Taking on rescued battery chickens with cut beaks.

by Primeacres.

Price Guide : Approx £1.50-£5 + Your Time and effort - see results within 2 weeks
Until recently we kept three chickens ourselves and all of different breeds. A Silver Grey Dorking, a Black and White Excheque and a French, Copper Blue Maran.
We bought these 3 chickens from a local breeder, and only the Silver Grey Dorking was just past point of lay, infact, she layed her first egg for us, outside on her first day. All three chickens settled well, had plenty of space, were not caged in AT ALL, and all three actually got on well together. They had a hard time, dealing with threats from foxes, badgers and Buzzards during the winter. (Yes, Buzzards are a threat to chickens when rabbits and other food sources are scarece, especially in winter time, we have seen it first hand and our Silver Grey was actually 'captured and carried away' by a group of Buzzards but luckily she was dropped and managed to survive.)

 

 

Anyway, onto the rescued battery chicken story.
Six months after having our 3 lovely chickens, we moved home, took our chickens with us of course and made them a new Hen house, they settled well and quickly, still not caged in and still with plenty of space.

We decided to bring some more chickens into the pen, and opted for two Warrens, unbeknown at the time of looking at the hens on offer, we had no idea that the two Warrens had actually been bought or rescued from certain death and probably being used as junk food filling, from a battery chicken farm and had been given refuge at our local smallholding.

On first look, the ex battery hens looked ok, a bit weathered but alright, it was only when we picked the chickens up that we noticed both chickens had the front part of their beaks missing and that their feathers were a bit tatty, Wilma especially.

We had never seen this before and after some research, we discovered that it is common for battery hen 'keepers', to actually authorise the cutting  off of the ends of the beaks by method of using a hot blade, battery chicken keepers do this apparently 'to stop them fighting' and hurting each other when locked up in a small cage with no space, hardly any light, a conveyer belt to supply food and nowhere to perch or sleep while they lay their eggs for production and 24/7. Warrens are prolific egg layers as well.

Now then, the interesting part. As anyone familiar with chickens will tell you, a saved battery hen, initially, will lay poor eggs of poor shell colour and low protein in the yolk, the hen will be in a poor state of course, and even without the beak cutting scenario, a battery hen will not be too good after retiring or being rescued from the modern battery hen work environment.

First day for us, and our two 'saved' Warrens,  who we named Wilma and Winnie, was sad, both chickens were lethargic, both were under nourished and Wilma wanted to sleep all the time, standing up, sitting down, eating, even walking she would suddenly stop and go to sleep. Winnie was in much better health but only becaause she had been at the smallholding a lot longer than Winnie. Winnie also helped Wilma groom herself and she even pecked the blocked nasal area of her beak to help her clear the food and earth from her nasal passage as she was struggling to keep it clear herself.
Cutting the ends of a chickens beak away, actually hinders a chicken while it eats, grooms and cleans itself and of course hinders drinking, cleaning and eating as the angle of eating and drinking has to be adjusted to cater for the lack of beak end. It makes a big difference to the chicken and looks just downright abnormal.

 

Back to our three original chickens, Maisey the Maran, Ellie the Exchequer and Dolly the Dorking. They all were completely shocked to see the two new arrivals in the garden and the first thing they did was keep their distance from us and the two new chickens. The first thing the two new arrivals did was hog the food bowl together and eat, non stop for about three hours. Maisey went over to say hello and was promptly given the sign to go away by Wilma who as weak as she was , was noway going to let this big chicken muscle in on her food.

Our three original ladies are tough cookies but prime and very healthy chickens, and we were shocked at the differences between these and the two new Warrens. The three Amigos have all slept perched in trees outside, naturally of their own accord, even after having slept forweeks in their own henhouse, they all lay lovely tasting eggs,they have always been given space to roam as they please and they enjoy nothing better than finding their own food from scratching undergrowth for natural food sources like worms, bugs and any other insect you care to mention.

They are fully alert, healthy chickens, hard to catch and we call them the Three Amigos because they are so tight and close a unit together after having lived together on strange territory from day one, having watched each others backs and having survived a severe Buzzard attack, they are buddies,  trust each other and they never fight with each other.

Though a sad awakening for my Wife and I as to how people will actually treat chickens when keeping them, generally the two Warrens perked up, settled into their new environment and showed their true personality quickly plus were not afraid to get close to us and were constantly at our feet, they are friendly, intelligent, passive and can eat like horses. Warrens don't have much meat on them so they are not ideal table birds for dinner (we keep our chickens for eggs only) but can eat a huge amount of food for their size because they expend most of their energy on egg laying and can lay 200 + eggs each a year. Hence why battery chicken keepers will use them.
First day they showed no signs of scratching as they hogged the food bowl as if it was their last ever meal and of course because they were in new surroundings and spotted by the three tough Amigos. Their old, temporary smallholding surroundings was grassless and offered not much in the way of scratching potential for natural food so they were used to the food bowl as the main source of food.
Eggs layed 1st day. Wilma, the weakest of the two new Warrens, laid an egg the first day. We had no idea what colour the egg was meant to be, but it just didn't look right in colour. The shell was muted and looked dusty / dirty, we just knew it wasn't right. Placed in the fridge, we waited untill she layed another, which was a few days later, this one was slighty better, she was doing ok.

The next egg was better again and now two weeks later she is laying eggs almost as fully coloured as Winnie does. Winnie by the way has been constantly laying since day two with us and has never shown any signs of problems. Now we are waiting for Wilmas 5th egg and this one wil tell us just how good she is inside. Physically and mentally she has perked up tenfold, her constant sleeping is nearly over and she now has a real spring in her step and her alertness has risen massively, where as before she would be slow and not bothered about what was going on around her, now she doesn't miss a trick and is nearly always first to the food bowl even if she does get a peck or two from the 3 Amigos.

Both the Warrens now sleep upstairs in the henhouse on the perch where as initially they would both sleep in the same box used for egg laying underneath the sleeping or perching area. Infact the sleeping arangement has changed completely, with the two Warrens no front of house with Maisey the perch hogger now at back of house and all shuffling and squarking at bedtime, finally abating to a few minutes instead of nearly half an hour.

We know both these chickens will be fine with us and our other chucks, they are all getting on well and in two weeks we have seen a huge change in Wilma and Winnie the two Ex battery hens. They are great to have around and lay eggs similar in size to the Maran who is much larger in body size. To say we are happy with them is an understatement and we look forward to the next egg from Wilma who we are sure will make a full recovery both mentally and physically.

 

 

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So if you are looking for that something different, an inexpensive smallholding in a not too far away place, Croatia may be just what you are looking for, and being just a 2 hour flight away from London, your family and friends can easily pop over for a visit, preferably around harvest time.

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