Eglu Cube, auto door, walk in run for sale South West London

[Sandychick]

Amber Stars and Warrens are very friendly, cuddley and do lots of fab eggs - Amber Stars are my favourite

[the bradley bunch]

Ex-batts not really suitable for a start as they can come with all sorts of problems

 

- Not really suitable for people with small children, as they (the hens) need a lot of time and space to relax and find back to their ways. Children could be an stress factor for the hens.

it is important to leave the girls alone with food, water & quiet for the first 24 hours, and also to make their enviroment as calm and non-stressful during the initial settling in period, however we had no problem with children been around the hens from day 1 (next door's 4 & 6 year children spend alot of time in our garden) - we just set firm ground rules, i.e. first 24 hours had to watch from the kitchen window (even tho the hens were doing nothing the children loved this!); use 'quiet voices' only around the hens for the first few days; and no touching or trying to pick up the hens (until they are comfortable with being handled and you can teach children how to handle them safely with your help/supervision). following these rules our girls weren't bothered by the kids in the slightest, and now after just a few weeks they love the attention from them and enjoy eating from their hand - one of our girls even fell asleep in my arms whilst the 4 year old was stroking her head! IT IS 100% NECESSARY TO SET CLEAR GROUND RULES FROM DAY 1 AND TO NEVER LEAVE YOUNG CHILDREN UNSUPERVISED WITH THE CHICKENS, ESPECIALLY WHEN FR (AS THEY HAVE A TENDANCY TO WANT TO PICK THEM UP AND WINGS COULD BE DAMAGED OR WORSE).

 

- Ex-batts can come bruised, feather-less and "disabled". So, they can be hard to take care of, and they may not be a child's best first point of contact with chicken.

i can't speak for any other re-homing group; but the bhwt (British Hen Welfare Trust) never re-home a knowingly sick or injured bird - they themselves give homes to the small number of birds who require looking after at their 'inhensive care unit' (lol). suprisingly at most rescues only a small percentage of the birds are feather-less, and their feathers will grow back within a few months.

you do get to choose your hens on re-homing day, therefore you can pick a nice full featherd one (of which the majority are).

i would advise tho, that any family who does decide to re-home ex-bats does not take young children with them to the re-homing point. although the re-homing point will never be at the battery farm, i think seeing all of the hens together & just the overall 'hecticness' of the day could be distressing & confusing for a child

 

- Other reasons were: they may die after a few weeks, they may never lay

with the bhwt only 1% of birds die following re-homing. and they have re-homed 206794 birds to date!

whist it can never be guaranteed that every ex-bat will lay, the majority will lay you more superb eggs than you can eat! one of our girls doesn't lay but we still get 12 eggs a week from the other 2 so we have more than enough to have pancakes for breakfast every morning and to keep the neighbours happy by giving them some!

 

Gargen is completely right to say that if you have a small child and are unsure whether they will cope with the new addition of chickens to the family (i.e. if they are scared or nervous around the birds), then it is best not to choose ex-bats for your first time. However if you are confident that your children will do well with chickens (by familiarising younger children with chickens on a farm for example beforehand, or by teaching them a little bit about ex-bats if they are older), then there is absolutely no reason (from the chicken's point of view) why you couldn't give them a good home. So long as you take the responsibility of taking on ex-bats seriously and go into it fully preparing both yourself and your children for the new additions to your family, it will be a happy ending for all of you

 

all of the above is my opinion only based on my own experience. the bhwt may give you different or additional advice to the above. i think the best thing to do if you are seriously considering re-homing ex-bats is to contact them directly. everybody they re-home hens to is required to have spoken to a re-homing co-ordinator in person (via telephone) before being approved for re-homing.

see their website (on my signature) for more info.

[scarlettohara]

Amber Stars and Warrens are very friendly, cuddley and do lots of fab eggs - Amber Stars are my favourite

 

My amber star is a sweetheart too, my bluebelles were shy at first but really tame now and lay everyday. Although scared of everything to begin with my skylines are becoming really friendly (Beetle follows me everywhere ) and both lay (I think both !) beautiful blue eggs

[gargan]

@the bradley bunch: thank you very much for sharing your experience with us, your post contains lots of useful information. And thanks for the link.

 

We may have hijacked this thread a bit, apologies for that.

[Tutti Frutti]

I have 5 POL and 2 ex-barn hens. All of them are my favourites for different reasons And they are ALL different, they have their own personalities

 

My Columbine ( ) is shy and White Star ( ) is chilled out, now she's laying! My Light Sussex hybrid is a big girl who honks like a goose My Black Rock is digging mad - very determined and she's also top chook. My Suffolk Noir is a REAL sweetie - soppy and chatty, all rolled into one. I just love her little voice when she chats to me!

 

As for my BHWT ex-barn girls, no we didn't get to choose them. They're now going through the henopause, 7 months after we got them. But I love them to bits, they're so friendly and funny. Yes, they were oven-ready and too terrified to come out of the house on Day 1. But on Day 2, one sat on my lap for a cuddle But they are a worry though, I hate seeing them pass softies (and we've had a fair few of them) as they get so fed up. We still get maybe 3 eggs a week which I bake with - they're just a funny shape, thin shelled and have blood spots in the white, which I remove with a teaspoon - they still taste great

 

Sorry, waffle over Let us know what you choose!

[Sageandonion]

Just wondering has any 1st timer ever got an ex-bat(s) at the same time as a couple of POL or would that just not work at all ?

[Tutti Frutti]

I had 3 POL, one died after 9 weeks and two weeks later, we got the ex-barn girls. All hell broke loose with shouting and chest puffing - it was like tag wrestling and I'm pretty sure that, if we hadn't separated them (went as far as hanging up black bags so they couldn't even see each other), there'd have been a serious injury or fatality And it would probably have been to one of the POL as the ex-barnies were double'ard, having had to fight for EVERYTHING in the barn

 

But within 3 weeks, they tolerated each other... within a couple of months, ignored each other and now, 7 months later, they're best buddies 99.9% of the time

[Sageandonion]

Thanks again for all your replies, have decided that as we're 1st timers it's probably best if we go for POL rather than ex-batts. Once we find our feet we'd go for ex-batts at a later date. Went to a poultry supplier today in Surrey - extremely helpful and friendly, we came away with some complimentary eggs and got to have a cuddle - with a hen not the poultry supplier ! Nice set up and the birds looked healthy as far as I can tell - being a complete novice. Liked the look of the goldline, black rock and light sussex types. Roll on September can't wait to get our girls .