

Good for you for rescuing ex-batts. They're great characters who deserve a second chance

 

I started to mix pellets in with their mash over the course of about a week or two which was fairly successful. No special reason nutrtionally, (as they are the same ingredients) but i found pellets less messy as I have 'flinger' of food

 

You'll probably find as they'd have never seen any treats before that they turn their beaks up at a lot of things but keep trying. As soon as one girl tastes something the others will hate to be left out. My girls only took cabbage leaves at first (From my hand, not the floor as they couldn't work out how to 'break it up') but soon loved rinsed tinned sweetcorn, chopped grapes (Top most favourite treats!) cooked pasta (Spaghetti looks like worms!), earth worms, mealworms (dried and alive) cooked potato peelings (NEVER raw potato), mixed corn was shunned for ages but they can't get enough of the stuff now. You have to be strict with treats like corn, bread and pasta. No matter how much they fuss, complete food first for good condition and egg laying, then they can have their sweeties. Basically most veg is fair game, prepared how WE would eat it. No avacado or raw spud though.

 

I use hemcore or Aubiose in the nest box and in their run. They are the soft core of the hemp plant and are really absorbant so if using it in your run it should be covered from the rain. (Aubiose is pronounced Or- be - ose by the way) but you could use chopped straw or shredded paper in the nest box too. Dust extracted woodshavings should be ok too (They even do scented versions!) although I found it took a long time time to compost. You may find your ex-batt will lay anywhere to start with as they would never have seen a nest box (or an egg) and are used to just 'dropping one' where they stand. I'd also provide some mixed grit (Small flint chippings and chopped up oyster shell) to help them break down and digest the food in their crops.

 

Phew, that was quite a long post, sorry about that. They have quite simple needs really, little darlings. Enjoy them. You'll soon be hooked and quite the eggspert from following advice on this forum. It's helped me.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Good luck to you (and your lawn!) Tom . Well done for rescuing some needy girls .

 

I don't have ex-batts but can advise on the veg and bedding . You mustn't give potato peelings raw but I believe everything else is ok (except avocado which is poisonous ). Some people boil up all the peelings so they're easier for them to eat.

 

I use shredded paper in the nestbox but have only just started adding a bit of hemcore or easibed along with it. The paper's so light they kick it all over the place . The hemcore weighs it down a bit!

[Happy chickens!]

Good luck with your new girls - but you won't need it! (Your lawn might! )

 

It's amazing how quickly they settle in, but I've found it trial and error what they'll eat. I started mine on the mash to begin with, but moved them on to pellets gradually.

 

Spend as much time with them as you can (chicken watching is addictive, be warned!! ), and they'll quickly get to know you and learn you're the food man. Stroke them a little, but try not to chase them too much and stress them. Keep them in a week or so until you try free ranging so they know where to return to.

 

I found to begin with I had to coax them in to the cube at dusk (alright, I often picked them up and tucked them in ), but now they put themselves to bed. Mine also found it easier to begin with to eat/drink off containers on the floor (messy!), but gradually learned about the clip on pots - although they still prefer the 'mushroom' style drinker I bought. I ended up getting lots of pots for food dotted around the run so there was less fighting for food - they don't know yet that there will be an endless supply from your goodself! Flyte so fancy have cheap clip on pots and quite a lot of other stuff you didn't know you'd want.....

 

Other useful purchases are a jug to pour feed into the pots and a hoe and longhandled dustpan for pooh-picking and a ratproof bin for food.

 

Food and shelter, which you've got sorted, and everything else will follow, including eggs!! Enjoy!

[dancing cloud]

Not much to add to the very good advice already here - wish my little monsters had read it!

 

My little monsters didn't like mash and took to pellets straight away, chucking all the mash out to get to the pellets I'd mixed in

 

They didn't like any treats at first until a friend brought round enormous cabbage stalks. I though they'd be terrified, but they scoffed the lot. I had to peel grapes to show them there was something inside - you could just cut them up, but I didn't think of that till later . Now grapes are their very favourite thing

 

I got my girls at the beginning of two weeks' holiday last May and spent pretty much all of their waking time sitting with them. They soon got to know I wasn't a threat and associate me with nice things (and they very soon understand what nice things are!).

 

Take it gently and don't expect too much, and be prepared for them to exceed your every expectation, and you'll have confident cheeky chooks in no time

[Gallina]

I have had two ex-batts for six days now. They are the first ones I have ever had.

 

I couldn't get any mash locally and don't have a car, and after two days of not eating they suddenly gobbled down all the pellets. (They wouldn't touch the pellet porridge I attempted to make.)

 

But they really don't recognize a treat. It seems unbelievable. I have had to remove bits I have tried them with (e.g. potato) from the run.

 

What I have noticed most is that because they have never been allowed to make a decision in their life, they really don't know what to do, and spend a lot of time standing on one leg. One of mine is getting the hang of things much better than the other, and is even laying her egg in the nesting box. The other just deposits her egg wherever she happens to be: I think she expects a conveyor belt to take it away.

 

I have decided the main thing is not to frighten them, so I wouldn't dream of raking the loose egg out of the Eglu run until they are in bed, for example. And I didn't open the eggport door to say goodnight to them for several days. And my "No sleeping in the nesting box" rule has gone out of the window.

 

Don't expect them to be excited at their freedom: they will be lost souls. But I can already see a difference after just six days: they no longer make the strange distressed noise they made all the time at first, and they don't run into the Eglu when I come into the garden.

[moomin]

That is so lovely, how lucky they are to have a mum like you