We picked up 10 ex-batts at the end of March this year. They had some bare bellies, wings or necks but overall not as bad as on some photoghraphs on the internet. We paid £5 per bird.
2 passed away in the summer, and one around Halloween. The others are thriving and all bar one are laying nearly every day (the one who doesn't, doesn't lay at all). We don't cull non-layers.
There were a number of soft shelled and shell-less eggs in the first few weeks, and runny egg whites, but they all improved.
All hens grew feathers during spring / summer and egg production dropped then, but the egg numbers are up again now despite decrease in daylight. One hen has been laying thin shelled eggs for about 2 months now (she's the only one who didn't grew feathers until late summer, and her eggs have been thin shelled ever since - might be an uberlong moult
).
They were wary of cats, dogs and people when they arrived, and it took 2 weeks before they'd eat corn from my hand. After that they became tame quite quickly. This summer they were sitting on my lap and shoulder, trying to eat my glasses and wondering if a laptop is edible.
They're in a fox-proof run. One of them is a right curtain-twitcher - as soon as she hears something, she's up on the pallets that line the run to keep an eye on what's going on
IMO, buying ex-batts through the BHWT or a similar organisation doesn't support the industry at all as the farmer doesn't get paid - though buying the hens directly from a farmer does give him tax-free pocket money.
I'm planning on having some Cream Legbars next year just for the colour of the eggs, but will have ex-batts again.
