Poultry in Motion
In 2007 This England gave a Silver Cross of St George Award to Jane Howorth for her work with the British Hen Welfare Trust. Simone Stanbrook-Byrne catches up with her
Hen rescuer Jane Howorth has been busy
IN recent months we have found ourselves living very changed lifestyles resulting in an awareness of “getting back to basics”. This has imbued in many a desire for self-sufficiency, and as a result more people are turning to keeping hens.
The British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) was founded in 2005 by
Jane Howorth to give new life to ex-commercial, often battery hens. Since then the charity has homed well over three-quarters of a million hens who were no longer considered “commercially viable”.
The charity has become such a massive operation that it now works from 42 pop-up hubs across the UK, employing 12 full-time staff at its Devon headquarters, “Hen Central”, and ably assisted nationally by more than 900 volunteers.
In 2016 Jane was awarded the MBE for her services to hen welfare. To a soundtrack of contented clucking, she tells me how the charity has developed since she collected her first ex-battery hens from a Devon farm in 2003.
“We now handle approximately 12,000 adoptions and re-home 60,000 to 65,000 birds annually,” she says. “My objective from the outset was to avoid berating farmers or enforcing more regulations on them, but rather to come in alongside them and influence consumer shopping habits.”
Jane’s rapport with the farmers who supply her with “spent” hens is evident. Coffee occasionally appears from the farmhouse kitchen and the farm workers themselves will often assist the volunteers, taking hens out of cages and loading them into crates. Then it’s back to the nearest BHWT rehoming point, where each hen is checked and has the chance to relax on straw bedding for the first time in her life.
At this point she is around 70-75 weeks old and, if coming from a caged unit, will have lived in a “colony” cage containing up to 80 other hens, which allows each bird a space slightly larger than a sheet of A4 paper. Those arriving from an uncaged “barn” unit may have been in an environment where the maximum stocking density could be up to nine birds per square metre.
Within a few hours she is collected by her adopters for the onward journey to her new free-range home. On average, she will have three or four years of free-range life ahead, though I have had ex-bats who have reached the grand old age of seven.
The hens give no egg guarantees! Some girls take their retirement very seriously and have a good rest, others continue to lay for several years. But eggs are a bonus: the joy of having these endearing creatures wandering the garden is reward enough.
I am one of thousands of people whose lifestyle has been changed by Jane’s work.
Having kept BHWT hens for around 15 years, I have lived with some really memorable, heart-warming and funny characters: Winifred, for example, who would mug anyone for a biscuit, or Trekkie, who was named for the alien glint in her eye.
Amongst my flock are two specialneeds chickens: one-eyed Tatiana, who regularly appears in the kitchen to eye up the cats’ food, and Kate, who has mobility issues but loves life in a shady spot in the garden with food and water within beak-reach.
“Over the years the spread of our welfare message has reached not only those keeping the hens, but neighbours, friends and colleagues,” Jane explains. “This has influenced shopping habits, and the free-range egg sector has more than doubled during the time we’ve been operating.
“Most supermarkets have committed to stop using battery eggs as ingredients in their own-brand products by 2025. This will present millions more laying hens with the opportunity to feel the sun on their backs, rather than the wire under their feet that colony-caged hens currently experience.”
Since she started, Jane has seen a marked change in perceptions.
“I wanted to change attitudes towards hens, for people to see them as sentient creatures. Now they are regularly referred to by those who keep them as cats and dogs with feathers! The concept of hens as pets has become something joyful, a nod to the ever-increasing value of provenance, and also to the wellbeing that hens instil.
“As more people keep hens as pets, we’ve influenced the markets surrounding them,” Jane continues. “Vets are keen to become more knowledgeable about hen health problems, and the mental health sector recognises the huge potential for hens as therapy – an issue I’m extremely keen to develop. Farmers and retailers, too, acknowledge the need to continue growing the high-welfare, free-range sector.”
Originally Jane ran the BHWT from her home in North Devon, but in the summer of 2012 “Hen Central” relocated to a converted chapel near the village of Rose Ash. As an added bonus, Jane found that its original name was Hope Chapel, which seemed apt.
At Hope Chapel the charity has continued to widen its remit, increasing the number of hens that can be rehomed and bringing the charity’s message to a wider public. During 2020 a new facility will open and will be affectionately known as “Vicky” after one of the first hens Jane adopted.
“This new centre has an improved rehoming facility, which will allow us to provide even better conditions for, and increase the number of, hens
passing through each year. We also aim to offer hen-keeping courses, and have a new vet surgery being built so we can offer treatments to hens locally, as well as train vets and vet nurses in hen health. The new building will also double our capacity for staff, future-proofing us for some time.
“There has been little let up in demand for our lovely girls since I started,” Jane says. “And I want to see more kept in small free-range flocks – fewer than 4,000 being considered small. As a general rule, the smaller the flock, the higher the welfare standards.
“We will be raising awareness and finding more homes for these underrated, delightful little birds.”
And having witnessed those first steps of freedom taken by my own ex-caged hens, I know just how grateful they are.
Each little character leaves an impression – a lasting legacy in the rich tapestry of life with hens.