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Rescue hens
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I'm feeding mine the crushed up shells of her own eggs*.
Not that she really needs it, my lot are fully free range in the true sense of the word, so they spend their day pecking at anything and everything, tiny stones included. You should see their crops when it's bedtime! 
*As a supplement, I mean, not as their only sustenance.
We ALWAYS roasted / baked the shells first as if they get a taste for raw eggs the only thing they are fit for is the pot.. :eek:0 -
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This is brilliant, I'm so proud of the three girls. They've already designated a spot for scratching and are running around with muddy feet pecking. One of them is eating grass. One runs over when I open the gate. They've been exploring up there, you can see traces of them checking the place out. They put themselves to bed tonight at about 9. I had gone up earlier but they were having a grand time still pecking about so I left them out.
We got 7 eggs over the past 2 days.
I have one of those hanging feeders for them. With the rain the food that is there is damp. Should I be hanging the feeder under cover? I assume damp food wouldn't be great?
One of my dogs scared the life out of them (and my husband) today. I was away, he let the dog out. Dog thundered up like a demon barking. Chickens had a fit and mr w thought dog had managed to get in at them. I hope it didn't do them any harm. Although like I mentioned, perfectly happy when I got back. So at the moment my main worry is the dog. He's great, I love him but His prey drive is mega and all his training switches off. He's never offlead when off our land because it's genuinely like he doesn't hear us once he's excited. At almost 10 yrs old, consistently working on it (he used to be so much worse) I can't see it changing so I'm considering sowing veggies around the coop and fencing them off. So it'll be a protective fence of food 0 -
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your girls sound great! yes do hang feeder undercover, I found even with the rain hat food will get wet and damp and pellets will just stick together , ref your dog, when I got my girls couple of years ago, my biggest worry was my terrier, (aged 9 then) as he's pry drive is huge, from rats mice crows rabbits, magpies , but I wanted the girls to free range and not have to lock him in, so what I done was harness and two leads, one tied around my waist. other to harness. and anything I done with girls, cleaning out pen, collecting eggs, changing water and feed, sitting down and girls coming over to eat out of hand, each time the girls got a treat so did he, not making a fuss if he looked of sniffed at them, just gentle encouragement, girls started to get used to him and vise versa, after about three weeks, leads off, both girls and Tobs happy enough to co own the garden, roll on now, and he still chases rabbits, crows and the rest, running in between the girls to get to them, girls don't even look now,This is brilliant, I'm so proud of the three girls. They've already designated a spot for scratching and are running around with muddy feet pecking. One of them is eating grass. One runs over when I open the gate. They've been exploring up there, you can see traces of them checking the place out. They put themselves to bed tonight at about 9. I had gone up earlier but they were having a grand time still pecking about so I left them out.
We got 7 eggs over the past 2 days.
I have one of those hanging feeders for them. With the rain the food that is there is damp. Should I be hanging the feeder under cover? I assume damp food wouldn't be great?
One of my dogs scared the life out of them (and my husband) today. I was away, he let the dog out. Dog thundered up like a demon barking. Chickens had a fit and mr w thought dog had managed to get in at them. I hope it didn't do them any harm. Although like I mentioned, perfectly happy when I got back. So at the moment my main worry is the dog. He's great, I love him but His prey drive is mega and all his training switches off. He's never offlead when off our land because it's genuinely like he doesn't hear us once he's excited. At almost 10 yrs old, consistently working on it (he used to be so much worse) I can't see it changing so I'm considering sowing veggies around the coop and fencing them off. So it'll be a protective fence of food when he has a bone the girls will walk up and try to take it from him, so up on the deck he goes,where girls are not allowed! so funny when I call girls in for evening treat, and he's leading them with girls running behind , then he goes back to see if any had not heard, finds them and herds them in. word of caution, hens are addicted! before you know it you'll be adding to your flock :eek:, have fun and enjoy watching your girls learn how to live a more natural life. sorry for long post! 0 -
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Do they always peck at feet? I'd love to have hens out in the garden during the day, but not if they peck at children's bare feet, which I have seen my friend's rescue hens do.
Well small toes do look like.... worm! Pink and wriggling!
And they are very destructive of gardens if not confined. Not as bad as ducks...and peacocks..
On the North Sea island i realised I was going to have to cage the livestock OR cage my vegetables so I invested in a fruit cage .. took it down every autumn as the gales bent the metal poles... :eek:0 -
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Here we have a pen which the previous owner used to raise pheasants for release in. So its like Fort Knox. 4 sides of those construction fences, dug into the ground, lined with chicken wire with very small holes. Then a roof of wire netting. I *think* it's safe.
And there are three dogs on the land, although all in at night two are barkers.
They're fab little things. Funnily even my husband, who isn't an animal person, is enjoying them too. "Finally a useful pet" he said (conveniently forgetting the time big old dog stopped people breaking in) 0 -
We thought it was, it had barbed wire up at the top to stop anything climbing up and getting in by the pigeons' own entrance (not locked in, unlike hens) which is one reason we are sure it wasn't a fox. Whatever it was seems to have climbed up a nearby tree and jumped onto the shelf at the birds' entrance and got in that way. It even took the eggs, not a speck of them left.
I didn't really want any more pigeons or birds at all after that, but now I find I'm still tempted by free range hens, I saw some pottering around a garden the other day when I was out walking the dog and it looked idyllic.
(If it's not indiscreet, where as the North Sea Island you mention - Germany?)
No off the top of Scotland! Abundant isles up there...Been longing to return to island life so here I am!
You need to totally enclose the hens. I know, a hassle.0 -
Here we have a pen which the previous owner used to raise pheasants for release in. So its like Fort Knox. 4 sides of those construction fences, dug into the ground, lined with chicken wire with very small holes. Then a roof of wire netting. I *think* it's safe.
And there are three dogs on the land, although all in at night two are barkers.
They're fab little things. Funnily even my husband, who isn't an animal person, is enjoying them too. "Finally a useful pet" he said (conveniently forgetting the time big old dog stopped people breaking in)
Sounds perfect. 0 -
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Here we have a pen which the previous owner used to raise pheasants for release in. So its like Fort Knox. 4 sides of those construction fences, dug into the ground, lined with chicken wire with very small holes. Then a roof of wire netting. I *think* it's safe.
And there are three dogs on the land, although all in at night two are barkers.
They're fab little things. Funnily even my husband, who isn't an animal person, is enjoying them too. "Finally a useful pet" he said (conveniently forgetting the time big old dog stopped people breaking in)
Are they laying well? longing for the first egg here 0 -
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Laying very well so far. Consistently 3 eggs every day. Although they're not using boxes. Just laying in their sleeping area. I'd imagine there might be a slow down for a little while?
There are pine martens around here. They used to try get into the pen when there were pheasants, apparently he never lost one. But it does beg the question, what exactly is a "free range hen". For example the pen I have is maybe 3/4 the size of the back garden in my old house. But they are still penned in. I'm not sure if I should be aiming to have the wholly free range in time or if they're going to be happy enough in there.
Edit: dropping out of trees
there are trees overhanging the run. Feck. Hope the net roof will work. 0 -
A free range hen is one that can do just that - free range. "Access to grass" seems to be the commercial egg producers phrase to sell their "Free Range Eggs". I have no idea of the quality of life those hens have, hopefully better than their poor Battery Hen relatives.
When we started having hens here, they were always kept in a medium sized penned run - about 15ftx15ft. Then they went free range - out on a couple of acres, put in coops at night. Then there was a fox incident, so it was back into the penned area, but we opened their run into a disused vegetable garden - about 90ft x 90ft - the veg garden was so huge they couldnt impact the amount of vegetation in there (around 6 hens usually) so lots of greenery.
I never could tell/detect a difference in the quality of the eggs we got from those 3 stages of their runs. My hens get kitchen scraps, mixed grain, organic or very high quality pellets or mash, and their free-range diet.
My neighbour - 99 years old - has kept approx 24 hens in a run for decades. There isnt a blade of grass/weed in there, probably no insect life either! Just bare earth. My friend says the eggs from these hens are NOT good - Ive had them, and can detect no difference.
Im either not very discerning, or there isnt that much difference in the quality of egg produced - any opinions?
(The only difference I can detect is that hens that are penned are MAD to get out. Those who are free range if ever penned, never seem to settle very well, and spend a lot of time pacing at the gate. )0 -
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A free range hen is one that can do just that - free range. "Access to grass" seems to be the commercial egg producers phrase to sell their "Free Range Eggs". I have no idea of the quality of life those hens have, hopefully better than their poor Battery Hen relatives.
When we started having hens here, they were always kept in a medium sized penned run - about 15ftx15ft. Then they went free range - out on a couple of acres, put in coops at night. Then there was a fox incident, so it was back into the penned area, but we opened their run into a disused vegetable garden - about 90ft x 90ft - the veg garden was so huge they couldnt impact the amount of vegetation in there (around 6 hens usually) so lots of greenery.
I never could tell/detect a difference in the quality of the eggs we got from those 3 stages of their runs. My hens get kitchen scraps, mixed grain, organic or very high quality pellets or mash, and their free-range diet.
My neighbour - 99 years old - has kept approx 24 hens in a run for decades. There isnt a blade of grass/weed in there, probably no insect life either! Just bare earth. My friend says the eggs from these hens are NOT good - Ive had them, and can detect no difference.
Im either not very discerning, or there isnt that much difference in the quality of egg produced - any opinions?
(The only difference I can detect is that hens that are penned are MAD to get out. Those who are free range if ever penned, never seem to settle very well, and spend a lot of time pacing at the gate. )
Interesting. I can tell the difference which surprised me. On supermarketl cheapest then a neighbour gave me some free range and the difference.
Lately I have been getting "mixed size" from supervalu and they taste like free range. They also have a fair proportion of double yolks . They may be size rejects from a local producer.
The shop eggs we had on the North Sea island when our hens were off lay were dreadful. They kept them in an old mushroom place wiith no grass or natural light and the yokes were white.0 -
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