Not only do hens provide eggs, they are great, low maintenance, low cost pets which once tamed enjoy contact with humans, even small children. I myself have years of experience with this as we have had chickens in the garden for almost as long as I can remember. I can still recall my excitement at having my very first pet hen and naming her. Yes, you can tell them apart.

You may be wondering where you can find hens; they’re not something found at the local pet shop but it is easier than you think. The British Hen Welfare Trust rehomes commercial hens from farms, enriched cages (40 – 90 chickens per cage), barn hens and some free-range chickens that would otherwise be slaughtered. So far, they have rehomed 557,456 chickens. Why? They are no longer commercially viable as at 17 months old they lay fewer eggs. 

If you are interested in rehoming and are living in or near London there are collection days on Sunday 21st May in Biggin Hill, Kent, in Cranleigh, Surrey and in Crowthorne, Berkshire. Cat boxes are ideal for transporting the hens home but even a sealed cardboard box with a few breathing holes poked into it will do. Line the cat box or cardboard box with newspaper.

The rehomed hens are all commercial hybrids and have also had all the necessary vaccines. They are bred for docility, ideal for first time owners. The BHWT does not require a payment but as it is a charity a £5 donation is suggested per hen.

Once home the chickens will require a hen house, from personal experience a plastic house is best. Unlike wooden coops, they are easy to clean and cannot become a home for mites, specifically red spider mites that will bite your chickens.  However, plastic coops are much more expensive.

For the first few weeks at home the hens will not be used to their new environment and over the first month you will find eggs in all sorts of strange places in the garden (on top of old compost bins, for example), to solve this, place an egg where you want them to lay, this should be somewhere comfortable, secure and private, eventually all of them should start following this example. That is unless you keep them in a chicken run. If they are allowed to roam free the garden should be secure with high fences – chickens can fly about 1m upwards. If escaping hens become an issue wing clipping is an option, a process which involves taking off the flight feathers from one wing, stopping them from flying so far. It is the equivalent to a hen haircut.  A few years ago we had a hen that enjoyed flying over the fence to visit our elderly neighbour who would feed her. We clipped her wings and it stopped although she missed the special treatment she had been getting!

Getting free roaming chickens back into their run can be difficult, there is almost nothing they love more than pecking around in the grass and getting themselves clean with a nice dust bath, which may sound counterintuitive but it works. The only thing they love more is food. Use some corn, dried mealworms or other treats in an easily identifiable container (we use old ice cream tubs), to lure them back in.  They will associate the treats with the container and follow it anywhere.

If you are looking to add more girls to your flock you can; you just need to be prepared. Even large flocks of chickens are ordered into a hierarchy, called a pecking order and when new hens are introduced it causes havoc. The best way to introduce new hens is to keep them separate for 2-3 weeks but in sight of each other. This makes integration easier although fighting is still inevitable.

I would highly recommend keeping chickens to anyone, as long as you keep them happy and healthy they will produce the best, freshest eggs you’ve ever seen as well as being a good pet. They may have some drawbacks, like ruining your garden if they’re let out of the run, but it’s worth it.

For more information see the BHWT website: http://www.bhwt.org.uk/

Susanna Whitlock, Charles Darwin School