Running on battery power

IHAVE kept chickens for 10 years (‘The chicken and the eggs’, June 24) and started off with a Light Sussex, some Black Rocks and a bantam cockerel of unknown breeding called George. Over the years, I have replaced them with Warrens (above) from the local battery farm—i always buy a mix of pullets and year-old girls.

I can’t tell you the satisfaction one gets from collecting 10 hens from the farm, with their incredibly pale combs and wattles and many bald patches, and seeing the transformation in a week. Once they are installed in the hen house, it can take them a couple of days to pluck up the courage to brave the pop hole, but I think the best way is to chuck them out and let them get on with it. The moment when they start scratching, pecking at nettles and suddenly become hens is priceless. I fully support the work of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, but for me there is only one chicken and that is an ex-battery chicken. Dawn Miller, Monmouthshire