[Shnoowie]

We have had our warrens for a couple of months now; we bought them as point-of-lay and they have been laying lovely little eggs.  We decided that instead of getting another three, we would re-home some ex-battery hens.  Yesterday, Ginger, Miss Babs and Edwina arrived to join Margo, Barbara and Mrs Dooms-Patterson.
We have split the patch in two to keep the batteries safe; they have our old duck house which is perfect as there is no ramp for them to walk up.  This morning we came down to 3 eggs from our 'original' girls, and 3 very large eggs from out ex-bats. 
When they arrived they had really pale combs and legs, and today you can just see the colour coming into their combs.  Their combs are very big and flop down to one side - will they ever stand up like our other hens'?  Not worried if they don't, just glad they're out of their cages and in the fresh air!

Would really recommend taking on ex-battery hens...okay, so they're 50p more expensive than point of lay hens, and they may look a bit of a mess, but they still lay (though in our house it isn't necessary!) and they become tame very quickly! 

[doganjo]

50p more expensive?  That seems like very expensive ex batts or very cheap POLs to me.   I have had a number of ex-batts and the donation requested is usually about £1.50, whereas POLs up here are about £8 or more depending on breed.  I got my LS chicks at about 12 weeks fro £3 each.

[Helencus]

The suggested donation for the ex bats is £5 around here. It is very rewarding rescuing these girls I highly recommend it. Down side is they have supressed immune systems so can get poorly more easily in my experience but even a day out of the cage is a blessing for them.

[Hardfeather]

Gosh £5 is an awful lot for a partly spent hen. It's good that there are people willing to home ex bats, but a shame that there are also people wanting to take that sort of money. I think £5 a bird would put lots of people off.

I'm lucky here as there is a lady near me who keeps free-range hybrids and sells hers at one year old for £1 each. They aren't ex battery, right enough, but better value.

[Shnoowie]

Our POLs were £3.50 and the ex-bats were £4.00.  We feel that is totally justified as we got our bats through the Brisitsh Hen Welfare Trust http://www.bhwt.org.uk/, it is more of a donation to the charity than paying for the hens.  I think they took out around 5,000 hens last month, which is a lot! Ours only came out of the cage a few hours before we got them.
Helencus - ours are on some poultry spice as well was ex-bat food.  You can really see a difference in them compared to 'normal' hens, they do appear more frail.

[egbert]

My ex-bats came from the BHWT and were £5 each. One arrived in a right state and died 2 weeks ago having never laid an egg. The other 2 laid for the first week or so, then decided to give up and enjoy their retirement. I have not had an egg from them since April, although they have been through a moult and now look great. The two POLs I bought at the same time lay and egg a day - they live together so its not the conditions. So, I am completely put off ex-bats and am now trying to decide whether to give my 2 another month, or to find them a new home and replace with layers! 


What do you do with chickens that don't lay?

[Sandy]

I used to find the small Ex Batts with the floppy plumes looked like they had little hats on the side of thier head. ALl my Ex Batts are doing fine and not sure who is and who isn't laying...I know some are a bit fat!!!

[doganjo]

Our POLs were £3.50 and the ex-bats were £4.00.  We feel that is totally justified as we got our bats through the Brisitsh Hen Welfare Trust http://www.bhwt.org.uk/, it is more of a donation to the charity than paying for the hens.  I think they took out around 5,000 hens last month, which is a lot! Ours only came out of the cage a few hours before we got them.
Helencus - ours are on some poultry spice as well was ex-bat food.  You can really see a difference in them compared to 'normal' hens, they do appear more frail.

  Mine have all been from BHWT too and I only paid £1.50 each, although I gave them more - has the price risen suddenly?

[Roxy]

From Henrehomers, the minimum donation is £1.50 per hen.  It was £1 to begin with, but most people are happy to give more than the mimimum.

www.henrehomers.net

[little blue]

And the Henrehomers hens are great!

We paid £6 for our POLs (which weren't... we had them at 13 weeks, they didnt lay til 24 weeks!) a few years ago, they're around £8 now for hybrids

and in answer to the first question... their combs are quite floppy, some of ours have perked up in a year, but not all

[doganjo]

From Henrehomers, the minimum donation is £1.50 per hen.  It was £1 to begin with, but most people are happy to give more than the mimimum.

www.henrehomers.net

No collection points in Scotland unfortunately

[Shnoowie]

My ex-bats came from the BHWT and were £5 each. One arrived in a right state and died 2 weeks ago having never laid an egg. The other 2 laid for the first week or so, then decided to give up and enjoy their retirement. I have not had an egg from them since April, although they have been through a moult and now look great. The two POLs I bought at the same time lay and egg a day - they live together so its not the conditions. So, I am completely put off ex-bats and am now trying to decide whether to give my 2 another month, or to find them a new home and replace with layers!

We got ex-bats not because of their laying ability, but just to give them a better life.  If they stopped laying tomorrow, we wouldn't mind, because we've given them a better life!

[hughesy]

We got 8 ex bats about 9 months ago for nothing but gave the lady we got them from a donation as she re homes all sorts of animals. They've been fantastic layers all through last winter and are still going strong, though one of them dropped dead after a violent thunderstorm last week. We get 5 or 6 eggs every day and haven't had any health problems at all apart from the one that snuffed it.

[piggy]

Last summer we got some ex batts and they hardly layed at all,well what a different story this year they have gone laying mad.