Garden shed used to house ex-battery hens

17:01:20 15th January 2010

An old garden shed in Kingswood is now the new home of eight ex-battery hens whose lives would otherwise have been cut short.

Bristol's Evening Post reports that the Battery Hen Welfare Trust has started a relationship with local farmers who volunteer to take the animals instead of them being killed.

Through this scheme nearly 62,000 hens have been saved around the country.

Kingswood woman Rowena Hicks told the Evening Post that she first started looking after three ex-battery hens in her back garden in 2006. The number has now grown to eight.

"I went for rescued chickens because I had heard so much about them and wanted to give some a chance to live out their retirement in comparative luxury," she told the newspaper.

"They are, however, far from retired, as they still produce us silly amounts of the most tasty eggs I have ever had."

The RSPCA has launched a Simply Ask campaign, encouraging people to enquire about where their eggs have come from.

According to the organisation, about 80 per cent of eggs used in restaurants and ready-made products are still from hens kept in battery cages, compared to 58 per cent of whole eggs produced for retail.