In short, here are the three things that you need to keep in mind when taking ex-batts home for the first time:

1. Start with a small amount of roaming space and build up. These girls have never experienced freedom.
2. Keep them warm, but not too warm.
3. Minimise stress wherever possible. Do not constantly check up on them, handle them or force them out as this will cause unnecessary stress.

Below I’ve rambled on in detail of the process I go through when bringing new girls home.

Before bringing your girls home, you will need to make sure you have their new homes ready for them. You will need an indoor home (large box), a small outdoor home (small coop & small run) & finally their large forever home (big coop & big run.)

Bringing them home

When you bring your hens home (I say hens as they are flock animals and need to be with at least another hen) it is important to try and minimise stress. Remember, everything is new to these birds- they have never seen outside of their cage.

I put my girls into a large lawn mower box lined with an old towel with a small pet carry cage inside. I put in a small ceramic bowl with water in one corner – you can try and wriggle your fingers in the bowl so the chooks understand it is water but more often than not your new chooks will start to stress. I then cover the whole mower box with a towel and leave them alone in a small dark, ambient temperature room until morning. (nb: I do not put hay in the bottom of the box as battery hens have never experienced hay. There is a slight chance that they could ingest it and it may cause a blockage in their crop, instead I use an old towel without any loose threads.)

Initial care

In the morning I check two main things: 1. Their poo- is it the right shape, colour, texture? (See here ) 2. Their crop. Has it emptied overnight? If you are seeing small, watery, green poo and a bird with a large crop you may a bird with either an impacted crop or sour crop (see here)

If the weather isn’t terrible you can place your hens outside in a small run. Remember, they have never experienced freedom so you have to start slowly. If your hens are missing significant amount of feathers and the weather is cool you should place a jumper on them. It is important that you monitor the birds with jumpers as chickens are more susceptible to overheating than the cold- if you chooks start panting/gaping then the jumper must come off.

Make sure your girls and eating and drinking. If they are literally terrified of their own shadow and do not come out to eat or drink you will need to feed them water with a dropper. Usually you just need to dropper some on the tip of their beak and they will lap it up. After each time you do this show the water bowl to the chicken and wriggle your fingers in it- soon they’ll catch on that this is where they are to drink from.

nb: Ideally, you will want to monitor them from a window rather than having to walk outside and check on them. Constantly checking on them will cause extra stress.

Here is a picture of my set up *keep in mind that i live in a fox-free place* there is a slight gap between the coop and the run. The girls can choose to stay in just the run or they can explore.

Small, temporary chicken coop & run.

If you are experiencing particularly cold nights then bring them inside. It’s always better to be on the safe side.

Final step

Once your girls have become comfortable in their small pen you can introduce them into their forever big run/backyard. You will eventually get a “feel” for when your girls are OK to move from the small pen, but generally it will take approx 2 weeks for them to settle. Each bird is an individual though so if they are still skittish and cowering  in a corner give them more time to settle.

Initially your birds will most likely be terrified of a big free space to roam so give them time to settle in and resist the urge of constantly checking on them & disturbing them (looking out a window is OK, but try not to go out there and “encourage” them to move around. They will do it in their own time.)

If you have other chickens

Chickens naturally have a pecking order. When introducing new chickens into a flock (again, try introducing 2 chickens at a time & not a single chicken) you will find that the other girls will pick on the new lot. Here are some tips to make this transition easier:

1. When the new ex-batts are in their smaller run, use wire or something similar to separate them from the rest of the flock but so that they can still see each other.
2. When introducing the new girls to the rest of the flock make sure they have plenty of space to get away from each other. Don’t introduce them in a small cramped space as the other girls will pick on the new ones and may eventually cause serious damage. If one of your chickens sustains an open wound you will need to separate her from the rest of the flock as the other girls will incessantly pick on the wound and make it worse.
3. Allow the new girls access to their temporary coop. When all the girls are asleep in their separate coops (the older chickens in the big coop & the new chickens in their temporary small coop) take the new girls out and put them in the big coop next to the older girls. Make sure you’re up when the chooks wake up to make sure they’re all getting along. You will need to repeat this step for several nights until they finally ‘get it.’ During this time some of your girls might start doing strange things like refusing to enter the coop, but keep on putting them in until they understand that everything is in fact OK.
4. Make sure you have plenty of feeders all around the backyard/run so that the new girls get a chance to eat. Keep an eye on this and make sure all your chooks are eating enough daily.

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