AN appeal to find last-minute homes for hundreds of hens that otherwise would have been destined for slaughter prompted an ‘extraordinary’ response.

The British Hen Welfare Trust hoped to re-home hundreds of hens in Camelford on Sunday, November 22.

The national charity said it hoped the ‘ex-bat’ hens could go on to enjoy a ‘festive free range retirement’.

One of those who went along to the re-homing day was Rachael Ellis, from Milton Abbot, who has re-homed four of the hens.

She told the Post she found out about the Trust’s re-homing day through its magazine.

She said: “We have re-homed two lots of chickens before, and just decided we wanted more — I’m always buying eggs!”

Rachael said her children, Leighanna, Solomon and Rosalie, love the chickens.

She added: “They are pets now. They aren’t all named yet, but one of them is called Fluffy — all four are very well feathered.

“They don’t have many feathers on their neck. They are not completely free range yet, they have been stuck inside all their life, but they are now outside every day, scratching and doing what chickens do best.

“They will soon be free range, all over the garden and wherever they please.”

Katy Wooff, marketing and communications officer at the British Hen Welfare Trust, said of the re-homing day: “We had an extraordinary response, our phones literally did not stop ringing from the morning to the evening and we could have re-homed our girls over and over again.

“Hopefully, we will get a similar response to our next re-homing day, although we haven’t confirmed the date for this one yet.”

The national charity re-homes commercial laying hens, educates the public about how they can make a difference to hen welfare and encourages support for the British egg industry.

Later this year the charity hopes to meet Dee, its soon to be 500,000th lucky hen — ‘D’ is 500,000 in Roman numerals. Follow its Countdown to Dee at www.bhwt.org.uk/countdowntodee