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!