My Polish bantam Betty does that she does actually thinks she is a cockeral every now and then like every few months or so she will attempt to crow but will sound very unconvincing because of this she thinks she is the boss despite being second smallest in the flock and she's a provern hen!

Another fan here although all mine are rescues....only take rescues here

We have 8 Rhode Islands, and 2 cockerals Mr Rose and Mr Sage

I have some 'recycled' hens too LOL

we have 4 ex battery hens, who came to us a bit scrawny and bald but now they are massive! they have such wonderful personalities and are so much fun, even though they have trashed my garden!



this was one of my girls when they first came to us



must get some up to date pictures becasue they are the picture of health now!

ps sorry about the cat bum!

Ah bless them good luck with your 'recycled' hens, we have had some ex battery hens, we lost a couple early on but the rest was around for about 5 years and laid eggs quite regular

ours are very tough, nothing seems to phaze them! we are getting 2 eggs a day on average which is more than enough!

You know ive just realised i have no idea of the average life of an ex batt?!

Oh wow, I'd love to take on chickens, but I've been told you need quite a lot of land to be able to move the hens around.

Also there are waaaay too many felines round here, they wouldn't last long unfortunately

Sadly - not long at all . Hybrids generally don't live as long because they are designed to produce the maximum amount of eggs and that is hard work for the hen, then combine that with that physical and emotional hardship that an ex batt endures... Most ex batts will be 17 / 18 months when you get them. I have had the great pleasure of speaking to the founder of the BHWT before and she told me that they had some 12 year old ex batts, I think these are very few and far between however. From speaking to several vets and owners of ex batts on chicken forums, 2.5 - 3 years seems to be fairly old. We have lost two of our girls at about 18 months, namley just weeks after achieving freedom, two of our girls we lost at 2.5 years, one girl at just under 3, two girls at just over 3 and 1 girl at almost 3.5 years old.

Most chickens would see off most cats - obviously there are exceptions to the rule. I know on our chicken forum there have been very rare cases of cats attacking chickens but most of us with chickens have cat free gardens (unless you own a cat yourself of course!).

my cats are scared of my chickens, even alfie cat who is half panther*

*we suspect

we have an average sized back garden, its definitely not big! we have the hen house in a 6ft x 6ft walk in run with roof which isnt big but i am home most days so they are free in the garden then. They go inwhen the dog needs a wee etc, when the warmer days come we will be putting up a fence at the bottom so dog and chickens can be out all day

thanks for the info on lifespan, our girls are just over 2 now i think, they certainly do not seem old and so far mnus a bit of behavourial troubles at the start have been in very good health.

Bill and I have got the land and we keep talking about getting some chickens but don't seem to do anything about it. I don't think they would be able to wander at will as I don't think Jake would be able to keep his great maws off them so they would have to be kept in a largish run. So really not sure what to do....having seen all your lot am mightily impressed, might show him later on and see what he thinks........ watch this space......