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ex battsmy mum is talking about getting a few ex batts to give us some eggs and to potter about in the garden.
As far as i can see, there are pros and cons to starting off with ex bats. where would you suggest we start as chicken keeping novices?
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Nick
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With ex-batts. That way, when you forget to lock them up and the fox gets them, you've only lost 20p per bird, not a tenner.
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| Nick wrote: | | With ex-batts. That way, when you forget to lock them up and the fox gets them, you've only lost 20p per bird, not a tenner. |
my mother locks the cats in. she won't forget with birds
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judith
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Some will die. Or get ill and need to be necked.
This is quite useful as an object lesson in chicken-keeping.
If this is likely to upset her, then it isn't a good idea.
If she can get past this, then she will have some very good-value birds that will probably lay nicely for a year or two.
But you do need to prepare her for the fact that some will probably die fairly soon.
If I were making a recommendation, I would say get some healthy POL birds.
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she is VERY squeamish about these things. she gets upset when the cat catches somehting small and furry.
I know any issues with bird health will be my problem. I can handle that most of the time I think.
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Ixy
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I would go for pure breeds everytime for someone likely to get attached to their birds, they will lay less than a hybrid in their first and second years, but keep those numbers more steadily for 5yrs or more (excepting highly bred show animals like orpingtons) and don't start perch dropping after 18months. This means they'll earn their keep better in their older years and you won't have to keep buying (and feeding) more to keep egg numbers up.
Pure breeds are also prettier! You have MUCH more variety to choose from than just variations of....solid brown. *yawn* pure white, buff, blue, black, cuckoo, splash, birchen, partridge, pyle etc etc etc
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Chez
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I'm with Judith and Ixy, particularly if she's likely to get attached to them.
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Woodburner
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If you decide to go with pure breeds or crosses, the most important thing is to find a good supplier. At least with ex batts you know they are worn out and likely to drop dead, poor things  but if you don't know what to look for, you could get fobbed off with poor doers and not up to standard rejects from an unscrupulous dealer.
BTDTGTTS and even so, I'd rather not have anything to do with the battery hen industry at any stage.
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Mutton
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Our first round of hens were probably ex-bats or ex perchery, complete with clipped upper beak poor things.
We are on a exposed windy hillside and they are only happy free ranging somewhere sheltered we learnt. They spent lots of days huddling somewhere. Basically they are bred and raised for central heating all year round. So if your garden is sheltered then they'd be OK - they have a thinner feather cover than our mongrel descendents of various pure breeds.
They are also tuned to produce lots of eggs - so if you ease off on the feed because you've got a fridge full of eggs they carry on laying but get thinner.
Our mongrels tend to stay more of the same weight and tail off on the laying if they don't like the conditions.
You can get ex-Bat from hen rescue places, which might be more ethical than the market where we got ours.
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Soapnutter
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We started with ex batts and loved them, they were cheap to source, lovely to watch rediscovering their instincts and we learned loads. But they are prone to an assortment of ailments and problems and I'm not getting any more.... We will be carrying on with chickens but will be getting more from a local breeder. We have one ex batt left after less than a year and now waiting for our new cuckoo maran to start with the egg laying.....
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Minum
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We've got 4 POLs we bought 3 months ago, and 12 ex batts we got 2 months ago - they live together, and all are well and happy. The POLs are much more cuddly, because they came from a farm with children who picked them up all the time, but the ex batts are getting much more friendly, and follow us round everywhere.
Love having them all, and would recommend both types
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