Ex-battery hens & feed etc?

heidimax

Hi Everybody,
I posted a thread a while ago about where to place my coop and got many great & really helpful replies. Thanks:). I have now seeded a large area of my "gravel garden" and have ordered my coop so here lies my next problem.
Would anybody know where i can get some ex-battery hens (i specifically want to rehome exbattery ones as all my animals are rescue ones). I live in cork city but have no problem travelling anywhere to collect them.

Also, where would my "local" supplies shop be, i.e. where i can buy my feeders and drinkers etc. (also can anyone advise me what size ones i need to buy for say 3 hens)..... (i'm a bit clueless in these matters!!!).

Thanks so much in advance

The Sweeper

Oooo interesting.

First, and I know a lot of people won't agree with me, but please do not BUY battery hens. Those intensive-farming barstewards are lapping it up when, as they see it, bleeding heart liberals arrive on their doorstep and give them ten quid for a wreck of a bird. You think you're saving a life, but all that happens is you're doubly rewarding the unscrupulous individual who intensively farms the chickens. They can make money out of the eggs, then make money TWICE because they can sell the chicken onwards, instead of having to take a low price from the expiring bird as they flog it to the processing industry.

Plus battery hens often don't last as long as a bird raised by a free-range farmer.

Basically - it's like puppy and kitten farmers. You wouldn't buy a puppy from a puppy farm, so please don't buy a battery chicken from a battery chicken farmer.

SAYING THAT.

Contact your local chicken producers, and your local ISPCA, and various rescue bird centres around Cork and make enquiries about getting your hands on a rescued bird for free. Even see if the battery guys themselves will give you a few chickens, though they might hold out for some nominal fee like five euros for three birds or something.

I used to live with someone where we kept chickens on that property and, while it is incredibly sad to watch battery birds when they first enter the pen, then joyous to watch them discovering how to be real chickens, any battery chicken I've ever watched being 'saved' doesn't last much past 12 months. The stress of their little lives seems to be too much.

The poor things start off not knowing how to scratch and peck, or how to roost, and they'll often spend the first week in their new home all bundled into the one nest box together, because they're frightened and all they know is the sensation of close-packed living quarters. Then they start to come out of their shells, they begin to run about, peck for grain, chase insects; some learn to dust-bathe for their feathers (others never seem to learn that) and generally they remain as good layers for up to a year, but then the ones I've seen seem to just sicken and die. It's so frustating, because you start to feel that just when they learned to be chickens, their past catches them up.

I wonder if it's because of the damage to their immune systems and their development, caused by battery farming? Also you know nothing of the history of a battery hen - it could be 12 months old, it could be two years old. It's probably been fed antibiotics its entire life to ward off the diseases that come from its living conditions. I've no idea really, to be honest, why they don't last long, but anyway, my point is not that you shouldn't help them, just please don't pay for them, because it just encourages the people who intensively farm them.

By contrast, if you want to spend some money on chickens, please reward the free-range producers who sell healthy birds of around 20 weeks old, who'll just be starting their laying, who've been vaccinated, and who haven't suffered the way battery chickens have. If you pay someone like that for their chickens, you help to fund them continuing to produce healthy, happy birds - and of course you'll never have to buy another egg again, so you won't be giving the battery industry a single red cent.

Anyway - in terms of feeders and drinkers, find your local agricultural supplies store - the one that sells horse feed and so on. Those guys usually stock chicken equipment. One standard feeder will more than do three chickens.

heidimax

Hi The Sweeper,
Yes i totally agree with you....don't worry i hadn't any intention of paying for them but i still feel it's something i would like to do - i know it's only a drop in the ocean but i'd like to give it a go. I do agree with you though that nobody should further line the pockets of battery farmers. You do paint an awful sad picture of the poor birds though....

I still haven't managed to track down any "local" agricultural supplies place though - maybe cause i live in the city....i think i'll have to look further afield - have looked up co-op stores in the golden pages with little success either...the search goes on!.....:)

babychuckles

I got a lovely little poultry drinker in macroom in a hardware shop opposite dunnes stores and if i remember right it might have been
Macroom Hardware Limited
Railway View, Macroom, Co. Cork.
026-43111

give them a ring just hope i remember its the right shop. but it was definetly opposite dunnes frontdoor at the other side of the little carpark.

The Sweeper

heidimax wrote: »

I still haven't managed to track down any "local" agricultural supplies place though - maybe cause i live in the city....i think i'll have to look further afield - have looked up co-op stores in the golden pages with little success either...the search goes on!.....:)

That bit I can't help you with, but you can create your own home-made feeders quite easily.

The biggest problem with free-feeding your chickens is that you'll simultaneously free-feed every wild bird and rodent for a two mile radius.

There are two kinds of feed that most people free-feed their chickens: layer pellets, and grain mixes. Layer pellets (I think they're also called chick crumb in Ireland?) are a high-protein, processed pellet designed to keep chickens laying (hence layer pellets). An egg has a lot of protein in it - hence it takes alot of protein for the chickens to be able to lay their eggs. Grain mixes are literally big bags of whole grains. If you have a lot of chickens, chicken feeders are useful because they mean the food is always accessible and all of your chickens will be fed - chickens literally have a pecking order, and some chooks will be bullied off the food in a large flock, so a free-feed dispenser is an important thing to have to ensure they all get fed.

With only three chickens, you could try not free-feeding them, but it depends on where they can forage and what suits you.

The chicken feed dispensers are gravity feeders, with a large bin that holds a couple of kilos of feed, and a tray at the bottom that the chickens peck out of, which automatically refills as it empties, by force of gravity. You can achieve a similar free feeding effect using large plastic tub with a lid - the sort of five litre tub restaurants get mayonnaise or coleslaw in.

About five inches up the tub, use a hole saw drill bit to cut holes all around the tub, large enough for chickens to get their heads and necks through. Then fill the tub with feed to just below the holes, and suspend the tub from a hook in the roof of your chook shed, using twine tied to the tub handle or attached to the tub itself. With the feed bucket hanging freely, and not touching the ground, you make access for rodents more difficult. It will also put off small wild birds, because there's nowhere for them to perch and get their heads into the bucket, because they're smaller than chickens, and they're unlikely to fly straight in to get the feed.

That bucket and a basin of water, changed regularly, is all you need to feed and water your chickens, if you don't want to spend money on gear for them.

If you only have three chickens, you can try not free-feeding them. They like grain, and greens, and lots of kitchen scraps, (though don't feed onion or garlic because the flavour can go to the eggs). Once a day you can throw them 3/4 cup of grain each, plus kitchen scraps and greens. Basically whatever they eat in 15 minutes is enough food - the rest of it is for scratching in the dirt and foraging through later on. If they start to look scrawny you need to up what you're feeding them, but this daily feeding can help if you feel you're losing kilos of grain mix or layer pellets to the local wildlife. Wild birds have no fear of flying into a chicken coop and raiding the contents of the free feeder, and your chickens will do little to defend their food, so if you start seeing flocks of 20 birds hanging around the top of the chicken pen, it's time to stop free feeding!

Curled Feather

heidimax wrote: »

Hi Everybody,
I posted a thread a while ago about where to place my coop and got many great & really helpful replies. Thanks:). I have now seeded a large area of my "gravel garden" and have ordered my coop so here lies my next problem.
Would anybody know where i can get some ex-battery hens (i specifically want to rehome exbattery ones as all my animals are rescue ones). I live in cork city but have no problem travelling anywhere to collect them.

Also, where would my "local" supplies shop be, i.e. where i can buy my feeders and drinkers etc. (also can anyone advise me what size ones i need to buy for say 3 hens)..... (i'm a bit clueless in these matters!!!).

Thanks so much in advance

I'd just replied to your other post when I found this one. I agree with 'The Sweeper' about battery birds although it is not a popular opinion.

I think you will find it very difficult to get hens of any description at this time of the year, anyone who has them is holding on to them for eggs but it's worth keeping an eye out.

Keeping chickens is so rewarding and they almost look after themselves. I've loads of useful 'info for the beginner' on our website and I can possibly point you in the direction of someone in the general Cork area. I can't pm you as I'm relatively new here but you can contact me for more details. Good luck with it...

heidimax

Thanks for all the advice BabyChuckles, The Sweeper & Curled feather.....i'm not great at the ol' DIY so i'm going to buy a feeder (to start off anyways!)....might try that shop in macroom - thanks for the info. As for feeding the wildlife - unfortunately thanks to my big tom cat i seem to have none in the area - there's obviously a "no-fly zone" where the birds are concerned over my house.....i even tried putting out wild bird seed (well out of the reach of the cat)....and i attracted nothing!!:D (i know there's lots of birds in the area cause of the dawn chorus every morning and i'd love to see them around).

I had heard alright that chickens need dust baths and someone said i can use a large cat-litter tray filled with earth?.....
Just waiting on my coop to arrive -it's coming flat-packed so i'll have some great fun putting it together:eek:

I'll have a rethink about where to get my chickens from (i'm only going to get 2 or 3)....but i'm still edging towards the exbattery ones - i have an ex-puppy farm dog who was in an awful state when she was rescued by an animal welfare shelter and you should see her now....i guess i'm applying the same principle (rightly or wrongly) to the exbattery hens...don't they deserve a chance too even it's only for a short while?.....here's hoping they'll be happy with me - i'm ordering the biggest coop that my city garden can accommodate and i'm going to leave them free-range as much as possible too.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply and for all the advice - i really appreciate it.

CMharrington

Would you like a rooster ??

jap gt

maceoin in dingle have good quality products for poultry

suziwalsh

There is a girl who rescues and rehomes ex battery hens on www.petsireland.invisionzone.com

Interceptor

CMharrington wrote: »

Would you like a rooster ??

Would you like three roosters? :rolleyes:

'cptr

Guill

Go to Irishfowl.com and look up Gary Smith, he rescues battery hens, lets them refeather and sells them on for about 4-5 euro.

Otherwise get purebred hens, they look alot nicer