Could you give some chickens a new home this year? A farm near Brighton is looking for new homes for 5,000 hens which have come to end of their commercial egg-laying life.
Brighton Animal Action is on the lookout for people who could give the organic, free range hens somewhere to roost, for a bargain price of 50p each.
Although at 80 weeks old the hens no longer produce enough eggs to keep up with a working farm’s demands, they are still good layers.
Brighton Animal Action’s Sue Baumgardt said: “The farmer’s got a soft heart and she doesn’t like to see them going to slaughter. They’re still laying, but not enough to be commercial viable.
“After 80 weeks, the shell quality isn’t the perfection that the supermarkets demand – some will have gritty bits or ridges or bumps.”
Anyone wanting to rehome some hens should have a foxproof garden with an area of at least 12ft by 12ft to give them, and a secure shed with poles for the chickens to roost on. Would-be chicken keepers should be prepared to take several hens rather than just one or two.
This will be the sixth year Brighton Animal Action has rehomed hens, having found homes for about 7,000 last year and 9,000 in 2009. Rehomers have come from as far afield as Wales, Cornwall and Lancashire.
The latest batch of hens will be available from Monday, February 14. If you’re interested, call Sue on 01273 885 750 or email shoreham.protester@ntlworld.com with the word hens in the subject line.
Brighton Animal Action are heroic.
That said, the Clarence Court eggs I buy from Waitrose have lumps, bumps, variable shell strengths, gritty bits, feathers and smears and scratches on them. Real eggs from chickens having a proper life and the variably beige to brown eggs vary in size from small to big.
The yolks are different colours from lemon to orange and I once broke open a real stinker that had been rotten for some time and slipped through the net. I didn’t complain. I support Clarence Court eggs to “encourager les autres”.
The farmer in this article is to be commended for trying to give her hens a post-commercial life.
I now have six of the Brighton 5,000 chickens.
They are in fantastic condition and are a joy to have scratching around in the garden.
We have 50 of the hens who were transported to Wales, and have been inundated with eggs already. Thanks to all those involved in helping these hens…they are a great addition to our homestead.