Pink Moon, Crisp Morning, Heart Full

Good morning...

It's been a while since I wrote on here. Looking back at my recent posts it seems I've started a few like this!  Well, I hope to write more about what is going on in my life as I've realised that nowhere but here on my blog, can I explore fully some of the experiences I'm having and some of the eye opening things I've been learning. For now though, here's a blether about my morning...

My wee hoose

The weather this year has been astonishingly wet and cloudy. That means not much Sun. That means lots of work trying to keep the animals healthy, as well as ourselves. Living under canvas in this weather is fine but it's a very careful juggling act to stay healthy (physically and mentally), especially when the weather is wet but not cold as it's unpleasant to keep the wood burner going but of course to keep dry & prevent moulds, you have to! No such problems at the moment though, it's blooming freezing so we're back to happily running the woodburner all the time, making toast and stews all day!

Today it's a beautiful, crisp, clear day and all of a sudden I've forgotten the wettest year for 100yrs and I'm filled with the joy of it all! Sunrise this morning was utterly magic, as last nights Full Moon set in the purple sky.

Some of our ex-battery hens free ranging (pic from a couple of months ago!)

In the morning I get up at sunrise to do my animal rounds. Letting out the poultry first and making sure they've got a ton of food and fresh water.  I don't let them out to free range fully until lunch time because I like to see they've got a full crop before sending them on their adventures.

Goatforms (this was them last month!)

Then it's off to give the goats their breakfast and let them out to go exploring. None of the girls are in milk at the moment, which is a real shame, I miss my goats milk!

I take a few moments to enjoy the gorgeous morning, let the beauty of it seep into my soul and give thanks to the Holy Moles for this rare dry, still day to collect my thoughts in.

My boy, Jingo the Shetland ram

I love my Shetland sheep and I particularly love Jingo, my main ram. He's a beaut, with a loving soul, a penchant for the fleecy ladies, fresh hay and head scratches.  The Shetland and Castlemilk moorit girls are looking strong and healthy, so I'll be getting them a ram in within a couple of weeks. Jingo doesn't get a go this year poor lad!

Cheeky stinkdog pinching the warm spot!

Finally, I get to come back into the yurt for my coffee and breakfast in the warm chair by the woodburner... or not...


hen xx

Feeding time with the Shetland sheep, goats, Willow & Adventure Hen!

If you've followed this blog awhile you might recognise some of the ewes in this wee film, especially Nibble and Mini-Finnhe! Some of the girls have started to moult so I've been collecting lots of gorgeous fleece. You can see some strewn about the field, in the film.

Adventure Hen is one of the ex-battery hens we rescued in December 2011. She's getting a bit too explore-y for my liking but I'd rather she was mooching about far and wide than not.

So here is a wee peek into a bit of my evening animal rounds...



Nibble last year:

Mini-Finnhe Mulletina Moonface last year:

hen xx

Tip to get a poorly ex-battery hen to feed again & a sad goodbye

Helloo :)

I've been kept busy making sure that all the ex-battery hens are healthy. This first couple of weeks is an interesting time for them, getting used to the dramatic change in environment. I've managed so far to spot the ones that need extra care & have separated them off into the hospital wing. Whenever any of them need extra, extra care they come into ICU ( a basket in the yurt!).

We were desperately sad when our one eyed hen, Long John, had to be put to sleep due to a twisted gut & peritonitis (our brilliant vet did a scan initially and then a PM on her). She may have died but the life she had here she made the most of.  Her favourite thing to do was running, flying (well, speed running aided by flapping!) & worm scoffing.  She also had a penchant for pecking the top of my wellies and nesting under my big bum whenever I squatted down to do something in the run. 

Rest in peace beautiful Long John

When she was poorly I held her for hours & she slept in my arms with her fragile little head tucked into me, so as well as freedom she also felt how much I loved her. At least she knew those things before she left.

With Long John being the exception, the other 6 hens we've had in ICU so far have been nursed back to health.

I made this wee film to explain how I got one of the ICU hens to eat and drink again after she'd completely shut down (stopped eating & drinking, only wanting to sleep). I'm sorry to say I don't know why as yet but just look at her now! There's also an introduction to Tiny hen. The most fragile of the hens we brought home. She travelled back with me to our farm on her own in a cardboard box, as I was petrified she might break if I didn't. 

I'm taking all my hospital hens to visit the vet this afternoon. I'm not an expert and want to make sure I don't miss anything. I'll learn a lot from doing this as well as understand better how I can give these trusting and inquisitive feathery beings a good chance at a long life! My vet is brilliant with the hens but I'm still going to encourage him to consider doing the Chicken Vet; vet training day course: http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/courses/training/index.aspx



hen xx

The arrival of the new ex-battery hens!

On the 29th December 2011 we collected over 50 (most recent count is 56, they don't stay still enough to count them properly!) battery hens from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust in Devon. The weather has been atrocious since they arrived! 60mph gales, hail storms and torrential rain. Finally, today, the weather has settled and the girls are celebrating by pinging about all over the place!

My friend Elliott and I drove to Chulmleigh in Devon to collect the girls, leaving Leo behind to finish the preparations for their arrival. Elliott and I arrived at the farm and were the first in a long queue of people waiting to collect their hens. Jane Howorth, the a.m.a.z.i.n.g woman who started the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, was there to help load the hens into the car from the crates that had carried them from their battery cages. It was so busy I didn't get a chance to take any pictures! Jane will never know but I was star struck meeting her, she's one of my all time heroines and there she was filling my car up with ex-battery hens! I managed to stop myself squeezing her but wish I'd just grabbed hold of her now!

Here's a wee snippet of what it was like to release the first of the hens into their new grassy home...




I managed to hold it together as I was so busy sorting everything out. That was until I saw one hen in particular. She was so small, so bald, so thin and so miserable looking I let out a sob and that led to the flood gates opening, my heart broke and I just ached for the poor wee things and the horror they'd endured. Not only that, I ached for the billions of caged animals across the World suffering to feed our greed. Incomprehensible, horrifying. I hate the thought that each and every one of us buy products knowingly & unknowingly every week that contain products from this industry (It's not farming). Any products containing eggs/meat/stock from caged animals should be clearly marked. That includes McVities biscuits, ready meals, pasta etc, etc, etc...

Even though the EU have banned battery cages now, there are still some European countries flouting the ban. The enriched cages are better than the barren cages but are still SERIOUSLY bad for the hens and will be marked on the boxes as 'colony eggs'. So please spread the word and keep an eye out!

Please buy British processed products and British free range eggs! 


Have a read of the CIWF (Compassion in World Farming) advice on buying products with eggs in: www.ciwf.org.uk/your_food/eggs


End Cage Cruelty campaign site: www.sustainweb.org/goodfoodforourmoney



That was one of only a few times I blubbed since their arrival. Mostly I've been filled up with the joy of seeing them explore that little bit further each day and investigate EVERYTHING!

Leo built the hens a brilliant house that was bomber during the gales and rain! 

Elliott spent ages teaching a few of the hens to drink from the drinker. Once a couple of them got it, the rest followed!  

I just spend every minute I can staring at them all. I've been freaking out I'm going to miss that one of them is poorly because there's so many of them. So far there is only four girls in the hospital wing. One seriously underweight, one with a sore leg, one with no feathers and a bruised wing and one that refused to eat and just wanted to sleep all the time. ALL are improving significantly every day and each of them have spent a night in ICU (in a basket in the yurt!).

Yet again this is one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced. Now the weathers calmed down I'm going to get a photo of every single one of the hens and pick a few to photograph every week to document how they heal!

These two managed to catch themselves a worm! Knew exactly what to do! *gobble gobble*

I find this quite disturbing. Every night the girls decide one or two spots are THE place to be and start to pile on top of each other. I have to go in and rescue the poor hens at the bottom of the pile. When I show the hens there's loads more space, they move into it and settle down. I wonder if this is what happens in cages with no perches? That the dominant hens perch on the submissive hens? Who knows..

I've had lots of beautifully crafted jumpers sent to me by some lovely people that read the blog post below and that I talk to on Twitter & Facebook.

Such care has gone into these jumpers it filled me up! Thank you Lynni, Cerri, Kim and Leigh for all the gorgeous jumpers!

ALL of which have been used and enabled some of the girls to get out n about in this howling weather! I've only managed to get a few reasonable pics of them wearing the jumpers though, them hens don't half move!

Below is the lovely Long John. She only has one eye and when she's not nibbling my trousers she's running around like a loon bag after scoff! Some of the girls are missing toes, as well as feathers. These girls give me an overwhelming feeling of needing to know what happened to them in the cages. But I know that's not helpful and so push that aside and try to teach them about the wonders of cabbage and sweetcorn...

Here is some eggs! We got 26 eggs on the girls first day, which is now dropping off to about 10 a day. The big bluey-white egg is a duck egg and the dark brown egg is from one of our young Cuckoo Marans. All delicious!

So.. all in all a FANTASTIC and life changing experience, that everyone who can should experience! Obviously I owe it all to the first 6 ex-battery hen girls that I rescued last year. It was them that taught me how to care for an ex-batt and that ex-batts are amongst the loveliest little beings on the planet!

Loads of love from,

hen xx

If you ever wanted to rescue a battery hen NOW IS THE TIME - or make them a jumper!

A Baldy Ex-Battery Hen... *brrrr*

In the run up to the new battery hen 'enriched' cages being introduced January 2012, there is a mass cull of an unimaginable number of battery hens, in response to this there is a MASS RESCUE of battery hens all over the UK.



The more hens rescued by the likes of you and me the more will be given a taste of the beauty of life, with grass under claw and wind in their combs!

**UPDATE** The BHWT's rescue dates in DEVON (7th and 17th Dec) have all been fully booked! This is an incredible response and means that the BHWT in DEVON have had to put on a new rescue day, Thursday 29th Dec! Thank you to them and thank you to the farmer for opening up the farm again for rescue. Now... lets rescue some more hens! :-D

Leo and I have booked to collect 50 battery hens on the 29th December 2011 from the BHWT in Devon. We're going to wait and see if all the hens get booked up again, if there are any hens left to be rescued on that date we'll see how many more hens we can add to our gang.  *EXCITED!*

I wrote a blog the other day that gives more details about the UK wide rescue and letting you all know that I plan to rescue 50 or 60 battery hens on the 17th December. Click here to get the low down: **Alert** Christmas cheer for battery hens?


Here's a list of just some of the rescue charities:
Battery Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT)
Little Hens Rescue
Lucky Hens Rescue Wigan

It's a good idea to ask the BHWT if there is a local charity to you.

Jo Barlow keeps a wonderful blog about her life with ex-battery hens. She is a rescuer, which means she is on of the heroines that goes to the battery farm and takes a number of hens from their cages and transports them back to the distribution farm, where you or me goes and collects our hens.

Worry not if you can't rescue any hens yourself... there's so much you can do! 

Here's another list...

1) Spread the word about this UK WIDE MASS BATTERY HEN RESCUE! Tell everyone, tell your dentist, your mum, your Twitter and Facebook friends, copy this post into your blog or write your own! There's no time to lose, tell them now! Spam if you have to!

2) Sponsor a hen! Yes, have a look at the charities listed above and you'll see you can sponsor a hen!

3) Make a jumper! These mass rescues are happening at the beginning of winter and it's going to be a cold one, there are going to be plenty of cold, baldy hens.

Work it baby, yeh!

You can follow the patterns below to make some jumpers. If you can knit scroll down and you'll see a couple of different patterns. If you can't knit or don't have much time, give the Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumpers a go!

You can either donate your jumpers to one of the charities above or make them for a friend who is rescuing some hens! ... hint hint... ;)

Another baldy Ex-Battery Hen
*brrr* Lets get a jumper on her!

Jumper Pattern's 


Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumpers Pattern:
From Little Hens Rescue

Easy Peasy Fleecy Jumper on a Baldy Hen

*ALERT* Christmas Cheer for Battery Hens?

Rescue some hens, it will be the best thing you've ever done. 

If you've always thought you wanted to NOW IS THE TIME! : 

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

CLICK HERE to see patterns for jumpers (knitted or easy peasy fleecy ones!) 

One of the most rewarding things I have done in my entire life is rescue some ex-battery hens. This December there is a mass rescue as there is a MASS CULL. The battery cage is being replaced by the 'enriched' cages Jan 2012 and in order for the re-fit to occur farmers will be clearing out their stock this Dec/early Jan... there will be a mass cull of thousands and thousands of battery hens. 
I'm looking to buy a second hand hen house capable of taking 30+ hens or more. The bigger the house the more hens I can rescue. Please spread the word!


*UPDATE* Leo & I have worked out that we can build our own hen house, to our specs, for 50 ex-batt hens! 


We're also going to collect 2 small hen houses from the amazing Cherry Barlow of Downton Owls - Learn about the very important work she does:  http://www.downtonowls.co.uk/about

These 2 small houses will mean two things: 1) we can get more hens & 2) we can use them as hospital wings/housing for the more fragile birds. Thank you Cherry! :) 

Beauty on the third day of rescue... she's still going strong!

Meet my beautiful 6 ex-battery hens - 

http://heartandsoil.blogspot.com/2010/06/meet-my-6-ex-battery-hens-some-willow.html

Rescue some hens, it will be the best thing you've ever done. If you've always thought you wanted to NOW IS THE TIME! : 

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

Read the BHWT's press release:

The British Hen Welfare Trust has issued an URGENT plea to the public to re-home some hens for Christmas.

From January 2012, the barren ‘battery’ cage will be abolished in the UK in line with the EU directive. As a result, hens will have to be removed from their barren cages by 31st December.  Most British egg farmers have already made the switch to enriched cages, but a further 2-4 million hens currently in barren cages will still be heading for slaughter this Christmas. 

The British Hen Welfare Trust, which has so far re-homed nearly 300,000 commercial laying hens, aims to educate the public about how they can make a difference to hen welfare, and encourages support for the British egg industry. It has already secured access to thousands of hens from farms in the run up to Christmas and is appealing to the public to provide homes for them.

With a network of volunteer co-ordinators across the UK, the charity will be holding a series of re-homing days over November and December in locations spanning from Cornwall to Northumberland in England, across into Wales.

Founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust Jane Howorth said: “Whilst it is great news that the era of barren cages is coming to an end, the sad news is that many of the hens who have lived all their life in barren cages will be sent to slaughter by Christmas, unless we can find homes for them.”

More and more households are taking up hen-keeping as a hobby that all the family can enjoy. Giving a happy home to ex-battery hens can be particularly rewarding - from the pleasure of seeing the hens experience their first taste of sunshine and grass, to the joy of collecting freshly laid eggs!  Keeping hens requires time, but it isn’t difficult. The hens come fully vaccinated and the vast majority are healthy and laying reasonably well. The hens sometimes look a bit threadbare, but most people are surprised that the majority of birds don't look too bad and they usually start to re-feather within a few weeks. The hens are bred for docility and you will find they are gentle, endearing, inquisitive and very friendly. And they are hardy birds, so as long as a few simple steps are taken to ensure they have good weather protection, they are fine to be kept in the winter months.

All you need is an outbuilding or chicken house or coop that is predator-proof, and a regular supply of food and water. The British Hen Welfare Trust’s Careline and website are on hand to offer information and guidance.

Jane Howorth concluded: “If you are interested in re-homing some hens,we would love to hear from you. All our re-homing locations and dates can be found on our website. Christmas is traditionally a busy time for family festivities, and keeping hens isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds at this time of year. But consider it as a fun new hobby for Christmas for all the family. By adopting some hens, you will be giving them – and your family – the best Christmas present they have ever had!”

To find out more about re-homing, hen sponsorship and the benefits of free-ranging, please contact the British Hen Welfare Trust on:

email info@bhwt.org.uk , log on to www.bhwt.org.uk or tel: 01769 580310

hen xx

Ex-Battery Hens - Mirabel

Mirabel pinches my chair.. any random tweets were her not me!

This is Mirabel. The chook I told you about a few posts ago. She was at deaths door with a blue comb back then. The vet couldn't work out what was wrong with her and advice was that she was an ex-batt & they don't last long. It's probably just her body giving up after "living" in a tiny cage every day for 18months, where she couldn't turn around, was forced to lay 2 eggs in 24hrs and cope with other unimaginable horrors...

Well, the picture above is Mirabel today. She's still not quite right but she doesn't appear to be in any pain. She just gets tired earlier in the day and appreciates a quiet basket to sleep in at night.

Rescuing ex-battery hens is one of the best things I've ever done in my life. Meet my 6 Ex-Battery Hens

Visit this lot below to see about rescuing some ex-battery hens yourself!

The Battery Hen Welfare Trust: www.bhwt.org.uk/

Little Hen Rescue: littlehenrescue.co.uk

hen xx

Cheap, Quick & Easy Hen House Insulation

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger & less blurry :)

ooh, and let me know if you give it a go or if you have a better idea!

Straw around the hen shed. Somewhere to get off the snow.

This cold weather is a bit full-on for the time of year! I was almost prepared, I had recycled this old hen shed & filled it with enough birds to keep each other warm (9 hens & 2 Indian Runner ducks) & I moved it into a spot very sheltered from the freezing, North winds. 

A dear online friend (http://twitter.com/mumsmuddyducks) told me to give the birds pasta before bed, as they digest it they give off extra heat. So I've been dutifully pasta-ing them up every night & giving them more corn than they can eat.  

Satisfied I was doing all I could to keep my birds warm, I sat back feeling really pleased with myself.

Luna & Beauty trying to keep warm

The first really cold day the hens came out of their shed absolute frozen. They were shivering & all most wanted to do was stand still, puff up & shut down. Being new to keeping hens I thought this is just what they did & they'd be fine. So I checked on them throughout the day & they were cold but didn't seem to be suffering too much. Well, that was until I saw Mrs Norris...

Cluck Norris got too cold over night.

By midday she was the only one that wasn't moving about. I watched her try though, she stretched out her leg but it was shaking so much she immediately pulled it back. This was too much for me, so I swept her up & held her till she stopped shaking (but I started!). I'd then put her down & she'd start moving about & scratching. I checked on her an hour later & she was frozen again, so I hugged her till she warmed up again & again she started scratching about. I checked on her an hour later... she'd totally shut down.

So I installed her in my log basket (1st basket I ever made!), next to the wood burner. I put water & food in the basket for her too. She stayed like the picture above for the next 8 hours! The poor thing had got so cold over night that she couldn't get warm in the day. 

I can't have my animals, that fill my belly with eggs, suffer. So, it was action stations. When we recycled the hen shed I wanted to clad the inside with ply to make it easier to protect against red mite, less nooks & crannies. I never got round to it though because the shed was for winter so it wasn't a real priority. 

Glad I didn't now because our solution to the cold was to insulate the house by temporarily cladding the inside with cardboard & stuffing straw behind it! Recycled cardboard from my other half's work, felt roof tacks for attaching the cardboard to the frame of the walls & straw from our local straw guy!

Speckle inspecting the insulation.. "shoddy"...

We used big boxes opened up & tacked them onto the bits of wood the sheds external planks are nailed to, the frame I s'pose it's called. That left a cavity, which we densely stuffed with straw.

Felt roofing tacks

It took about an hour & the effect was almost instant. Sorted out any draughts we might have missed before & now there was no way any heat generated by the animals would leach out. I was careful to ensure there was adequate ventilation.

When I open the shed in the morning the heat hits me & everybody is bright & chirpy & ready to take on the cold of the day. Worth an hour or so, innit?!

The cardboard is a temporary solution till we've got enough money to replace the cardboard with ply & I then want to stuff it with wool.

Protecting the electric fence battery

We put the battery for the electric fence on some straw & covered it with a box to protect it from the cold & snow.

The Lings enjoying straw to chill on.. *snigger.."chill"..get it.. ah, erm..*

I also noticed that the ducks were only able to walk on the snow for a couple of feet before having to lie down & warm their feet up in their wings. They have a favourite place to hang out so I put some straw down for them. It was a hit straight away! I also put straw around the hen shed so they all have somewhere to go to get off the snow. That's where I put their feeder & water. You can see in the picture at the top of the post they appreciate it!

Dunnock scoffing corn

 In this cold our wild birds really need our help. The poultry feeder & drinker always have wild birds pinching sustenance! It's surprising how much birds need to drink in this cold. If you can, please feed the birds & give them some water. In this freezing weather the water will need breaking every morning. I welcome them helping themselves & hope they don't suffer too much in this cold.

Robin about to scoff corn

Any questions please, please just ask me!


hen xx

A Little Woolly Tree

I don't normally post my needlefelting creations here.  Not really sure why.  Well, since the past week has been about being trapped in the house with wool instead of willow, I've not got anything else to post!! So here's one I made last night!

I doooOOooo love working with wool.  It's very satisfying, if a little odd that stabbing something lots and lots should be so pleasing!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant news about chickens!!  I'm booked to collect 4 ex-battery hens in the middle of June!  I'm a little apprehensive about how upset I'll be but I can't wait for the opportunity to give them a home!  

When I was in my early teens I plastered my school & family with information about battery eggs, battery meat chickens & battery meat pigs.  Finally I can practically do something to directly offer a bit of relief to a minute fraction of these suffering animals.  Oh... bloody hell...  I can't wait.

hen
xx