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Caring for ex Bats
 This information has been designed to help owners, who have not had spent battery hens before, understand their needs and how to care for their new girls. We don’t claim to be expert on hens - there is plenty yet for us to learn - but this is just some simple guidance, which we hope may be helpful:
Accommodation
When choosing accommodation number
of hens and space available are the key issues.
The henhouse needs to be sturdy and
secure to protect from fox and badger.
When selecting a house we advise you buy one to accommodate
more hens than you actually intend to keep. For example, if
you want six hens, we would advise you purchase a house to
accommodate at least eight hens. This will ensure they have
plenty of space not only to roost and nest, but also to take
shelter from the weather during the day.
There are houses which are static with
attached runs and others which are movable. You will
need to assess the best option for you taking into account
that hens like to peck and scratch grass - the bigger
the run you can give them the better, not only for their
own enjoyment, but also to keep the ground they are ranging
in good condition. (Hens like to create dust bath areas
which will become mud baths in the wet weather). If you
decide to select a house you can move regularly and free
range the hens you will need to ensure that the hens
are well homed before allowing them complete freedom.
Many people choose to adapt a standard
garden shed with perches and nest boxes. As a guide a
6’ x 4’ shed will comfortably accommodate
12 - 15 hens.
Bedding
A number of products are commonly used
on the house floor: chopped straw can be used for larger
numbers of hens and shavings for small numbers. If you
are using shavings it is important to buy ‘first
grade’ shavings with the dust extracted. This is
available from most country stores and comes in bales.
Nest boxes ideally need some soft material in order to make
a cosy place in which to lay an egg. Shavings with some straw
on top is a good option, although this can sometimes be a favourite
hiding place of the red mite (more on bugs later).
General Fitness
Your girls will, of course, have done
nothing other than stand in a tiny cage for their entire
lives. Consequently they will be very unfit to begin
with and usually completely unable to jump up to a roost
or nest box.
This problem can be overcome by placing
a ramp up to the roost/nest box or giving them access
to a nest box on the floor (even a cardboard box on its
side with shavings and a bit of hay in will suffice until
they are fit enough to use the proper facilities). It
doesn’t take them very long to build up their strength
and within a couple of weeks most are capable of jumping
to a standard roost height.
Cockerels
For the same reason as above, we always
advise that it is best for the girls if they are kept
separate from a cockerel for at least a couple of weeks
- (a) they’ve never seen a cockerel and it’s
a pretty scary experience when they do and (b) if he’s
big and keen, he may do damage by jumping on a hen with
weak legs and/or bald backs. If you can, give them a
couple of weeks to build their confidence and strength.
Health
We never knowingly allow a hen to go
to a new home with health problems, although occasionally
one does slip through the net because of the large numbers
we are dealing with.
When the hens first go into the cages
they will have had a long list of vaccinations to protect
the farmer against large losses. These are usually administered
through spray misting the chicks or in the drinking water.
The most common diseases vaccinated against are Marek’s
disease, infectious bronchitis, salmonella, Newcastle
disease, Gumboro disease and epidemic tremor.
One of the more common problems with spent battery hens is bruising, often to legs, sometimes
to wings. This usually occurs when they are removed from
the cages and can be so bad the hen finds it painful
to stand. If you gently look you will see dark bruising
under the skin and arnica cream rubbed in works wonders.
As long as you see that she gets food and water, a bruised
hen will recover within 7-14 days with no lasting ill
effects. (If possible, do not separate her from the other
hens, as when you return her to the group she will be
seen as an ‘outsider‘ and bullied).
Occasionally, a hen will have a broken
bone and in this instance it is advisable to ask your
vet to set the bone - wings and legs can be mended quite
successfully.
Weather Conditions/Temperatures
The hens have been used to very warm
conditions within the battery unit; this is why so many
have large, floppy combs (they act as heat dissipaters)
- the combs will not only redden as they are exposed
to the weather, but usually shrink as the hens need to ‘lose’ less
heat.
Obvious precautions need to be taken
- if the sun is very strong the hens can suffer sunburn,
especially the ‘oven-readies’. Equally if
it’s really cold, wet and windy, they will initially
need to be encouraged back into their new homes otherwise
they tend to just stand still and get wet - this in turn
can lead to sniffles and worse.
Homing the Girls
When you first take your girls home,
it’s usually best to keep them in the house for
a day or so to home them. Even the pleasure of discovering
a shed is far more stimulation than they are used to,
so they should be quite happy. (If you have a small enclosure
restricting their range, then it would be ok to let them
out straight away).
When you let them out for the first
time, let them out about a hour before dusk which will
encourage them to stay near to the house and return as
darkness falls.
Egg production/nesting
Although there is no guarantee of how
many eggs spent battery hens will lay, generally you
will get about a 40-50% production rate, ie 10 hens will
lay 4-5 eggs daily. THIS IS A GUIDELINE ONLY.
Battery hens have absolutely no concept
of a nest box facility. You will find eggs will be dropped
wherever they happen to be walking at the time of lay.
Rubber or china egg balls are a wonderful way of teaching
the hens about the pleasure of laying in a cosy nest.
They can be quite clumsy to begin with and the rubber
eggs are ideal because they’re realistic and indestructible!
Nails & Beaks
 Toenails
are often very long, although a new regulation now in
force stipulates that cages should have a claw shortening
device. They will often wear down quickly as the hen
free ranges, but occasionally they are so long they will
distort how the hen places her foot on the ground. We
do try to clip as many as we can, but if we haven’t
had time to clip the nails, and they are too long, dog
nail clippers will do the job. Always take care not to
cut the quick.
Beaks have nearly always been debeaked;
it is the top beak which is cut, making the bottom beak
very often look like a shovel. DON’T be tempted
to trim the bottom beak, in most instances it will wear
down to its natural size and shape whilst the hen free
ranges. The hen will cope with what she has, after all
she’s lived for a year with the beak.
Food & Water
Battery hens have been fed layers mash throughout their life in cages. We strongly advise that at least to begin with you continue to feed layers mash or even better, Ex-bats Crumbs which has been specifically designed to give your hens the very best start to their free range retirement. They can also be fed pellets, but it is important to continue the mash or crumb for a few weeks allowing the birds to acclimatize before introducing new feeds into their diet. It is advisable to feed crumb and pellets in the morning with a little mixed corn added during the afternoon. Please note treats should be fed sparingly!
Many supporters want to spoil their hens but we advise
that you feed no more than a dessert spoonful of treats per hen each
day, otherwise you run the risk of upsetting the balance of their diet
as well as tummies and seeing a drop in egg production
It may also be worth noting that dry
layers mash will take on the mantle of ‘comfort
food’ to a hen which may be off colour. In more
than one instance feeding dry layers mash has turned
around a lacklustre hen.
Establishing the Pecking Order
 You’ll probably find the girls
will be in total awe of everything around them for the
first few days and they will be very polite to one another.
However, once they get the hang of the daily routine,
usually within 2-3 days, they will then start to squabble.
You really have to let them get on with it, they are
merely sorting out the pecking order, ie who’s
going to be head of the household. Try to observe that
all the hens are eating and drinking and that no blood
is drawn! If blood is drawn, you’ll need to separate
the hen as the others will only continue to bully her.
You’ll most likely find that
it is the smallest, most feather bare hen who causes
the most disruption, having at go at anybody and everybody.
Please understand that this hen is only behaving as she
is because she’s probably had to fight for every
mouthful of food and water within the cage and every
time she’s managed to get some, someone behind
her has been having a peck at her - hence her threadbare
appearance. It will sort itself out in a couple of weeks
and the most disruptive hen will realise there are far
more interesting things to do rather than worry about
her position within her new family.
Bugs and Parasites
The most common problem you can import
when you take on battery hens is red mite. This is a
tiny mite that feeds on the hens’ blood at night
and then during the day lives in the shed - usually under
perches or in the nesting area or simply in cracks and
joins in the house.
It is something which can be controlled
with many products on the market and like fleas will
flare up in the warmer weather and die down during the
winter months. It does not usually prove fatal to hens,
though in extreme cases if left untreated can cause death.
The above gives just basic guidance;
we’re happy to answer any other questions we’re
able to.
Enjoy your hens - thank you for giving them a second chance.
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Battery Hen Welfare Trust
Hens re-homed to date ... 140,612 
