If you’ve adopted hens from us then you know that we ask you to register before you adopt. But do you know why? It’s so we can trace them. We keep on looking out for our hens even after they have left our coop for yours and keep exceptionally robust and accurate records of every hen rehomed.
We like to know where every hen makes her nest after adoption, so that should a health problem or notifiable disease arise connected to a farm where your new pet hen came from then we can notify every adopter and alert you to be on the lookout.
This is one of the reasons that the egg industry allows us to rehome the hens.
Preventing the spread of unnecessary disease is also why the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) encourages the public to register flocks of any size (a flock of 50 or more should legally be registered).
In the event of an outbreak, like the most recent Avian Influenza in November 2020, you will receive a text alert from APHA to warn you to be vigilant and employ heightened biosecurity measures. You can register your flock with APHA in no time at all by filling in their simple form.
Knowing where our hens will live is incredibly important to us so when you’re applying to adopt hens you should only book hens that will live with you permanently. Unfortunately, we are not able to grant adoptions to adopters who are collecting hens for friends/neighbours who have not registered with us, as we won’t have a record of them on file. If your friends or neighbours wish to adopt hens then please ask them to apply. Once they’ve registered then we’re happy for you to pick up hens for others, but please make sure they have registered and talked with us before collection.
Hen welfare is our prime focus and we need to ensure that anyone adopting our hens knows what to expect, what to feed them and how to keep them safe – and part of our adoption process focuses on having that important one-to-one conversation during the adoption process, including ongoing support via the Hen Helpline.
