On Saturday the 5 of us drove all the way to King’s Lynn for the local BHWT ‘rescue’ day, having booked our 3 ex-battery hens just a week earlier. We were a bit late booking due to Liz’s disappointing skepticism (some would say lack of faith) that I would have the run completed in time (OK, so I had to take a day off work last week to get it finished). As it turned out, they happened to have just had a cancellation, so it all worked out perfectly.
Most of the week leading up had been occupied making a long list of possible names (as well as being the last week of school - Sarah’s last ever week in Juniors). There was a short debate about whether to go for Harry Potter characters but we eventually settled on something vaguely Jane Austen-ish (my suggestions of Star Wars or Tolkien themes got pretty short shrift). The final choices of Henrietta, Georgiana and Isabella didn’t get made until after we got them home, but the whole process involved surprisingly little bloodshed.
What with being removed from their battery cages that morning, health-checked, manicured, coralled in a barn and finally shut up in a cardboard box in our car for an hour and a half, the hens had had a rather stressful day and were pretty dazed by the time we introduced them to their new home. They all stayed on the exact spot they had been placed for at least an hour after their arrival (even now, standing-still-staring-into-space seems to be their default setting). Eventually Henrietta ventured outside to have a little look around but the others seemed too tired to do anything but sleep.
H rewarded us with our first egg overnight and the other two both produced on Sunday morning while we were out at church. By the end of the day they were looking much more at home, but still quite tired and happier indoors than out. No eggs at all the next day, which fits in with the manufacturers specified 50% production rate (one egg per bird every 2 days).
They are very easy to tell apart by their combs: Henrietta (big comb), Isabella (spiky comb) and Georgiana (floppy comb) and their personality types were evident from very early on. Henry/Hetty is still the most adventurous and confident, but Bella/Izzy is most assertive when it comes to food - she seems to dislike watching anyone else eat and always bustles over to push them away from the bowl, even when she is already eating from a different bowl at the time. Georgie is definitely the most timid, so suffers most from Bella’s bullying and has not yet ventured outside. She is also limping a little but we’re not sure whether she bruised herself trying to jump up into the nest box or whether she was already this way when she arrived. Hopefully she’ll gain more confidence once her foot gets better.
Will add some pics tomorrow