Next Rescue - 6th June

Hen Rehomers UK will be rehoming hens on 6th - 7th June 2009. If you are interested in offering a loving, permanent home to some ex-battery hens, please check out our website www.henrehomers.net.

There is an application form on there which would require completing. We ask a minimum donation of £1.50 per hen.

We have a network of co-ordinators throughout the country, a fantastic group of volunteers who come together to rehome ex-battery hens.

If you would like to be a volunteer - either to help with the rescue, to help with fund-raising, help putting posters up in pet shops, feed merchants, vets, etc., please contact us.

THANK YOU!

A Huge Thank You!!

A huge thank you to everyone involved in the rehoming of over 2,000 hens on Saturday 24th January 2009.

Our thanks to farmer for allowing us to rehome the hens, to the farm team, drivers, regional co-ordinators, admin team and, finally, but by no means least the lovely rehomers who have offered these hens a home.

Next rescue pencilled in for March 2009.

Coming Soon!!

Our next rescue is due to take place on 24th January 2009. Over 2,000 hens will be going on to new homes.

The waiting list will close in the next few days, so if anyone still interested in rehoming you had better complete the application form on the adopting hens section of www.henrehomers.net - and quick!!!!

R.I.P. Ginny

It is with great sadness that I have to report that Little Ginny featured below in one of our stories has passed away - after only three months of freedom.

These little ladies wrap themselves around our hearts and everyone at HR-UK are thinking of 'Pup', Ginny's caring owner, at this time.

Chickens aren't Stupid!

Wendy and Spencer write:

Our friends are happy to share their names with our hens, but this has led to moments of confusion in the past.

When we have phoned friends up and told them that Brenda's dead, we have had shocked replies of "Oh no, Brenda's died"? We then have to explain to them that it is Brenda the hen.

Nonetheless, before passing away the hens live in a much healthier (and happy) state than the one they were found in.

Our hens - Hilary, Mandy, Marion, Janice, Gladys, Makayla, Maureen, Lisa and Helen are very happy hens.

People think chickens are stupid, but you can train them. They are clever, friendly and funny. We believe that if you can care for a rabbit, then you can care for a chicken.

It was with this in mind that we set up our own popular internet forum to share advice on keeping chickens to prospective re-homers. Our website is www.ex-battery-hens.com. There is a caring community of people who regularly use the site - they range from people just starting to look into keeping hens and researching into it, all the way through to people who are more experienced and have kept ex-battery hens for years.

We are both actively involved with NLHR and at the last rescue, as well as taking the hens out of their cages, we helped with the transportation and re-homing of some of the 1700 hens concerned. One of those turned out to be a cockerel, which had gone un-noticed!

It is gratifying for us to know that these hens are now with loving families who care about them.

Darrell's Love of Hens

Jeanette writes:

I've included some some photo's of the girls from the same rescue as Claire (Cardiff). We met her in the shed, we were the mad ones putting the girls in boxes for people. I will never forget the sight of these poor girls, the only thing that stopped me crying when I saw them all was the fact we were so busy.

Our Maggie, Agnes, Jemima and Gladys are doing very well now, 6 weeks later. Also in some photos are Florrie and Woody, two hens rescued last November.

I had wanted chickens for years but hubby Steve always gave an adamant 'NO'. That is until he saw how enamoured our Darrell was by a friends hens. Two weeks later he had hand built a coop and we had our own hens a few weeks after.

Darrell passed away in February, aged 16, after a lifelong terminal illness. But in his short life he achieved much. He helped with fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and local charities.

Most important to him was the plight of these poor chickens. He had me put the posters all over the kitchen and used to tell all his nurses and carers how dreadful their lives were. He used to get everyone watching the CIWF videos too. He adored his chickens and when too ill to be out of bed any more they could often be found in his room and on his bed. His chicken, Brownie, passed away peacefully a couple of months after he did, but thanks to him she had 8mths of freedom and a lovely life.

Chickens are the most wonderful loyal pets. I do not think we will ever be without chickens now.

The story of Naked Dave

Ness writes:

Through NLHR I adopted 7 hens at the end of July. I wanted 3 for me, and I gave 4 to my neighbour who already had some hens, he had been wanting to get some ex-bats for a while. When we collected them, most of them were in a good condition - there were a couple who looked a little scraggly, but most of them looked okay. We gave our neighbour the 4 hens in the best condition, and kept the three scragggiest for ourselves - we figured as he already had hens, it would be a little easier to integrate the new girls if they were in good condition.

Everyone needs a Henny Penny in their life, so we called our largest and healthiest girl Henny Penny, she only had three baldy patches so was in good shape. The next hen was a little ugly and had big baldy patches all over, I called her Muriel. The last hen was in a real state. She was completely oven-ready, and it was so pitiful to see. She was absolutely tiny compared to the other hens and was so skinny and scrawny. My husband felt a real bond with her instantly, so he asked to name her. Unbeknownst to me, he has always wanted to have a pet called Dave. Thus, Naked Dave was christened, and even today they have a special bond and she will always come up for a scratch from my hubby whenever he is in the vicinity.

Our 3 girls were all put into their new coop and there was a bit of scrapping and fighting going in, which we knew was normal for the settling in period. 5 days later, I came downstairs one morning to find the run completely tipped over, water feed and grit containers thrown all around, and blood all over the place. I panicked, thinking something had gotten in to my girls, but after close inspection I found that poor Naked Dave was being picked on by Henny Penny, and she had ripped her toenail off! Muriel was also being pecked and bullied, so we made the decision to seperate them for a while. Henny Penny was moved out to her very own penthouse apartment, and the other two scraggly girls were left in peace to enjoy their condo. It's been a month since we seperated them, and they free range together each afternoon and are getting along a lot better, so we're going to try reintroducing them to the same coop this week, fingers crossed they continue to get along well!

Henny Penny's baldy patches filled in quite quickly and she is now fully feathered and proud of her good looks. Muriel has filled in most of her spots, but still has a large patch on her back which needs to feather up. And Dave... wow. Naked Dave started off her life with us completely bald. She then grew little straws all over, that the feathers come out of. At this stage she looked so stubbly and itchy, poor girl! Then the straws darkened, and she had the appearance of little feather dusters all over her body. Now the feathers are almost completely out, and she looks amazing! She has changed so much. I think she still has some filling out to go, but gee she looks great - all these changes in just 5 weeks!!

Muriel and Henny Penny have been laying again for a few weeks now... most days we get 1-2 eggs. Dave has laid us two eggs so far, both have had soft shells, so she's starting to lay again, but I guess it will take her a while to get into the swing of things. I don't care if she never lays again, but it's a good sign that she's starting production again as it means she's healthy enough to do it, wheras before she was so poorly that her body had closed down egg production. All my girls have seperate personalities and are such sweet souls, they are so forgiving after the hell they went through for the first year of their lives.

I take great pleasure in talking about them to all my work colleagues and friends and family, telling them of all their latest adventures - the time Naked Dave went to a party down the road and got so drunk she passed out in the gutter on the way home and wandered in with a hangover the following morning and put herself straight to bed, or the time the three of them got into my strawberry patch and gorged themselves stupid on the strawberries I had been carefully nurturing for a month for a special occassion... and I love, love, love handing out half dozen boxes of eggs with "Eggs laid from our recovering ex-bat hens" written on the box - they really are the most tasty treats with all their corn and organic food and table scraps and free range foraging.

I encourage anyone with the space and time to dedicate to some girls, just go out and get some and bring them home and love them and show them what life is all about. They will grow and change and "normalise" right before your eyes. They have fabulous personalities and it'll make you feel good about yourself every time you look at them!!