Today we picked up our 'new' ex-battery farm chickens!!!

[Stan79]

Tonight is the first night together. They've had two weeks getting used to each other and in the last couple of days have been let out together but have largely stayed in their seperate groups. Funnily enough, the new ones have been going into the others run instead of legging it around the garden. They haven't been roaming very far from there to be honest.

Tonight I let the original 4 go in to roost then added the 4 ex-batts into the coop by hand. I waited a while and it seemed quiet so i will be up early to see how they've got on!

I will try and get a couple of pics tomorrow. They don't look much different to be honest. The combs are the main thing, getting smaller and redder by the day. They're obviously cleaner than they were on day one but hard to see any massive difference in their feathers on a photo yet i reckon.

[Stan79]

Here we go, two pics from today! As I say, the main difference is to the combs.

[Bigmallly]

Let me introduce you to the Photorotator Stan..............

..........

[Stan79]

Here's Yellow from a couple of weeks ago looking much healthier. Her comb is still a bit floppy and pale but her feathers have come back nicely!

(And yes... The image is on its side again!!! Ridiculous system!!!!)

[Lisasbolt]

Yes looking a lot better, you wait till spring time, bet you see a big difference.

[Bill HH]

it ia a mistake to assume that the ones with most feathers are the better birds. They have probably laid a lot more eggs. If they can be made to molt they will come back as beautifull well feathered birds.

[janzbro]

The ones with missing feathers are more likely to have had them plucked out by running the gantlet of angry chickens to the outside/inside/nest boxes etc.

I would let nature take its course, they will need a little time to adapt to their new surroundings, space and new found freedom, but they soon will and their feathers will grow back.

The pecking order although nasty will soon end and the status quo will prevail.

when I got my 2 batch of rescues my current ones were merciless, ganging up on the new upstarts 2 or 3 to 1 but now the hierarchy has comepletely changed and most of the old girls are well down the line now

[Stan79]

Yey - 8 eggs today! So unless some of them laid more than one, they've all laid today!!!! So excited!

[bearded bloke]

chuffed for you bud my three are on strike, not had an egg for a week maybe they heard it was a holiday

[Scarlet]

Same here BB

[Stan79]

Oh dear

I won't mention the omelette that we had this evening then!

The recent milder weather seems to have suited them. We've averaged 5 a day for the last few days. We're off to the inlaws tomorrow so I'll be taking a few with us.

[bearded bloke]

Please do mention away bud, I'm properly happy that chook keeping has turned out so welll for you .... & of course your new chook family, keep on keeping on as we said in my youth

[Stan79]

Onion, bacon, mushroom and potato, 6 egg omelette with grilled grated, cheese on top!!! Yummy!