Fresh Start for Hens are trying to re-home 9,000 retired birds who are ‘too old’ to keep producing eggs If you’re tempted by animal rescue, have you considered adopting something a bit more feathery?

If you’re tempted by animal rescue, have you considered adopting something a bit more feathery? What about 9,000 of them?

A group is calling for the public to flock together and save thousands hens from being slaughtered.

The organisation Fresh Start for Hens has issued an appeal for people to rehome the birds, saying while thousands have already been saved there are even more than need help.

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The ex- commercial hens have since been discarded as they are “too old” to produce eggs and are as a result, due to be sent to slaughter at around 72 weeks old.

Thousands in need of a home

“We have an October date for 3000 due to be released and we’re going to collect another 3000 on 17th August (all reserved, thankfully),” the group said on its website.

“A grand total of over 13,000 hens being saved from slaughter over the next couple of months. That is HUGE! And 9,000 still need homes!”

Fresh Start for Hens was first founded in 2008 under the name, Hen Rehomers UK. The non-profit voluntary body looks to rehome ex-commercial free range hens and raise awareness around the poor conditions many of them have had to experience.

It also looks to educate the public on the egg production industry, encouraging the public to spend its money on free range hens for the comparatively fairer conditions for the birds.

Ex-caged hens

British Hen Welfare Trust is another organisation that aims to tackle hen rehoming, focusing on ex-caged ones who have experienced extremely bad conditions ranging from cramped conditions, starvation and dehydration, and no chance to exercise. In a year, it saves more than 50,000 hens from slaughter.

A spokesperson for the body told i: “It really is an incredible thing to do, rehoming a hen as they would otherwise be due for slaughter house.

“Full credit to the public who decide to take them on board. At first they can look tatty and in need of TLC, but two to three weeks in their feathers start to come and they really liven up your garden.

“They’re hilarious things to watch as they’re so individual and have so much personality.

“At 18 months, when we often try to rehome them, they’re classed as old and end of lay [the term for when their egg production slows down] but in actual fact, 9 out of 10 hens keep laying after this.”

How to adopt

The birds will be available on 14 September and can be collected from Newton Abbott in Devon and St Austell in Cornwall.

There is a minimum donation of £2.50.

To reserve one of the hens, people need to fill out an online form on the organisation’s website stating their contact details and how many they are looking to adopt.