Last Saturday, Chalky and I went to pick up four new chickens, battery hens rescued by the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. It was pleasing to see a long queue of people, all with their cardboard boxes and cat baskets, waiting to do the same.

The hens had been rescued on the day of their scheduled slaughter. At about a year old, after a life-time of being tightly shut into a battery with hundreds of other hens, forced to lay twice a day by being subjected to artificial light 23 hours a day, they go for cheap meat - chicken nuggets and pies.

We got our hens, tiny, thin birds with no wing, breast feathers or tail feathers [these are pecked out by their cell mates exhibiting stress behaviour]. Their combs were pale, almost white [a sign of stress and poor condition], overgrown and floppy from the high temperatures they had been kept in. Their nails needed clipping as they had nowhere to scratch around in and wear them down.

We got them home and put them in a seperate enclosure inside our existing chicken pen; they are too weak at the moment to fight for their place in the pecking order with our other hens.

For hours they stayed inside the coop, not knowing they were free to come outside. Gradually, one by one, on weak legs, they came out for a look around, wide-eyed with their first view of sunlight and the first feel of earth beneath their feet. They walked over the cabbage leaves and chickweed we'd placed there because they didn't realise it was food, having lived on a diet of cheap mash. It was heartbreaking to see them trying to preen their few pathetic feathers. They are so thin that one started to push its way through the wire our other birds stand no chance of getting through, and we had to quickley put some more netting on. They seemed lethargic and exhausted by their stressful lives of forced over-production and over-crowding.

After just a few days they are getting used to their new home, loving the fesh air and learning to peck at the grass, scratch in the earth and indulge in all the natural behaviours they have been denied. They can sleep during the hours of darkness instead of living under constant artificial light. Their combs are starting to pink up and stand erect. Within a couple of months they should start to regain their feathers. They are laying already, and will continue to lay for years to come.

The miserable, short and brutal lives lived by these birds is the price of cheap eggs and cheap chicken meat.

There is no justification for it.

Hi Anna,

I look forward to seeing your new hens next time Im round, it's heartening to hear that you and others are giving these birds a new lease of life, a great Ostar gift for all.

Blessings Ron.

They're getting perkier and more cheeky everyday, mixing with the other hens and laying well. They seem much, much happier and healthier than when they arrived!

Dean and I are considering homing some battery hens. My cousin is part of some organisation that finds homes for them. I recall he re-homed something like a couple of thousand in just one weekend last year. Trying to work out what we'd need for shelter for them at the moment and then where we'd fit it in in the garden.

You can make a hen house out of a small shed. They will need nest boxes and perches, though battery hens won't be strong enough to jump up onto them at first, and may never get the hang of that. We converted a big old potatoe box for the ex-batteries, with a hinged lid and hatch for them to go in and out of. Then they'll need a run, safely netted to protect them from foxes, with the wire preferably buried so the foxes can't get in. Batteries don't have their natural instincts, and don't know they are supposed to go inside when it gets dark!

Appreciate the advice. Thank you.
Bright Blessings
Lesley