Do you have land and outbuildings that could be used to help save hens’ lives?

Jane Howorth MBE, founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust, makes a personal appeal for ‘host sites’ for the charity’s adoption days.

As a small charity, the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) relies on the generosity of its supporters and the goodwill of its volunteers to help save around 50,000 hens from slaughter every year.

We currently have more than 1,200 volunteers around the country helping in a range of roles – most connected with the our rehoming days which take place at 46 locations.

However, we are currently looking for new host sites in a few areas to make sure we can continue to rehome hens as family pets.

The area we most urgently need a new site to hold our adoption events in is Milton Keynes. We’ve rehomed more than 11,000 hens in the area since 2015 but now need to find a new site to operate from.

What do you need to be a host?

To be a host site for adoption events, you ideally need to have a stable, barn, or similar secure outbuilding for holding hens on the day, good parking facilities and somewhere that the public can visit to collect their hens.

We usually hold around 10 adoption events a year in each location and are also looking for new host sites in Perth and Dorset.

One of our current host site volunteers, Trish, told us why she loves her role so much: “All the volunteers in our team are the most amazing people that we are honoured to know. They work so hard and always with a smile and we have a lot of laughs and fun during the day.

“It is so satisfying to know that over the years we have saved thousands of hens from slaughter, and they are now living free-range lives in lovely homes.”

If you, or anyone you know, has premises that might be suitable and would like to use them to make a direct impact on the lives of thousands of hens every year, please email gaynor.davies@bhwt.co.uk for a no-obligation chat.

We also have volunteer vacancies in other roles including drivers for which a suitable vehicle is needed such as a medium to large van, a horse trailer, or a four-wheel drive car with tow bar.  Poorly hen carers, rehoming day coordinators and helpers are always needed too.

All of our volunteers play a key role in helping us to continue our life-saving work for chickens around the UK and beyond.

Not only have we saved more than 875,000 hens from slaughter since being established in 2005, but we’ve also developed an educational programme providing resources to schools.

In addition, we work closely with government agencies and veterinary institutions to develop programmes and practices to improve hen welfare in both the commercial and domestic sectors.

Most recently, we launched a free, online six-week Poultry Health course in collaboration with the University of Nottingham to increase knowledge among veterinary professionals, students, and enthusiastic hen keepers.

If you’d like to find out more about volunteering with the BHWT, visit: https://www.bhwt.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/.

Alternatively, please contact the BHWT on: info@bhwt.co.uk or 01884 860084.

Main image: Jane Howarth MBE founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust.

This article was taken from The Country Smallholder. For more content like this, subscribe here.