I cried today....

[Lisasbolt]

They will soon turn around and look very healthy, especially with your love and attention. This why i want and have keep my own ladies for a few years now and hopefully will again soon. I will try my best not to eat anything from where i know the animal has been kept, the cruel conditions these poor animals are kept in horrify me. Again i try not to drink milk and try to get as much cheese from my local farmers that i know treat their animals well.
P.s if anyone wants to try we use Koko fake milk and it works the best out of all the fake ones.
I think the whole world would be different if we treat everything with love and respect, for example i know my chickens lay a lot better when happy.

[Lumpy]

And today we have the most pretty little chucky egg I have ever seen. Now waiting to see if another one appears so we can have one each.

[vixylix]

well done Lumpy - I'd have cried too! But at least it is now less endemic than it once was, and people like you can at least give some of them happy and healthy homes. As soon as I have the space I will be doing the same!

I only buy free range eggs (although do doubt sometimes how you know they definitely are free range) and buy chicken from the butchers - which I hope is more free range, although you never know. Its hard though when the price differential is so massive!

[Lumpy]

It is a shame that there is such a price difference but most people can only buy what they can afford. It's not a problem for us as we don't eat meat but I have nothing but sympathy for anybody on a tight budget.

NEWS FLASH - 3 eggs although I put my fingers through 1 of them.

We decided that if we got 2 eggs a sandwich would be made with them - the eater of which would get the honour on the flip of a coin. I will get my butty tomorrow.

[Jay22]

Means he can be your food tester Lumpy!

[Hans Mum]

Well done for adopting them mine were like yours when I first got them & there was snow on the ground so I did worry about them.......but within a few days they were proper chickens, scratting around, knowing when food was coming....and they had a marvelous life they spend their days sunbathing and wrecking my garden :-) my best (&worse) memory is about 4 years after I got them one died I'd spotted her sunbathing earlier in the day and fed her (she was showing signs of old age by then) by mid afternoon she'd gone to the big run in the sky but what a way to go full tummy and sun on her back. (PS if you want some chicken jackets which I had knitted PM me)

[Lumpy]

Thank you for the kind offer HM but Gertie, who only has a few feathers seems to have worked out that she can eat and drink and then go back into the house and snuggle in a nest box so she warms up. She has now taught Maud to do the same and it is brilliant watching them troop up and down together at regular intervals.

[Verinda]

My exbatts looked the same except they were all dirty too. It's a wonderful thing to give them a good home, they are lucky to have you caring for them and it's very rewarding too, they'll be all lovely and feathery in no time

[Ryleh]

Simultaneously sad and happy to read this.

Sad of course that they had such a poor start to life but very happy they now have someone to care for them properly and treat them well.

[Lumpy]

I had an interesting morning doing something I never dreamed of - chicken shuffling!

Elsie (photo yet to be taken) is much large than the 2 'oven readies' and has about 85% of her feathers seem to think that the 3 feed and water bowls belong to her so keeps attacking the baldies who try and eat.

So, in an attempt at trying to teach her to play fair I have been letting them together and then separating Elsie, the non stop eater from the others so they can get at the food.

So far today Elsie has spent time on her own in the house (she did lay an egg whilst confined), the small run and the playground. Except for the house there is food, water and grit. Once the baldies seem to finish eating etc they are allowed back together. I must admit Elsie is not being quite so vicious to the others.

Maud and Gert then go up into the house to warm up or investigate the henny play park .

Oh and 3 eggs today.

Considering the state they are in they are amazing little creatures.

[Chris11]

Lovely updates Lumpy.
Agree with others about the sad start and happy ending.

Chickens are indeed amazing creatures, although sadly those amazing talents have made them all too exploited in poor conditions for unnecessarily cruel factory farming and egg production all over the world.

All birds are living dinosaur descendants, and when some T-rex fossil soft tissue proteins were extracted and analysed it was shown they were closely related to chickens.

[Gillykat]

Awww bless you for giving these gorgeous birds a new home


I'm hoping to persuade Neil to let me have two/three chickens in a year or two once we get the allotment sorted. He's pretty good at woodwork so can make an enclosure & sleeping area etc to keep them safe at night but I think during the day they would just have free range over the plot

[Jay22]

How are the girlies doing Lumpy?

[Bill HH]

I would just like you all to know that i kept free range poultry for 20 years and that birds ending their laying cycle will lose feathers, whether battery or free range.

[4390evans]

Oh god! Why are they bald?
I stayed off eggs for a year when I went fully vegan but have started having a few lately, I think this has put me back off them.
I thought as a farmer you would look at your stock and think oh that one is loosing its feathers, Ill take it to the vets. Obviously not.
Well at least you have took 3 out of the hell hole that has been their home for god knows how long. x