I've had my 4 hens for nearly a year now. They were ex-battery from the farm up the road. As the lorry loaded the thousands of hens on to the lorry, my 4 fell to the ground and ran to my house. For a day or so I put them in to the log shed until I could work out what to do with them!!
They were so frightened everytime I opened the door that they cowered down between the logs!
But I persevered with them. I cleaned the shed out and kept them in for about a week. When I went in to feed them, I'd stay there for a while chatting to them so that they would get to know me.
And now one year on, my girls are fully feathered, they have the entire garden to roam everyday until dusk. It's fairly fox proof. I've tried confining them to the shed and run but they hate it!! When they were in their battery cages I suppose they didn't know any different, but keeping them caged while being able to view the garden was in my opinion horribly cruel, so now they wander around my garden.
They have become so tame and friendly and I love them to bits!
Unfortunately we have a mega problem with crows stealing the eggs, but that's just life isn't it!!