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As an aside, the charge for a hen from these 3 rehoming groups seems to be from £2.50 - £5. I don't know what the difference is between them.
If you have a commercial egg producer nearby, you may be able to buy a few direct from them. Just another option to give these chooks a chance to see out their days in comfort.
What condition are they normally in? My 2.5 year old daughter is pretty tough but i wouldn't want to commit to taking some on if they would be distressing for her to look at / live with. (Crikey i sound overly protective!)
My four hens had bald patches, and very sad and grubby when I got them in Sept 2013, it has been a joy to give them a home and freedom and to see them growing feathers and turning into beautiful hens each with a different personality. We've only had two outbreaks of mites but I think that's par for the course anyway. Two died recently and I miss them a lot.
This is a picture of Maggie when she first arrived...aww!
Just to add they are normally wormed and treated for mites etc before they are sold.
They normally look bedraggled and bald (oven ready) This is mainly because they are in molt and not because of the conditions they've been kept in. They soon feather up ok but depending on the time of year may need kept inside until there feathers grow.
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)
I'm not very experienced with hens but mine have not looked remotely like that again, even when molting. Their feathers (what was left of them) were so dirty.
Personally I do think it was the conditions when were kept in that caused them to look so bad.
Looking at the BHWT dates there is one near me on a day that i can do. I've looked on their website however and they recommend that as i have 4 chooks currently, that i should have at least 6 ex-bats as they recommend introducing a greater number than the current flock?!?! That seems a bit extreme and is really more than i had wanted to take on. What are your views on that? I had preferably only wanted 2 or 3 more.
We have a lot of land for them to free range in, but once integrated, only a 2.4m x 4.8m enclosed run when we're not at home. 10 in that space seems a bit much!
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