Continuing with our Help Your Britain campaign, today marks the seventh user-nominated charity to be showcased on Bing. We’ll be showcasing the work of a small UK charity on the last Friday of each month enabling the cause to tell its own story.
There are more than 187,000 registered charities across Great Britain with a story to be told, many of whom will never be heard due to the lack of resources at their disposal. We’re shining the spotlight on these unsung British heroes as part of a long-term campaign, enabling you, the British public, to nominate the charities you would like to see featured on the homepage on the final Friday of each month via www.bing.com/HelpYourBritain.
Today is the turn of …
The British Hen Welfare Trust (formerly the Battery Hen Welfare Trust) is a national charity that 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. Its ultimate aim is to see consumers and food manufacturers buying only UK produced free range eggs, resulting in a strong British egg industry where all commercial laying hens enjoy a good quality life.
A day in the life of Jane Howorth, founder of the British Hen Welfare Foundation
September, 2012
Why hens? Because they’re one of the most undervalued, underrated animals on our planet and yet they produce one of the most valued and versatile foods that we enjoy on a daily basis. Ironic or what?
Who cares? Well you see, those who don’t have hens don’t realise that they’re individuals, with individual characters – some are affectionate, some just love chasing bugs (no time to stop), some are clever and learn new tricks fast, and some just enjoy life on the outside. But they all have one thing in common and that’s the ability to lay a tasty breakfast – that’s if a ‘sunny-side up’ egg on toast is your thing, although of course, it could be a gooey chocolate cake, slice of quiche or too many pancakes (‘cause they’re just too divine). Whatever takes your fancy, there’s a reasonable chance a hen had something to do with what you eat!
My day? Up way too early for my liking, but grumblings aside, it’s out to the hens for feeding, poop removing, egg collecting (assuming my retired ladies deign to lay) and a little chicken chatting. Yes really, chickens chat – no different to dogs wagging their tails and cats meowing when you call their name. So don’t think I’m bonkers.
Dogs/husband – all fed, cuddled and sorted.
Work – we’ve just moved to a sweet little converted chapel, called Hope Chapel at Rose Ash. The new sign is up and we’re settling into our new coop, all nine of the wonderful ladies I work with, that is. We book thousands of hens from farmers and we match them to our amazing waiting list of hen-loving people all over the country. Nearly all have a home waiting for them when we collect them: removal from cage in the morning, and installation into a nice new free range pad in the afternoon – job done! Of course, it’s a little more complex than that – handling 9,000 adoptions a year and 60,000+ hens equals quite a lot of logistics, hard work, and support from our incredible 300+ volunteers. Hurrah for our incredible volunteers!
Then there’s the PR – we need people to know about us, help us, support British free range farmers. We need funds – badly – so there’s grant applications to be made and cake sales to be supported.
Every day in the office? BUSY! But we never mention the phrase “headless xxxxx” – it just wouldn’t do.
Evenings – sorting out my feathery girls, my four-legged girls and of course the husband (poor husband, all those females – not even a cockerel in sight to offer male support). Then it’s supper, goodies (always chocolate), and thinking about the next lucky hens to be collected.
And just in case you’re interested October is going to be a bumper month for our caged hens: 18 teams booked to go into three farms and bring out, hopefully, around 6,000 birds! Team effort = happy hens!
If you would like to see your charity of choice take over the Bing homepage, you can nominate them here:
www.bing.com/HelpYourBritain Don’t forget to get involved with the conversation on Facebook and Twitter #HelpYourBritain