Message #6145

[caskur™]

From: Omnipotent888__ Sent: 12/23/2005 2:45 PM


Has anyone ever rescued any battery hens? Battery hens spend their whole short live in cages. Even the bottom of the cage is made of mesh so they can poop through it.

I’ve rescued battery hens and it’s a very satisfying feeling. When they come to you, their yellow legs and beaks are pale and unhealthy looking, their feathers are plucked out and their claws are many inches long. The feathers are plucked out because they share their cages with 3 other chickens with no space to move. Their claws are long because they’ve never scratched the dirt.

It’s amazing how quickly they recover from their 18-24 month ordeal of being confined to cages. Within a month, they have colour back in their legs and beaks, their feather grow back beautifully and they lose their long claws…..as soon as you put them on dirt for the first time they start scratching.

You can get them very cheap, sometimes as low as 50 cents each and there’s still plenty of egg laying left in them….I don’t know how much laying pullet costs but I’ve known them to cost $26 each.

Raising day old chickens is really great fun to…..they are so gorgeous and display all the adult qualities at even 1 day old….the scratch and peck each other as well. They need warmth and water….the warmth is usually provided by a single light bulb….poor things must get terrible eye aches from the constant light but they don’t seem to be permanently affected by it. They grow really quickly, by the day in fact. I’ve raised heaps of baby chickens with 100% success rate and they cost about $6.50 each where I come from. My favourite chickens are the black chickens but this time I’ve been keeping the red ones. They lay brown eggs when mature.

Kurt has just come home after his long drive. He’s buried the poor chicken and I have already told him off. He is naturally, unrepentant. Later we’ll go shopping, I’m craving something sweat.