The hens we brought back (+Lizzy update)

As I probably already mentioned below, we brought back 30 hens plus a lovely cockerel for other people.
10 hens and the cockerel went to their new homes on Sunday and on Monday, Sue my Boston & Skeg Freecycle Mod came to collect her 8. It was lovely to meet her at last but before she came I took a few pictures and video clips as the hens weren't very still and I was getting a few blurry pics. We've still got 12 hens to go which I hope will go tomorrow so the cats can go back in their enclosure.




I'd also like to show you Lizzy who we got at the end of November. We called her no neck Lizzy and thought she had a tumour on her neck but it turned out to be a curvature of her spine. Well with a good diet, and a lot of TLC I'm pleased to say she now stands tall with no sign of how she was upon being rescued which I think is miraculous. I actually brought her home to give her love for her last days! She became my "parrot hen" often sitting on my shoulder while I was on the computer and I'm very fond of her.
Click to enlarge them.
BEFORE

TODAY

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HAPPY EGGS FROM HAPPY RoSAH HENS

LITTLE HEN RESCUE'S NEXT RESCUE- END JAN

LHR will be doing their next ex battery farm hen rescue at the end of January (date to be confirmed with farmer)
There will be 2000-3000 hens looking for permanent pet homes.
Anyone interested in having some rescued ex battery hens please contact Jo @ LHR to book them.

If you are in Lincolnshire and can book and pay Jo in advance, we can transport them back to the PE12 area for collection by yourselves if Norwich is too much of a trek for you as we will be helping on rehoming day.

Collected the hen crates today/ 10 eggs

I'm chuffed to bits, Hubby took our daughters for a day out to Hampshire and they collected the poultry crates we bought from a chap on eBay. The kids loved driving on the M25 passing Heathrow and a huge jumbo jet appearing out of the mist just above them. I remember driving down that direction many years ago and being shocked how low the jets are over the motorway.

The hens laid ten eggs today. I changed all their bedding to the new one called "Sundown yellow", smells of Eucalyptus but is different texture to the usual Sundown with woodflakes, hard to describe really. It'll be easier to clean out the playhouse now as I'd had straw in that and hate shovelling cack out of straw. The proper hen house had ordinary sundown so was easy enough anyway but I've changed that to the new stuff as I did a mass clean out. The birds freeranged the garden whilst we did it. The ducks were shovelling their beaks full of any soft mud or soil. It took ages cleaning the smaller hen house out as all the ladies kept jumping in the laying boxes to lay an egg. They were queueing up so Edward and I sat outside on the straw bale playing bowling on our DS consoles.

At hen bedtime I wondered where everyone was.
3 white hens were in the playhouse but no ducks or brown hens in sight........and they were ALL in the smaller hen house, crammed in. No idea how the huge ducks got thru the opening! Anyway, I couldn't leave them packed in, it was so humid in there with all their sweaty bodies, they'd have overheated.
I moved the ducks and put them in the playhouse with the white hens and I also put a few brown hens in there too (no idea who, in the dark with just a lantern for vision)
Maybe the ducks wanted company or felt their own kennel/duck house is too small now.
Hopefully they'll all get along in the playhouse. Mark is going to build a shelf in there to accommodate more birds (as the hens don't seem to like perches as ex batts have never had them before)

We'll just close up the kennel/duck house for the time being and save it for when Mark gets his lavender Pekin ladies which he'll get as soon as I find any for sale locally.

URGENT APPEAL FOR HOMES- Giant African Land Snails

We have lots of baby Giant African Land Snails for rehoming. They're only fingernail sized at present but will grow to the size whereby they will sit on your palm. They grow very fast too.
Ours live in plastic toyboxes with holes in the lid and have compost in the base but if you look on ebay for snail stuff, there are many different substrates that people use in theirs.
Snails eat leaves, salad and pretty much what garden snails will eat. We mist ours daily with a plant mister to keep them moist. They also need a cuttlefish bone to maintain a healthy shell.

If you are interested in rehoming some, we recommend this website for information- http://www.freewebs.com/worldofsnails/giantafricansnails.htm

We are happy to rehome these free of charge although any donations are always welcome (even if in fruit and veg, lol) Rehomers must be over 16 years old and responsible enough so that if for ANY reason you cannot keep them at any point in their lives, you MUST return them to us in a suitable container which they can live in.

These snails are in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire. Please email rosahrescue@aol.com if you are interested in rehoming any.

Little Rita update

Rita was the "extra" poorly hen we brought back from Jo's last LHR of amber-link hens.
Rita's back was almost bald, but growing some spikes now. She also has a crooked neck so tends to look at things awkwardly but apart from that seems ok.

She's been in our house since she arrived and even Lizzy bullied her so she went to live with the flock (well enough to bully, well enough to take care of herself is my reckoning)

Rita has been a delight, not so mischievous as Lizzy but a very gentle hen and lovely pet. I must say I love her to bits.

Today the weather has been beautiful, sunny with a blue sky (my Mum is so lucky to be at Lake Windermere for christmas!)

I dressed Rita in a tiny "Next" Dog T shirt and tucked what is left of her little wings thru what is meant to be the front leg holes so as to keep her warm.
We took her out and put her down and she was very clumsy. We hadn't noticed it so much indoors. We tried to get her walking on the lawn but she was happier on the rubber matting. She could hear the other hens calling so tried to peep at them so Mark suggested letting her visit them (I was hesitant knowing what thugs they can be). Rita was happy enough, the others crept closer to have a look at this hen in a T shirt and I thought they'd pick on her but the only one who came around pecking was Lizzy!!

Rita is already acquainted with Newton who came and gave her his "special dance" but then she dropped to the floor with her head hung low looking totally exhausted so we brought her back in.
She does nod off a lot in the house but we've put it down to her just getting cosy. I don't think she's as well as we thought and hoped. She hasn't laid any eggs since being here so assume that is because of her lack of energy and poor health.

Rita WAS a free range hen rescued from a commercial egg farm, but just look at her back on the first clip!! Feathers pecked out...but are steadily regrowing with our TLC. She has a deformed neck with a bulge in it where at some point it must've been compressed (rather like Lizzy also in our care but not as extreme as Lizzy's).

Rita lives in the warmth of our home and gets 1 to 1 TLC but as a christmas treat we took her for a walk on the lawn but she preferred the rubber matting. See our blog www.devoted.to/rosah for more info on Rita.
She is a lovely gentle hen and enjoys human company.
Rita was not the only hen from the free range farm that was in poor condition, many were and they were producing eggs for M&S that people pay a premium for. It just goes to show that if you want your eggs from healthy hens, you need a few in your garden or you need to buy locally and know the source of them.
Love from
Lyn x

Updated kitty pics- taken 13th Nov

The kittens are all weaned and eating both meat and dry food. They have been wormed and will be frontlined and microchipped before leaving us.
These are about ready now, I'd just rather wait until next week so they're a little bigger before I microchip them.
Please email us if you wish to rehome one
All are female. 2 are ginger and 1 is a black -ish (see pic for a better idea)
Click to enlarge the pictures.

Help us with funds to purchase poultry crates for ex battery rescue hens.

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WE ARE IN NEED OF SOME POULTRY CRATES TO HELP WITH A RESCUE OF EX BATTERY HENS IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
OUR TARGET IS £300 WHICH WOULD ENABLE US TO BUY AT LEAST 10 NEW CRATES OR EVEN MORE IF WE CAN SOURCE SECOND HAND ONES. (each crate holds 10-12 hens)

Our Paypal address is rosahrescue@aol.com and if you are donating towards hen crates, please say so on the message to us. You can use a donate button on this blog or go directly to www.paypal.co.uk and click send money then put our email address, rosahrescue@aol.com as the recipient.

Any help gratefully received. These hens need the chance of a life!
If you know of anyone who could help us, please pass our email address to them.
IF we receive any donations, we will place a message on the group with our thanks and we will also keep a totalizer so we can see if we ever meet our target.
Our Facebook group, has not so far enabled us to raise any funds but we really need these crates to help these hens. We have tried using one of those "paypal badges" applications but what a pain the bum that was :-)

We hope you, or someone you know can help us with either funding OR the actual crates (you never know)

Thanks on behalf of all the animals
Lyn @ RoSAH

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