Information on these special hens
Your hens have been kept in cages around the size of A3 pieces of paper, they are not alone but with 4-6 others. They can have caged or slated floors. Those from caged floors will have extremely long nails.
Your hens, until their release haven't seen natural light, and quite often kept mostly in dim light to keep them calm and to stop them fighting under the stress.
LHR strongly recommends feeding ex battery hens Layers Mash for the first week at least. They would starve rather than eat pellets or corn simply because they don't associate it with food. Once eating well from their feeders start to introduce pellets or corn if that's what you prefer to feed them. If not they will be quite content eating layers mash for the rest of their lives.
Your hens will usually have some bald spots, and a small amount can be completely bald. This depends on which farm they are from, often freerange hens can come out balder than the battery hens. The difference usually is that the caged and barn hens have larger, paler, and floppy combs. They soon redden up, but their combs take longer to shrink down. It is believed that the combs are large due to the heat inside the farms, they release heat through them.
Once you get your hens home you will need to put them in their coop opening pop hole and allowing them into an enclosed penned area, or run until they adjust to their new surroundings. They will come across as very scatty and quite frightened of almost anything the first few days.
Please watch carefully that your hens are drinking this is very important, as they have different drinking systems in farms. Hens will not be used to drinking from bowls. Splashing water, and/or dipping beaks into bowl so they taste the water will get them drinking again.
After having them enclosed area with regular supply of fresh water and food for their first evening you will be able to let them out into pen or enclosed area. Allow them to freerange or into their larger run or area after roughly a week, be sure they are taking themselves back to hen house/coop at dusk first.
Continue supervision of your hens, follow the above sugar water recommendation if you feel one isn't doing as well as it should and contact us or your vet.
Your new hens are may to go off lay the first few weeks, but soon start laying again once settled. You should get regular eggs, especially if girls are on layers mash, or layers pellets. You can also add mixed corn to bulk out food.
You may find that the first few weeks they are clumsy with their eggs, they lay them anywhere and they are likely to stand on or peck at them. This phase will pass, and
they will lay in nest box like any other
hen.
If you find egg breaking continues past
the first few weeks then please refer to
> After you've rehomed < page
Layers mash recommended for first few weeks, until the hens have settled then you may introduce other forms of feed.
Your hens will soon forget they were ever in a battery/barn farm! They nest, scratch, and sunbathe like any other hen.
Mixing them with your original chickens
If you have a small flock, then putting new birds into coop at night is supposed to work. There will naturally be a little scuffle to assert the pecking order. Watch carefully the first few days to make sure nobody is getting seriously injured. If this is the case you may have to pen off the ex battery hens close by to allow a gentle introduction then allow them into a larger area so they can get away from each other.
With a larger flock you will need a separate
safety pen next to your original flock, to allow
gentle introduction.