If you've read Rosie's post about the weekend you'll know we went to get a "kennel", which was actually a chicken coop.

We'd been thinking about getting some hens, and decided to give some ex-battery hens a new home. The advice was there was a long waiting list and to get our name on it, only to read a couple of days later that there were 7,000 hens being disposed of on the 27th May by a farmer in Lincs. and that homes, transport, etc. were desperately needed. So from no rush to get things sorted it needed doing NOW!! Hence our trip to go and collect our chicken coop on Saturday.


Ain't Nobody Here (not even us chickens)

Yesterday morning it was a trip over to the farm to collect the six hens we'd said we would take and about 120 more to transport to a distribution point; I was told they'd go in my car no problem. They went in but it was close!! The car was chockablock (or should that be choockablock) with boxes containing 5 hens for the most part, and some smaller ones with three in. Putting hens in the boxes was done efficiently and expertly - if unceremoniously - by a a few people that had done this before and the rest of us there loaded cars and vans.

It was my first look inside a battery farm - not good. The hens never see daylight, it's noisy and it's hot, and the size of the cages mean that the hens can not move. And once they stop laying they are starved for a few days so there is no food in their crop (why spend money on an animal that's not going to make you any?), then if they are not rescued they are slaughtered. To me there are many similarities between battery hens and greyhounds in the racing industry.

Me and a 120 chickens set off up the A1 to a lady called Jackie who had kindly agreed that her house could be a distribution point for three other people. When I got there Jackie, Greta and I unloaded the car and unpacked the hens that were staying with them (Greta was to move hers that evening).


First taste of freedom

Some of those awaiting their onward journey were inquisitive about what was going on.



Where are we?

Heather turned up to collect her 24, then Darren for his 50. I'm sure they are all going to be well looked after; Darren's certainly are - he has 9 acres for them for range in; as are Jackie's - she has turned the bottom of her garden into an activity centre for hers.

All done up north me and my six headed home; Jackie had kindly loaned me a poultry crate so they were more comfortable on the journey - many thanks to her for that.

Once they were in the run and seemed OK The Beastly Beasts were introduced to the hens. Reactions ranged from indifference - Kai and Rosie, through "nice but so what" - Troy, Jack and Lucy (after some initial interest), to great excitement - Monty and Mack.


Troy and hens

The hens seemed totally unfazed by it all, and rather than being scared of the dogs if a nose got to close it was fair game for a peck - good on 'em.

Of course there was food and water waiting for them and they all made good use of the feeder - they were probably starving.


Food glorious food

I was amazed how well the hens took everything in their stride; they had just had once hell of a day: taken from the only place they knew (bad as it was), stuffed into boxes, in the car for three hours (and they had never known anything that moved), plonked in a place that was open (the first time they'd had more room that the width of their body) and introduced to seven dogs. When they first went into the coop they seemed amazed that they could move around, but within minutes they were doing chickeny type things.


Taking in the big wide world

Bed time presented a challenge; the hens had no idea that their bedroom was upstairs. So rather than try and force them up the ramp I decided to take the end off the run, reach in and grab them one by one then put them into the coop. No need to reach in - they were very interested in the outside world and stepped out of the run which made it easy to pick them up and pop them upstairs. However, it soon became obvious that putting them upstairs was best done via the nest box as with the coop side open it simply presented a better view of the world.


Good view from here

All safely ensconced I risked taking a peek. I had been told they would not know how to perch but some of them had obviously been reading the manual as they quite happily sat on the perch.


In bed

This morning I let down the ladder and gave them a few minutes to see if they'd venture down, but none wanted to - can't say I blame them, the weather wasn't best, so I gently chivvied them down the ramp in the hope they'll get the idea that it connects coop and run. On opening the coop I found three eggs, one still warm from laying and one with a very thin shell.

Yesterday was an interesting day and one that was very worthwhile. It was great to meet the people doing the actual rescue - huge thanks must go to them for sorting it. Thanks also to Jackie for letting her front room become a waiting room for a while. I believe that around 2,000 hens were rescued - the rest will no doubt suffer the normal fate. But to put things into context, until today I believe a large rescue was around 100 (someone correct me if I'm wrong), so this may well have been the single largest rescue to date; in any case, it was good to be a small part of it.