So - when is a chicken not a chicken? When she is a battery hen! The North London Hen Rescue spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday (26th - 28th) July 2008 between a farm in Norfolk and various points throughout the country in the process of re-homing these lovely little hens. Although some were feathered and appeared a decent weight, many people were shocked at what they saw.
The little hen above has been named Ginny, if you look closely you can see that apart from being quite bald she is in poor condition and you can see her bones sticking out.
On the scales you will see her weight reads 438grms. A hen of her age should be over 3kg. Ginny is currently being cared for by a lovely lady, Linda. It's hoped she will survive and make a good recovery.
This is Little Hen, who is being cared for yet another fantastic person, Phil. As you can see Little Hen is quite small, is not much bigger than a pigeon. Sadly, this little girl is not well at all and we are all hoping for a miracle.
These lovely little hens aren't just one-offs. The majority of hens had very overgrown claws, poor condition and quite bald. Here are just three more. Hopefully over the next few months these girls will blossom into the beauties we know they are.
If ever anyone wanted a reason to stop eating eggs from caged hens this has to be it!
4 comments:
OMG, that's so sad! Truthfully I have never thought about this before. I don't buy poultry or meat from the supermarket, I usually go to the local butcher(hopefully he's getting his poultry and meat from a more humane farms)but I still buy eggs from the supermarket. I will have to think twice about doing that the next time.
Brilliant post Greta, I really hope Phils little hen pulls through she had me in tears seeing her photos. A few other poorly girls (broken legs an badly bruised wings) were taken on by some friends that you probably know ;) who helped out on the rescue. Come along and join our forum if you wish, link on my blog.
Hi folks - thanks for your comments.
Is it the ex-battery hens forum you are talking about, little veg patch - I'm already on there!!
Hi Greta, its not the yahoo group one, cant say I have seen you on the one I run, feel free to pop along anytime, you probably know everyone !
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