Thinking About Keeping Backyard Chickens? Rescued Birds Might Be a Good Place to Start
This morning, 70 rescued hens arrived at the Marin County Humane Society in Novato. They came from an animal sanctuary in Vacaville, where a Northern California egg farmer had dropped them off with plastic bands cutting into their legs.
The farmer placed the bands on the chickens when they were young, not thinking about how much they would grow, said MHS communications director Carrie Harrington. "The bands became embedded in the hens' legs," she said.
At the sanctuary, the bands were removed and the hens were rehabbed for two weeks. When they arrived at the humane society this morning, they still had swelling and indentations where the bands had been, but "they were pretty social," Harrington said. 
Over the day, the Rhode Island Red-mix hens produced about two dozen eggs. (They lay about 250 each year.) None has been adopted yet, said Harrington, and the Humane Society has decided to drop the price from $10 to $5. Interested? Call the MHS adoption center, 506-6225.
Photos courtesy of the Marin County Humane Society. Cross-posted at The Snitch.
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