Cornish chook chat with Katherine

With bodies far too big for their legs, our Cornish Cross chooks weren’t really able
to walk when we welcomed them last October. Our founder Katherine explains why in her blog...

Known in the farming industry as broilers (hens reared for humans to eat), Cornish chooks are bred to grow as big as possible as fast as possible. They are generally just five weeks old when they reach the weight they are sent to slaughter, so the chickens that you see on supermarket shelves are babies. They get sent to a breeder, housed in barns, and shipped to the slaughterhouse without ever having seen daylight. It's very sad.

An adorable Cornish star: the chooks at five weeks old

Being able to rescue ten of them is a very special experience for us. Despite looking like adults, they were chirping like chicks when they arrived! It was all very confusing and their bodies were way too big for their legs. Now they are five months old and have grown even bigger, but they are much more mobile which is lovely to see.

These ten cheeky characters have grown in confidence each day since arriving at the sanctuary. They are full of life, love to play, and can make a game out of anything. Even a big yellow bucket that we gave them quickly became their new favourite thing! Then there’s the multicoloured tunnel which they got from our kind supporters at Christmas. It's ideal to run through and peck at - particularly as chickens love different colours. They can actually see more colours than humans can!

When they get tired of playing and want to get cosy, our Cornish babies love to sneak into the hay/feed shed and snuggle up in the straw. It keeps them warm – especially on gloomy Somerset days. Thanks to our brilliant volunteer Martin, they now have their own hen house too, skillfully made from a repurposed old shed. There’s one more thing they do need, however: names!

NAMING COMPETITION – LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES!

At five months old, our beautiful Cornish chooks still haven't got their own names... so we're asking for your help and suggestions! Head over to our Crowdfunder page to take part but be quick as the competition closes at midnight tomorrow (Friday 5 February)! Donate £2 to enter a name of your choice into the draw.

Your donation goes directly towards caring for these lovely (not so) little souls, as well as the other rescues here at the Sanctuary.

We have four boys and six girls, and you can enter as many names as you like. Donate multiples of £2 to be in with a higher chance of winning! Please write your name suggestions clearly in the message box when you make your donation. It is rather difficult to tell them apart, so we will be putting coloured rings on the chook's legs to keep track of everyone's names!

Names will be drawn on Saturday 6th February during our Facebook Live session at 10.30am. Tune in to join us then! We will also do introductory posts later in the day. Thank you for your support!