Cheers Callum!

I just wanted to say thanks for the ducks. We put them on the patio and they were soon quacking, well more like honking like geese, lol. Didn't realise females were quite so loud!!
The boy ducks came through the gate and it was lust at first sight. They are now a happy foursome and the boys will hopefully lose interest in the hens now!







♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Impending retirement days

We are retiring some ladies to their new homes on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.
Our first small session just to ease us and the boys into it.
If you are interested in rehoming any hens, please email lincslittlehens@aol.com as we will be taking bookings for future rescues after this weekend with dates to follow.
We are acquainted now with a few farmers willing to work with us which is fantastic so it's all go go go for Lincs Little Hens!!
Plus Mini is getting 2 new pet ducks from Callum on Sunday if we get a minute during the day to collect them.
Saturday (OMG today) I have paperwork to make up along with rehoming packs whilst the family enjoy a day of a local tillage weekend. It's meant to be nice weather. They'll be awake soon, best let the chookies out!



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

WTF for £900?

I have a sense of humour and am interested in anything funky and different but.........u gotta laugh at this. Suitable for upto 5 hens apparently. I suppose it looks better than the portaloo type Chicubes hen houses which are the walk in type and would look like a workmans bog in your garden but this looks like it's just landed and little green men with come running out. pmsl.
Oh well, it's given me a chuckle. £900 though! I think he can keep it!



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Poultry facts

The largest chicken egg on record weighed over 12 ounces and measured 14 inches round.

Chickens are quite speedy little birds, they can run about 9 miles per hour!

The longest distance flown by any chicken is 301 and a half feet.

The heaviest chicken is 22lbs. (10kg approx.) and belonged to Grant Sullens of West Point, California, USA. This breed of chicken is a' White Sully'. It is known to have a very mean temper as it has been reported to have killed two cats and wounded a dog.



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

New website almost ready to go live!

Just a few tweeks needed over the weekend (If I have time) and a double check proof read and it'll be all systems go.
Not a lot has changed but quite a lot, if you know what I mean. I have kept the same colour scheme as I love teal and I like the simplicity of the pages, meaning I can just put in the html and go.
Ria and Neil came by earlier to pick up Mildred and I REALLY hope the settles in ok. Worst thing was, yesterday I got my days muddled and thought they were coming, then Mark told me it was today....and then we forgot! Hence being very disorganised, children misbehaving and running Mark ragged.
Thankyou Ria & Neil so much for the donation to Lincs Little Hens, it is much appreciated and has gone in the crate fund so when I purchase more I will add Neils business as a sponsor! Don't worry if Mildred doesn't fit in as we can try Caramel and see if she does. Caramel lives with our Pekins as she seems a target for bullies but we don't know why as she is beautiful.
Ivy is well, having her bum cream on her prolapse twice a day. She hasn't laid any eggs whilst here....yet so I'm hoping it all stays in!
Must get some sleep, lots of paperwork to sort out tomorrow. Mark is of to LHR tomorrow for hens and the same on Sunday.
Once I get cracking on the website, i get a bit addicted to it. I've always loved tinkering with websites since the world wide web first arrived!






♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sad news about the chick :-(

Mini found the poor little chick that fought so hard to escape it's eggshell yesterday, had died this morning.

It's very sad news. The chick was unexpected but we celebrated and then to lose it is awful.
Mini seems very hardened to death though, for a seven year old she is very understanding and accepting of life and death and mature beyond her years in many ways.

Nothing else has hatched so maybe that was it. I'm sad. I wonder if the chick was too warm over night or was stood on. We really are novices at hatching under broodies so I suppose maybe we should have removed it, or removed the others. Last time all was well though and the 2 mothers fussed around while Daddy Pekin was protective as I'm told most Pekin cockerels are (or I would have removed him) Maybe an accident happened in the night or there was something wrong with chicky. We'll never know.

Poor little cheeper. R.I.P Chicky



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

ANARCHY!

I have always been a free spirit in the hippy sense. I hate being suffocated by rules. Love being my own boss and doing things my way and have had so much on my mind lately with Freecycle and hens it's made me more ill than usual, so I have decided to unshackle myself, throw off the chains, become an anarchist and do it my way!

Hence the new website coming soon! I feel unburdened for the first time in ages and ages.

I will also help Alan and Tony however I can in moderating Freecycle but shall resign from being a group owner as the rules there (coming over from America) are getting stupid. Freecycle UK is on the verge of a revolt against the U.S and I just don't want the politics of it all. I only ever started our local group (in 2005) to try and do my bit for this country for the future of MY children. My heart just isn't in it anymore. I had plans but haven't the time.

With the hen rescue, I only ever wanted to save those poor hens from hellish battery cages having seen the state of them and wanting to give them a happy retirement but we are now in a position to be going it alone as Lincs Little Hens which is such a weight off both our minds.

We have ran Rosah Rescue for long enough now, have admin, website, budgeting skills, communication skills and common sense as well as hardworking physical helpers and LOTS of support, so we may as well branch out ourselves and do more!

We do not want to jeopardise any other rescue groups as there are so many hens that still do go to slaughter from farms that haven't been approached by other rescues so with the help of a friend, we are sourcing farmers willing to work with us.

Please look out for us as Lincs Little Hens. The website will be up and running in full next week.

I feel the best I have felt in ages, I am not afraid of hard work so long as my body copes and it usually runs on adrenaline on hen rescues. My other half and my posse are not afraid of hard work either so POWER TO THE PEOPLE!! God I am in a Fabaroony mood! No alcohol involved!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Pekin Chick

Mini found a Pekin chick under Fenella and Amber today. Fenella started the brood off ages ago but got off when she thought nothing would hatch and Amber jumped on and today was a cheeping from a little black and white chick. I imagine it will be a silver birchen again. I had really hoped the duck eggs were fertile as I would LOVE those to hatch but they must be past their date by now and the duck that laid them is an old lady. It's a shame. Oh well, Mini is over the moon and needs something to make her smile as she's been a bit mad lately with no school routine or LHR.

Anyone may have noticed the website is going through a thorough cleanse and will be up and running properly in a week or 2, health, kids and time permitting.

I've put our contact number on and map to the ex batts collection point but the whole site needs freshening up although I will keep the same colour scheme as I like teal.



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

HUGE Cochins and tiny Pekins

Well I got my early birthday present, not one BUT two Cochins named Desireé DeVere and TingTong from Tooting (Little Britain fans in this house)
Desireé suits her name, seems to have a lot to say for herself. Ting Tong is better handled I'd say.
Mark has built another house the same as the Pekins with the intention of our 2nd cockerel, Midas sleeping in there with Ebony and the big girls but they all bunk up together with so little room between them and Mark has to go in at bedtime and do a shuffle with them or they'd get too hot overnight.


No grass, no plants although the buddleia is fighting back. Looks like wasteland not what was my nice green garden ;-) Pekins, Cochins and an ex battery girl who gets bullied in the main flock.


Just arrived home


Mark cuddling Ting Tong (We later realised on Little Britain that Ting Tong is actually male as "Mr Dudley" found out) Oh well!



These are our chicks bought from Power Poultry and getting bigger and more beautiful everyday.




♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Having a few bad days....

Sorry I haven't updated on here. I'm having a few of days, you know, down in the dumps days.
I've been sat outside with the chookies today and managed to get pooped on ;-) Is it meant to be good luck?
I'm hoping to get a Cochin hen at last asap, will keep you posted. Obviously she will be my pet and live with our other "posh birds" Will keep you posted. I may cheer up then.



♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Ex Batts Facebook application

Ex Battery Hens on Facebook

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Lincs Little Hens

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

GO FREE RANGE!

Life in a battery cage… means life behind bars!

A typical metal battery cage

• is completely barren
• is about the size of a microwave oven
• allows each hen a useable area of 550cm2, less than the size of an A4 piece of paper
• houses up to five hens for a year
• does not allow the hens to fully stand up straight, stretch their wings, run, fly or make a nest. All they can do is eat, drink, pass waste and, of course, lay eggs.

Confinement, boredom and overcrowding in these tiny cages can cause frustration, aggression and feather-pecking among chickens. The birds may also experience chronic suffering, osteoporosis, severe bone weakness, physical deformity and premature death.

Please don’t buy into the cruelty of battery eggs, GO FREE RANGE!

Barn hens don't fare much better, contrary to popular belief

Barns do have nesting areas but are often of sharp uncomfortable metal that scratches the breasts of the hens and rubs the feathers away.

The hens often suffer respiratory problems due to the high volume of ammonia in the barns which are cleaned out sometimes every six months and sometimes not at all during the 60+ weeks that the birds are confined there.

The floors of the barns are slats which the droppings theoretically fall through into the slurry pit below. The hens live amongst carcasses of the weaker hens who couldn't take any more.

The hens spend their lives crammed in the barns and cannot escape from bullies. They lose their feathers through stress and have never seen natural daylight.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The best way to ensure where and how your own eggs were produced is to have your own hens. It is becoming acceptable once more to keep a few hens in gardens for your own egg supply.

To rescue ex battery/barn hens is the kindest thing you can do. These hens still have lots of eggs left to lay, make lovely pets and grow into stunning birds as their new feathers grow and you will feel so emotional, witnessing them behaving like proper hens without being taught how to dig for worms and dust bathe.It makes you realise how unnatural it was for them cooped up in such terrible conditions and that the farmers view that they "know nothing else" is nonsense because they must yearn for a patch of soil to dig whilst stuck in their living hell.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

Sponsor packs

Another sponsor pack has gone today by recorded delivery so if you are expecting one from Lincs Little Hens, please listen out for the postie as we always send them by recorded delivery.

If you cannot keep your own hens and would like to sponsor one instead, please look in the right column of this blog. Each sponsorship costs £20 per year which works out at £1.67 per month! What a fab present for someone who has EVERYTHING! or someone difficult to buy for? These packs help the hens as they pay towards the food bills and also towards the new crates we need for our trailer as we can bring more hens back to Lincolnshire now.

Even if you have your own hens, please help if you can! Every penny goes to the hens.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

Price increase

Due to a few months of very high overheads with food, fuel and enormous vets bills, Little Hen Rescue have no option but to increase the price of hens to £2.50 each with immediate effect.

This affects all the people booked in for the rescue later this month.

We are sorry we have had to take this step, we had lots of hens at HQ who we couldn't rehome due due illness and who were "off their legs" and needing extra TLC. The food bill for these hens is huge. We also had many who needed vet attention and that bill was over £1000 for a month.

We are hoping that the "right" people will still want the hens. We did worry that some people were just wanting the hens because they were cheap.

LHR have to pay the farmers whatever the slaughterman would pay as the farmers expect something back at the end of the hens time with them.

Little Hen Rescue is unlike ANY of the other rescues even the VERY well known ones. The reason LHR is different is because of the premises and enclosures/buildings which means we rescue EVERY hen whereas the "other" rescues leave behind any that they cannot immediately rehome which to be honest, personally sickens me.

Jo is dedicated to giving EVERY hen a chance which makes her so special.

Please continue to support Little Hen Rescue save even more hens. We appreciate everyone who supports us!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

LOTS OF LOVELY TASTY EGGS FROM OUR HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS THIS MONTH

New trailer for rescues

We are sorted for a trailer.

Got a nice brand new Bateson one from Bearts at Stowbridge. I'd initially wanted something more heavy duty but these are ok for heavy quad bikes so a few chook crates and sacks of food should be fine.

We received NO donations towards the trailer at all and have funded it entirely ourselves, as with most things which we do not resent in the slightest as we love the hens and that is our reward.

Please see our sponsors page.We now hope to also go to the farms with Little Hen Rescue and help with the initial rescuing of the hens. The trailer we have just purchased a 8 x 4 ft Bateson trailer with metal sides and mesh which comes quite high which is ideal for the poultry crates in it, and bedding bales/sacks of food etc...It has a metal gridded high tailgate which is an ideal ramp for our quad, my trike or for walking up with crates.
When travelling we can tarpaulin the top in case of rain BUT also the mesh sides will allow fresh air to get to the hens as they get so hot travelling.

We also hope to eventually transport hens as far as Newark in Nottinghamshire which will give easy access to rehomers from the North and South via the A1, which we couldn't even consider without a trailer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

*** LOVELY TASTY EGGS FROM OUR HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS THIS MONTH

Little sweet ferret kits of ours

Not chook related but my Hubbys babies from before their eyes opened to them now at around 5 weeks. 1 kit with eyes fully opened, 1 kit with 1 open and 1 half open and 2 with hardly opened eyes. I have chosen mine which is Turpin with the darkest face (named after Dick Turpin who is often portrayed in a black mask), we may end up keeping "Pale Face" too who resembles a seal at the moment.
They are our boys and were bred as pets. We have homes for whoever we don't keep and they are well handled so hopefully won't be biters. Fangy Face Junior keeps having a taste but just a nip. The excuse is his eyes aren't open properly so he has to feel with his mouth instead.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

LOTS OF LOVELY TASTY EGGS FROM OUR HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS THIS MONTH

Betsy hen

Mark has just gone to take Betsy hen home. Betsy came to us with a prolapse and I initially treated her and she went home. On the way back she wriggled out of her bandage and had pushed the prolapse out again. Her owner tried to put it back in but didn't have much joy so Mark went to pick Betsy up for me to try again. Sadly by then, (the next day) it had dried out so was difficult to treat so all I could really do was keep slapping on the piles cream so it shrinks the bulge.
I advised a corn diet but as she lives free range it will be difficult to keep her on a separate diet so I *think* she is rejoining her flock and we've just got to keep our fingers crossed that anything liable to pop back out is shrivelled by the piles cream and therefore stays where it should do.
She lives a charmed life freeranging on lots of land and I know for a fact that she would have been put down by a vet which would be an unnecessary waste of life.
If she ever needs to come back, she can do.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lincs Little Hens

*** LOVELY TASTY EGGS FROM OUR HAPPY RETIRED COMMERCIAL HENS THIS MONTH