plans for my hens

[sunflower]

Just thought I would give you an update on my plans for my ex bat hens.
I have ordered an eglu cube with an extended run. My cousin has paid for this, as she knows I long to keep hens!!! At first, the hens will have a convalesant house in the conservatory/potting shed, as they will be too weak to climb the ladder in the eglu cube. Until they get stronger,I can give them lots of TLC in there. I think I am collecting my hens sometime in March, so lots to prepare. We are also going to make a run out on the veggie plot where they can scratch the grass and soil to their hearts content. I am very excited and also nervous of my new venture. However, only those who try to achieve are truly living eh?
It seems like a new beginning for alot of people. Oola, with her allotment, my cousin with her two new rescue dogs, and my friend with her bee keeping. Anyone else out there trying something new this year ?

[Oola]

Wow sunflower, how exciting!!!!!! I knew I was chomping at the bit to get my hens. It's good that you can put them in a temporary (warmer) home, they'll probably need a little while to start growing their feathers if they're a bit baldy. Once they start eating a variety of foods you won't believe the difference in them. I was looking at a video of my hens from the week we got them - I couldn't believe how big, pale and floppy their combs were compared to now! They looked dreadful...but the change in them was just amazing, and in such a short space of time too. I would thoroughly encourage you to take pictures every week or so to track their progress, it's fascinating to look back on, believe me.

Don't be nervous, you'll be fine! Although dealing with chickeny illnesses was a big learning curve for us, we managed just fine. In fact, Pattie is not well at the moment so we're having to keep an eye on her...but once you start to recognise symptoms it's much easier to manage. You can always ALWAYS contact me if you have any queries, I'll be more than happy to help.

The only other bit of advice I can give you is to make sure you have plenty of spare egg boxes stacked up - with my 4 hens, last summer we were getting 3-4 eggs a day. That's around 3 and a half dozen eggs a week!

Good luck with it all, keep us posted won't you? Can you tell I'm already excited for you?!

[sunflower]

Ooh thanks so much Oola. Yes, I expect I will be asking all sorts of questions and picking your brains whenI get them.

[jazzactivist]

I think that it is really exciting too, sunflower, and look forward to posts about how you get on. My neighbour has one of those Eglu hen houses, but found that it was a tight squeeze for 4, so had to get another one. They now have one at each end of the enclosed night time run, and let them scratch around all over their's and their neighbours' gardens the rest of the time. My neighbours struggle to keep up with eating the eggs. I like these hens so much, and enjoy reading about Oola's so much, that I would like some of my own, but am not sure whether I will even have a garden at my next house. I once saw a hen house that someone had made in the shape of a rocket on a pole with a little ladder, and thought that I would ike to give it a go. Hopefully, I'll be more successful than with my hedgehog house! Good luck, sunflower. I bet you can't wait until March.

[Oola]

Here's a link to my brief vid of the girls when we first got them - rubbish quality and a bit too dark but you get the idea!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkJOhFk-QgQ

[sheddie]

Looked at your video Oola how interesting, do you sell your eggs from your house? X

[sunflower]

Hi Jazzactivist, The henhouse I'm getting is the largest one. The cube. This can comfortably house up to ten hens!! So I think there should be enough room for three......as long as I stop at three!

[Oola]

sheddie, in autumn and winter we just sell the eggs to my mum, who either keeps them (she insists on paying) or sells them to her neighbours. In summer when we have loads of eggs they get sold from outside my mum's friend's house in a village near here. Her house is ideally situated for passing traffic and she sells her own veg out there. We sold loads of eggs and my charlotte potatoes that I grew. Last year an old boy would regularly come and buy up our eggs, which was really nice to know.
I did try selling them outside our house, but it kept raining, so I took the stall in and gave up! I might try again this year but we get a lot of school kids walking past. I worry that they'd see it as an opportunity to lob eggs around.

sunflower, sounds like your hens will have loads of space! Our house is good for perching, but if they're not let out just after sunrise they get a bit wound up because there's not much space to walk around inside. Hopefully we'll be able to move them into a shed or something in the near future. Yours are going to be some very lucky little brown hens :)

[sunflower]

Well, here I am really excited, waiting for the delivery of my eglu Cube with extended run today!!. However, I have to go to work at 12.noon, so hopefully, one of my son's will hear the knock at the door. Yesterday, Hubby started building the convalesent henhouse which they will live in until stronger.
Keep changing my mind about the names. Last week they were Poppy, Tulip and Rose. This week it's Tansy, Dulcie and Suki.LOL
The hens will be collected in a few weeks time on the next rescue day.

[sunflower]

Hi Oola, and everyone, just a quick line to say my hens can be collected on the 15th of March....so very excited. !

[Oola]

OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo

You should get a blog up and running for them...that way you can track their progress, a great insight for anyone else thinking of getting rescue hens. Good luck!

[SheepyJames]

I'm taking the plunge and going free-range again - with some trepidation.

At the moment my hens are in a large, completely enclosed wire run about 20 ft x 10ft. We did this when I was still working full time and after several massacres.

The plan is to move them into an area of the orchard and basically hope for the best. I will keep the run for emergencies and for the winter months when the days are very short and the foxes get hungrier! They will have a better quality of life but will be much more vulnerable. It's such a difficult balance, isn't it?

[Oola]

Have you thought about getting some electric fencing to go around the orchard, or is that a no-no? I've also heard that marking territories with human hair and men's pee is a good way to encourage foxes to stay away. People will laugh but when we first got the hens, I got Rich to go and piddle around the henhouse (couldn't see myself doing it somehow). It was in the dark of course!!!!!

[SheepyJames]

I've tried just about everything over the years, Oola! Electric fence will be my fall back position, together with my shotgun!!

[sunflower]

Oh that's exciting SheepyJames. I have just bought a foxwatch. This one only sends out the signal when the fox comes near the hens. It has a radius of up to 1,3oo sq.ft. According to the company, the fox gets to associate the noise with their own presence, unlike the others which send out a high pitch sound every 8 secs. Therefore, the fox dos not associate the noise with it's own movements and can overcome the sound to get his prey. Of course, this is all theory for me at the moment.

[sunflower]

Hi Oola, if I have time, when I get the hens, was thinking of writing a blog perhaps once a week...but with a difference. Write it as if the hens were blogging.lol

[sunflower]

The latest update. We have completed the henhouse and run in the conservatory. This is just for ten days until the hens are stronger. We decided in the end to use the eglu cube but without the wheels and built a temp. run around this. I thought that changing the house after ten days would be too traumatic for them. Although the temp. run is a third of the size of the perm. run, it will still feel spacious for hens who have only known a cage. The rescue date coincides with the start of my holidays. So my plan is to spend as much time as possible with the hens including lots of handling so they will become tame. Today we also bought he layers mash and hemcore for bedding. On Wednesday other stuff arrives like the mixed chicken grit, Bokashi bran, red mite powder and a special eco friendly disinfectant to wash out the eglu cube each week. Very exciting.

[Oola]

Hi sunflower, seems that you're well prepared.

You'll probably find that the hens are quite tame anyway, as they're used to humans being around. They're also very adaptable so they only need a few days of routine before they get the jist of it! When I got mine, I tried to encourage them to get used to going in and up to perch, as they would just bed down in a comfortable spot for the night.

It also might be worth setting aside a separate box for them to go into to get used to laying somewhere - I think the instinct to lay in a dark, quiet place with a nest is strong, as I found that after a few days, mine were laying in their makeshift nestbox (cat carrier with loads of straw) consistently. You have to be quite quick to take the eggs away though, as they've never been able to sit on them and might start getting broody. It does depend on the hens though!

With transferring them outside, I would also advise you to make sure they don't go out on a windy day. Ours aren't fond of the wind at all, sometimes they get a little 'spooked' by the really big gusts, so they either shelter under a hedge or trundle into the greenhouse where they have straw and somewhere nice to go and sit and eat. As long as they don't get damp they'll be ok though.

The bits and pieces you have arriving are all great - red mite is a pain in the bum so the quicker you can get on top of it the better. Another thing I would suggest you get is something called Avipro - it's basically like a pro and pre-biotic powder that you can put in their drinking water or directly onto their layers mash (or I make them up a wet layers mash like a porridge and mix it into that, they seem to adore the wet mash). It'll help their transition to free range and coping with all the new bugs and dirt in the garden, so their immune systems will be boosted.

http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=31

The website rattles on about reptiles, but it's widely used for poultry that are on antibiotics, stressed or a bit low and in need of a boost. We got ours from our vet but you can pay Vetark Avipro Plus online too.

Good luck - the blog sounds like it'll be great and I can't wait to see the pictures! xxxx

[Oola]

By the way, if you need help setting up a blog just let me know and I'll be happy to help x

[sunflower]

Thanks Oola for your reply and helpful advice. The cube has a lovely nesting box, and as they are going into that straight away, that should be fine. I nearly bought apple cidar vinigar yesterday to keep internal infections away, but the bottle..or container was so darn big I thought I'd wait until I see a smaller container.
I will definately need help setting up the blog...probably the photo side of things. So your help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[sunflower]

Not long now until the 15th March when we collect our little flock of hens and they will finally be let out of their hen hell. I keep thinking of them and picturing them in their prison. Sending out vibes.....not much longer girls.....not much longer!

[sunflower]

Well, it is exactly one week to the hour when we will see our three little hens for the first time. I'm so excited, I feel a bit sick.lol! Everything ready outside now. Now for the wait.............................................. ....................................

[Oola]

Well I certainly hope that next week's weather is a vast improvement on the forecast this week. Am really looking forward to seeing your girls come home and blossom. It really is an exciting time. Just wondering if you've got any spare eggboxes lying around because you'll probably need them!

Also I had a thought about something else - what are you planning on using as bedding in their house? It's just that hay isn't a good idea because they tend to eat it, and it gets tangled up in their crops and can cause blockages. We use straw which they don't peck at.

Yuck, the weather is nasty here - rainy and windy, just what they don't like. I think they've taken refuge in the greenhouse today!

Also, wish I had known this earlier, but I recently found out on the BHWT's facebook page that Omlet offer discounts to people adopting through BHWT! Something to bear in mind for the future though?

[sunflower]

Well, we are going to use Aubiose...hemcore(horse bedding) for the nest box and for the run. Loads of people I have talked to on the net swear by it. It soaks up the droppings, making it easier to clean and can be composted.
I did'nt know that Omlet give a discount to customers. However, I do know that Omlet give 15% price of the eglu cube to the BHWT as a donation when customers adopt ex bats hens.
The weather has been awful here today, but never mind Spring will soon be here. Our hens will spend ther first ten days in the Conservatory in their henhouse and normal run. This gives me a chance to make sure they get strong and are hand friendly. Later they will go out inot the extended run with the Eglu cube raised on locked wheels, giving them extra shelter.

[sheddie]

Sunflower it all sounds so exciting about your hens. Lots of luck with them! X