Selfsufficientish.com

Hi
There is a farm in Oxfordshire looking to find homes for 6,000 free-range organic hens. They are 72 weeks old and the supermarkets won't take the eggs after that date. BHWT won't take them as they are not battery hens!

They are Columbian Blacktails and must be rehomed by 18th December.

If you are interested please PM me your phone no, rough location and the quantity you want and I will co-ordinate collection with the farm. They have said that they will deliver if you want a reasonable quanity and are not too far away so we might be able to co-ordinate collection points.

They will also have some POL to sell in January for about £10 each if you'd prefer those.

Cheers
Zoe

I'm amazed. Why won't the supermarkets take eggs laid by these hens after a certain age?

The shells get thinner as the hens get older. I've noticed this with ex-bats. This means that they get too many broken in transit and too many complaints from customers.

For home use they are fine though. The eggs tend to be bigger, as well, as the hens get older.

Cheers
Zoe

I've not had a problem with thin shelled eggs from chooks that are 2 or even 3 years old but noticed that when we had to buy some recently, the shells from the supermarket eggs were very thin. Anyway, not disputing what you are saying btw.

I would take some of these hens if we lived closer - I hope that they manage to rehome them.

In my limited experience hen's eggs don't start getting thin until the bird has been laying for nearly two years. As they don't start laying until they are 6 months old this means that the supermarket won't take eggs from hens that are LESS than one year old. How ridiculous.

How ridiculous! I would love to keep hens but just don't have the room.

i would love to have some but i don't have a clue where to start.
what is involved with looking after them? and what size coup would be needed for 5 - 10?
we live in a semi but we have a 100ft long garden.

Missy
They really are the easiest things to look after. An old shed is ideal as a home but a wooden box made out of pallets would be just as good. Have a bit of a google and maybe get a book out of the library.

Zoe

Which farm? I work on a farm in west oxfordshire, we already have 10 ex bat's I can ask if we can take some more on.

Thomzo wrote:Missy
They really are the easiest things to look after. An old shed is ideal as a home but a wooden box made out of pallets would be just as good. Have a bit of a google and maybe get a book out of the library.

Zoe

i have put a few hen houses on watch on ebay that finish in the next couple of days to give us an idea of what it would cost.
we are interested, it just weither or not we can get something sorted in time. we currently have no animals or pets (and i'm due to give birth in 7 weeks..lol)

Just spoken to Mr Treble Parker, and it seems they have more coming up in January, too. Thanks so much, Zoe, for posting.

yes please or are they all homed what sort of price do they want for 10

Happy Place, I've just rung and left the details for you.

My neighbour picked up 6 last week. They look really good, much better condition than the ex-bats were in. They seem quite happy outside in the cold. My neighbour has had some eggs from his so they are still laying.

Cheers
Zoe

thomzo thanks alot i will call them tomorrow to try and make the arangements but as usual time is wot i lack

unfoutunatly i missed them this time but there are some more coming up for jan so i just need to wait awhile so if any one else wants some maybe we can organise a mass collection