Cherry Tree Farm Park
Home of a Thousand Happy Hens
Home of a Thousand Happy Hens
1000 Happy Hens
17 April 500 new Battery Chickens arrived.
Most of our laying birds are ex-battery hens. This means that they have lived in a cage on a farm producing eggs. When the birds come to the end of their first year of laying they often go on a malt. This means they lose their feathers and stop eating and drinking their normal amount of food and water. They then stop laying eggs. Malt can last from 6 weeks to 6 months. The farmer will then have no more use for the birds as they become less profitable. These birds are are then earmarked to be killed. This is where we step in, we go to the farm and bring the birds here.
When they arrive they look like this. The battery
houses are kept very warm. So the chickens lose all
their feathers as they no longer need them. When the
chickens first come to cherry tree they have to be
lifted to their food and water and carried to bed at
night. As they are not use to walking anywhere. They
are used to their food and water being right in front
of them at all times. It doesn’t take them long to work
it out though. Most of them have it worked out in
about 5 to 6 days. If they go out into the field in
summer when it is warm they do not tend to grow their
feathers back very quickly. As they do not need them.
But as soon as the weather starts to change they grow
them all back again. And in no time at all they look like
this. So that is why they are called ‘Happy Hens’.
Because not only are they still alive, but for the first
time in their lives they get to see outside. They will
continue to lay eggs for another 3 to 4 years. But not
houses are kept very warm. So the chickens lose all
their feathers as they no longer need them. When the
chickens first come to cherry tree they have to be
lifted to their food and water and carried to bed at
night. As they are not use to walking anywhere. They
are used to their food and water being right in front
of them at all times. It doesn’t take them long to work
it out though. Most of them have it worked out in
about 5 to 6 days. If they go out into the field in
summer when it is warm they do not tend to grow their
feathers back very quickly. As they do not need them.
But as soon as the weather starts to change they grow
them all back again. And in no time at all they look like
this. So that is why they are called ‘Happy Hens’.
Because not only are they still alive, but for the first
time in their lives they get to see outside. They will
continue to lay eggs for another 3 to 4 years. But not
as many as they use to.