battery hens wanted for adoption/rescue

THEIRISHMOB

Hi, just wondering if anyone could please direct me to someone –preferably a charity who I could buy ex-battery hens from. I’d love to give a nice, safe & healthy home to these poor birds. I’m really conscious however of buying directly from battery farms however as I know obviously demand feeds supply etc, At the same time-If I could save 10 hens it’s surely something positive. I’ve been directed to the Crann Dair website-but they’re apparently closed down for the foreseeable future owing to illness. Like I said I would definitely take 10 to start and would hope this would grow as time goes on. If u have any info at all, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance

ria2011

Hi irishmob!
I see nobody has replied to your thread and I hope it's not too late to help you out. I actually spotted on donedeals.ie an ad from a lady in Cork called Jennifer Colbert ( Phone: 023 8855591) only last night. I emailed her and she replied at once. She gets 700-750 ex-battery hens every few months and she rehomes them to anyone who gets in touch with her. She charges a fee of €4 per hen as she has to pay the hen place and whatever other costs I suppose she has for keeping them until they are collected.
I'm hoping to adopt a few in September when I'm back from my honeymoon and living in my new house!
Good luck, and if you go ahead please post up a few pictures for us!
Ria

sligopark

How are these hens free range post battery life?

EGAR

Speaking from own experience they often need alot of time to adjust, they don't know how to roost, have never been able to scratch the ground etc. Some react shocked and take a long time to learn to be a normal chicken, others take to it like they never were in a cage.

One of mine tried to roost and kept falling off so I gave her a cardboard box and she sat on the edges of the low box until she found her balance.

They often have the tip of the upper beak *tweaked* and can have trouble with some foods.

If you want to tempt them to try out different food then cook spaghetti for them and dangle it in front of them but watch your fingers .

It's well worth the effort. Also, make sure your rescued hens will have no artificial light in the winter or you shorten their life expectancy as they will keep laying eggs with the artificial light on.

EGAR

You can see the tweaked upper beak. They were in a run at first until they *found their feet*.

saoirsetom

i would love to adopt a few battery hens to give them a good life in my garden, i have a few hens and bandoms that i let roam around during the day love to watch them do as they please. but i'm in laois wont be in cork if anybody knows anywhere else in midlands that battery hens need rehoming

byhookorbycrook

The correct term is "de-beaked". Ex-Battery hens need warmer beds than their friends who have always been "out"

jap gt

how old do these hens be when the are of no more use to the farmer

sotisme

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055626371&page=52

EGAR

jap gt wrote: »

how old do these hens be when the are of no more use to the farmer

I don't know how old mine were but I've got them for about 2 years now and they are going strong .

carraghsgem

http://www.irishfowl.com/talk/topic-9709.html?c=9