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Ex-Batty FAQs
Do ex-batts lay eggs? Yes! At 18 months a commercial hen is no longer financially viable ie does not lay an egg a day and is sent to slaughter. Ex-batts are only bred to lay intensively for 18 months. However, on rehoming (after an initial short stop to laying due to the stress of rehoming) you should average about 4-5 eggs per hen per week. That said, eggs are never guaranteed. Some hens will lay daily, some may never lay again. To me, the important thing is that you have saved the life of a hen. Eggs are a bonus.
How much to exbatts cost to keep? Once you have paid for the coop, run and fencing, an estimate of costs (including food, bedding, medicines etc but NOT vets bills!) is about £300 per year for 4 hens.
What breed are they? A hybrid generally. The ginger ninjas are a Warren hybrid usually or a Rhode Island Red one. Some ex-batts are a specific breed eg Waitrose use Columbian Blacktails. The white ex-batts are Amberlinks, although they are rarer now. They were put in the barren cages as some bright spark decided they were more placid than the ginger girls and therefore more suited to a cage. Grrr.
How long do they live for? How long is a piece of string? Hens spend 18 months in the farm so will be about 2 when you get them. Setting aside losing hens through predators etc, I would estimate 2 years free is an average. Some live less, some live longer. Every day with an ex-batt is a privilege!
Can you mix ex-batts and 'normal' hens? Yes, you would integrate them just as you would normally.
Should you worm them straight away after rehoming? Yes. Give them flubenvet after rehoming. They may have been wormed in the farm, but a dose on rehoming will not hurt them. 6g (a scoop) in 2kg of feed for 7 days.
What about jumpers and keeping new ex-batts warm in the winter? Jumpers look cute but in general are not advisable. Hen's feet get caught in the wool and if they get wet, the wet wool is next to their skin which can cause a chill. If you rehome hens in the winter, try and ensure they have plenty of warm, dry bedding, plenty of daytime shelter and are not left out in the rain. Newly released ex-batts do not understand rain so may stand out in it. Being damp, especially with not many feathers, is dangerous for them. If possible you could put their coop in a shed (or garage or barn etc) so they have extra protection during the night and somewhere warm during the day. If you do not have a spare shed etc then you can buy fleece or insulating fabric to wrap around the coop during frosty nights. I also give my girls a warm wheatbag or two if it is very cold.
That said jumpers are not all bad, a friend of mine has had great success with fleecey ones (no wool strands to catch precious feet in) in the very cold. But again they would need to be removed when damp, which could be stressful for the hen.
I thought there were no more cages in the UK? Unfortunately this is not true. The 2012 Barren Cage Ban finally saw the end of
the tiny, cramped cages where each hen had less room than an A4 size piece of paper but they were replaced by enriched, and more recently colony, cages.
Enriched Cages were the original replacement for barren cages, giving each hen about 20% more room. Imagine that A4 piece of paper and add a postcard. The cages have nest boxes, litter, perch space and some scratching materials and house up to ten hens.
Colony Cages are larger cages which house 60-80 hens in large aircraft hangar-style buildings which are full of these cages. They have the same facilities as the enriched cages and the same amount of room per hen. In each cage of 80 hens there are four nest boxes.
A cage is still a cage...
I want to rehome some ex-caged hens but only ex-free range are available. I understand that sentiment! I always pick the most fragile girls and it is true, free range hens have a better life. However, there are two things to consider here. Firstly, all commercial hens (caged, barn, free range and organic) are sent to slaughter at 18 months. They all die the same way. Whatever sort of ex-batt you rehome you will have saved a life.
There are also less ex-caged hens now as since the cage ban in 2012, many farmers with barren cages could not afford to upgrade and closed down. Secondly, free range is not necessarily the idyll portrayed on an advert. Free range is defined as 'access to fresh air' which in some farmers case means hens in a field all day with a comfy barn at bedtime, which is as it should be. However, the less scrupulous farmers have a barn full of thousands of hens and a cat flap to the outside...this is 'access to the fresh air' but for only a handful of hens. Commercial chicks are not encouraged to go outside and this carries on into their laying life as well.
Where can I get some ex-batts from? Here is a list of hen rehoming organisations:
British Hen Welfare Trust http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ Nationwide
Free at Last http://free-at-last.org.uk/
Fresh Start for Hens http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk/ Nationwide
Little Hen Rescue http://www.littlehenrescue.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx
Lucky Hen Rescue http://luckyhensrescuenorthwest.weebly.com/
Northern Ireland Hen rescue http://www.nuthousehenrescue.co.uk/Home.html
RSPCA http://www.rspca.org.uk/home
Wing and a Prayer Rescue: http://www.facebook.com/WingAndAPrayerRescue Scotland
If you know of any other organisations please let me know via the Contact Us page.
Do ex-batts lay eggs? Yes! At 18 months a commercial hen is no longer financially viable ie does not lay an egg a day and is sent to slaughter. Ex-batts are only bred to lay intensively for 18 months. However, on rehoming (after an initial short stop to laying due to the stress of rehoming) you should average about 4-5 eggs per hen per week. That said, eggs are never guaranteed. Some hens will lay daily, some may never lay again. To me, the important thing is that you have saved the life of a hen. Eggs are a bonus.
How much to exbatts cost to keep? Once you have paid for the coop, run and fencing, an estimate of costs (including food, bedding, medicines etc but NOT vets bills!) is about £300 per year for 4 hens.
What breed are they? A hybrid generally. The ginger ninjas are a Warren hybrid usually or a Rhode Island Red one. Some ex-batts are a specific breed eg Waitrose use Columbian Blacktails. The white ex-batts are Amberlinks, although they are rarer now. They were put in the barren cages as some bright spark decided they were more placid than the ginger girls and therefore more suited to a cage. Grrr.
How long do they live for? How long is a piece of string? Hens spend 18 months in the farm so will be about 2 when you get them. Setting aside losing hens through predators etc, I would estimate 2 years free is an average. Some live less, some live longer. Every day with an ex-batt is a privilege!
Can you mix ex-batts and 'normal' hens? Yes, you would integrate them just as you would normally.
Should you worm them straight away after rehoming? Yes. Give them flubenvet after rehoming. They may have been wormed in the farm, but a dose on rehoming will not hurt them. 6g (a scoop) in 2kg of feed for 7 days.
What about jumpers and keeping new ex-batts warm in the winter? Jumpers look cute but in general are not advisable. Hen's feet get caught in the wool and if they get wet, the wet wool is next to their skin which can cause a chill. If you rehome hens in the winter, try and ensure they have plenty of warm, dry bedding, plenty of daytime shelter and are not left out in the rain. Newly released ex-batts do not understand rain so may stand out in it. Being damp, especially with not many feathers, is dangerous for them. If possible you could put their coop in a shed (or garage or barn etc) so they have extra protection during the night and somewhere warm during the day. If you do not have a spare shed etc then you can buy fleece or insulating fabric to wrap around the coop during frosty nights. I also give my girls a warm wheatbag or two if it is very cold.
That said jumpers are not all bad, a friend of mine has had great success with fleecey ones (no wool strands to catch precious feet in) in the very cold. But again they would need to be removed when damp, which could be stressful for the hen.
I thought there were no more cages in the UK? Unfortunately this is not true. The 2012 Barren Cage Ban finally saw the end of
the tiny, cramped cages where each hen had less room than an A4 size piece of paper but they were replaced by enriched, and more recently colony, cages.
Enriched Cages were the original replacement for barren cages, giving each hen about 20% more room. Imagine that A4 piece of paper and add a postcard. The cages have nest boxes, litter, perch space and some scratching materials and house up to ten hens.
Colony Cages are larger cages which house 60-80 hens in large aircraft hangar-style buildings which are full of these cages. They have the same facilities as the enriched cages and the same amount of room per hen. In each cage of 80 hens there are four nest boxes.
A cage is still a cage...
I want to rehome some ex-caged hens but only ex-free range are available. I understand that sentiment! I always pick the most fragile girls and it is true, free range hens have a better life. However, there are two things to consider here. Firstly, all commercial hens (caged, barn, free range and organic) are sent to slaughter at 18 months. They all die the same way. Whatever sort of ex-batt you rehome you will have saved a life.
There are also less ex-caged hens now as since the cage ban in 2012, many farmers with barren cages could not afford to upgrade and closed down. Secondly, free range is not necessarily the idyll portrayed on an advert. Free range is defined as 'access to fresh air' which in some farmers case means hens in a field all day with a comfy barn at bedtime, which is as it should be. However, the less scrupulous farmers have a barn full of thousands of hens and a cat flap to the outside...this is 'access to the fresh air' but for only a handful of hens. Commercial chicks are not encouraged to go outside and this carries on into their laying life as well.
Where can I get some ex-batts from? Here is a list of hen rehoming organisations:
British Hen Welfare Trust http://www.bhwt.org.uk/ Nationwide
Free at Last http://free-at-last.org.uk/
Fresh Start for Hens http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk/ Nationwide
Little Hen Rescue http://www.littlehenrescue.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx
Lucky Hen Rescue http://luckyhensrescuenorthwest.weebly.com/
Northern Ireland Hen rescue http://www.nuthousehenrescue.co.uk/Home.html
RSPCA http://www.rspca.org.uk/home
Wing and a Prayer Rescue: http://www.facebook.com/WingAndAPrayerRescue Scotland
If you know of any other organisations please let me know via the Contact Us page.
