Hen rescue: a report from farm to freedom

Pear Tree Farm founder Bex reflects on her latest hen rescue mission...

Flopping down on the sofa after a 12-hour day freeing chickens from a local egg farm in Somerset, I feel incredibly emotional – reflecting on a rescue is always bittersweet.

With thousands of birds being culled we arrive hoping to save as many as we can. In the end, we drive away with 450 deserving little souls. Every egg farm in the country does this major cull every 72 weeks, and we’re tentatively building relationships with them, in the hope that we can keep going back to free more.

HEARTBREAKING WORK

It’s hard work –physically and emotionally. We hire a Luton van for the day and load it up with crates to transport the birds from the farm. The whole process is highly emotional because of course, we want to take them all, but can’t. We have to leave so many behind, it’s really hard. They’re all watching as we negotiate the release of the lucky ones and load the van, and the whole scene is just heartbreaking. The drive back is tense too – we just want to get the little ones we’ve saved, home okay.

 

At the sanctuary, our Little Wing hen hospital and rescue village is coming along nicely. The coop – consisting of a converted lorry top and surrounding run – is nearly finished, so we’re able to release all 450 birds into it, and everyone is fine. It isn’t too cramped amazingly, and we notice that only two birds in this group have bad legs (commonly caused by aggressive handling), compared to 16 from our last rescue. One hen was getting really picked on though, so we’re keeping her.

FRESH STARTS

The pickups start almost straight away. People are so, so nice and excited to see their new little friends. This is the super-rewarding part of rescuing chickens. It’s just so special because you know they’re going to have an amazing life of freedom, and they certainly deserve it.

 

It’s been a tough day for us all, but overall, a successful one. 450 hens are safe, and that’s amazing. Despite that, they’re still terrified and don’t know what’s happening. I wish we could just explain it all to them, tell them not to worry, and that everything’s going to be okay.

 

The Pear Tree Farm team is planning another rescue with Fresh Start for Hens in May, when together they aim to save an entire barn-full of 6,000 hens. To help the sanctuary get its hospital hen-ready donate via Paypal here to: peartreefarmanimalsanctuary.com. Remember to select 'friends and family'. For more ways to donate visit our website