The BHWT is increasingly helping to improve hen welfare around the world. Working with a myriad of channels such as other charities, through the media, and, our volunteers, holding online events.
Every year the BHWT saves approximately 60,000 hens from slaughter across Great Britain. But we also help hens wherever they’re in need by supporting like-minded charities in other countries and helping to raise awareness of the issues facing commercial chickens.
This month, we are incredibly proud to announce that we have officially affiliated with a French charity named Champs Libres aux Poules (CLaP), which literally means free fields for hens. We hope that this new charity will touch hearts and minds in France just as the British Hen Welfare Trust has created a groundswell of interest in the UK, raising awareness for hen welfare, promoting hens as pets and making a significant impact on shopping habits with free-range eggs sales growing steadily since we began in 2005.
In January 2021, it was announced that Germany was to be the first country to ban the mass culling of unwanted male chicks by 2022.
2020 will always be remembered as the year we stayed at home. Little did we realise that our chickens would end the year sharing in our confinement, after DEFRA issued a compulsory housing order, compelling us to keep our birds indoors if possible. Some people have questioned the need for our birds to be locked in but it is the only way that we can be sure the spread of the current outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI) will be stopped in its tracks.
In February 2020, Belinda Robinson decided she wanted to adopt hens from the BHWT, to add to her already existing flock. As a relatively new hen keeper, Belinda had read online about how to care for ex-commercial hens, but she was surprised by how different they looked to her pet hens. When telling us about her BHWT adoption experience she said that it opened her eyes to what ex-commercial hens look like in comparison…she adopted three hens that day.
If you’re not a big Sunday night TV viewer then you probably didn’t see a nod to the BHWT that graced TV screens on Sunday 10th January on ITV. Beat the Chasers is a spin-off show of the popular The Chase with Bradley Walsh, where contestants try to outrun (mentally-speaking) the nations smartest quiz brains, “The Chasers”.
Looking back at some of this year’s achievements, we’ve connected with the Bernard family who rehomed an amazing 80 hens last year in the hopes
This month, Mochdre Veterinary Practice in Wales named us their charity of the month. Read how we got the honour.
David and Sarah Marek coordinate and host the charity’s Cheshire rehomings from their home in Nantwich. They, and rest of the Cheshire team, were delighted to reach an astonishing milestone on the 24th October when the 10,000th hen passed through their field on her way to a happy retirement.
Late in September, after we’d finish the last issue of Fresh Laid News, our Founder and Mother Hen, Jane Howorth, won Woman&Home’s 2020 Amazing Woman Award! See the fun pictures from the photo shoot and learn why Woman&Home chose her.
Demand for rehoming hens is still high and we have lots of hens ready to find their new homes in November.
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, charities included, and our fundraising efforts for rehoming hens and hen welfare has taken a hit.
Special Delivery to Professor Ben Garrod’s Community Project in Bristol
Saturday, September 19th, 2020, Jane hand-delivered twelve very lucky hens to Professor Ben Garrod, evolutionary biologist, primatologist and TV broadcaster. Learn about Ben’s project and how he and his neighbours created a mini poultry paradise.
Phew! September was a whirlwind! From bringing on new volunteer teams and pop-up locations to finding homes for 12,000 hens, it seems like we didn’t sit down at all.
August saw us bustling around busily again, rehoming hens all the while implementing strict COVID-19 safety measures to protect our staff, volunteers and rehomers. It was not a quiet month!
Our aim as a charity has always been to see laying hens kept in small, free-range flocks, so putting them in prison may seem like an odd concept.
We all need as much opportunity to smile during C-19 because frankly it’s not been easy living with daily restrictions, so here’s a selection of
We all appreciate that those of us without a ready supply of fresh eggs in the garden initially had to cope with egg shortages, but what has it been like for the egg industry during this pandemic?
We’re thrilled that Support Adoption for Pets, an animal rescue and pet adoption charity governed by Pets at Home, have kindly granted us £9,600 to spend on improving the way we rehome hens during COVID-19!
The Hen Central team have been incredibly busy taking bookings for hens since COVID-19 struck, and although we had little idea a few weeks ago when we’d be rehoming again, lockdown rules are now allowing us to make it all happen, safely.
As schools have shut their doors to the majority of pupils, we are offering advice to those schools caring for hens on site during this
As the situation regarding COVID-19 continues to evolve, please be assured we are regularly reviewing the latest information and government updates to ensure our life-saving
In response to the flurry of media coverage about white and brown eggs, we wanted to share some chicken & egg truths. It is, in
