Tuesday, 9 June 2009 - 3rd Day of Freedom

I got up at 6am. This was so surprisingly easy I just hope it lasts. I fed, watered and de-pooped the girls, had a shower, got dressed, put the "face" on and was ready to leave for work at 7.30am.

Getting up at this unearthly hour means that, even if I could eat it, having breakfast before I leave would mean that I would be ravenous once I got into work. So I will have to buy a croissant on the way in. It's a theory that I really quite like.

I'd left the hens with loads of layers mash so they should be ok for food. The water is another thing as they had been walking through the bowl and dirtying the water with mud and poop . Yesterday and Sunday I'd been frequently changing their water, so today I put the cover on the top - I just hope they can figure out that they have to put their heads into the holes to get some.

I cleaned out the house and run when I got home from work and took this picture of Dorothy and Lucy in the hen house/nest box.

Although they are going into the nest box, they don't seem to realise that it is really for laying eggs in and they all seem too huddle in there at night to sleep.

Until they get used to their newly found freedom, and the space that goes with it, I suppose they are still doing what they have spent their whole lives doing - squashing together.

A hen in a battery cage has less space than a sheet of A4 paper, cannot turn round or flap her wings, is generally de-beaked to stop her injuring the other hens in the cage with her, never sees the eggs she lays and often has most of her feathers pulled out by the other hens and even herself.

http://localanimalwelfare.co.uk/eggs.htm