News

The chicken eve countdown is now on!

Fridays are usually Chicken Eves for our volunteers and rehomers.
Today we are counting down the 3 weeks until our next Chicken Eve, when thousands of hens are liberated nationwide. Our volunteers are excited about getting back into what they love most, which is rescuing these hens.
We do need some help though so if you can share this post the hens (and us) would be grateful!
Two dates are now live and there is a wide range of collection points open. Enhanced biosecurity measures are in places both at the farms and collection points. If a collection point or farm is within a restricted zone we will contact you to postpone your reservation but fingers crossed this will not happen.
Saturday 26th February – 3000 hens
Basildon (Sunday rehome)
Basingstoke
Colchester (Sunday rehome)
Congleton
Coventry
Ellesmere Port
Hertford
Hitchin
Huntingdon
Milton Keynes
Minehead
Newton Abbot
Solihull
Southampton
St Austell
Sutton Coldfield
Taunton
Wareham
Wisbech (Sunday rehome)
Saturday 19th March – 3000 hens
Ammanford
Basingstoke
Congleton
Coventry
Darlington
Devizes
Durham
Ellesmere Port
Evesham
Folkestone
Harrogate
Horsham
Ipswich
Lingfield
Newcastle
North Walsham
Penkridge
Reading
Ross on Wye
Scunthorpe
Selby
Solihull
Sutton Coldfield
Tenbury Wells
Tunbridge Wells
Watton
Whaley Bridge
Worthing

Happy New Year!

We are already planning for our first rehoming dates, providing the Avian Influenza situation continues to improve, we are hoping to have our first traditional rehome on the 26th February with a further 4 planned for March and April, totalling 15,000 hens!!!

Rehoming thousands of hens in one day takes weeks of planning and admin behind the scenes, hence the need to start these now.

As you may know, we took the difficult decision to suspend our traditional rehomes from December, but by adapting our model we have still been able to save hundreds of hens.

We have been taking small numbers of hens from farms and placing them into quarantine for a minimum of 14 days. Employing our own strict biosecurity measures, we have been able to continue rehoming hens once their quarantine period is over.

We have hens available to rehome now from the following locations.

Andover – Saturday 8th January

Barnsley – date coming soon

Basildon – date coming soon

Colchester – date coming soon

Folkestone – hens available now

Huntingdon – hens available now

High Wycombe – hens available now

Lingfield – hens available now

Norwich – Sunday 9th January at midday (please select Acle and add a note for this collection point)

Sandhurst – hens available now

 

Southampton (Totton) – Saturday 8th January

Swanley – hens available now

Wisbech – hens available now

Please note, all of hens have been held in quarantine and monitored for a minimum of 14 days. The hens are not or have come from any protection or surveillance zones.

Please remember if you live in one of these zones, you should not be rehoming hens while the zone is still active.

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To reserve hens from one of the above locations or to take part in one of our upcoming rehomings starting from 26th  February, please visit the website www.freshstartforhens.co.uk and click on the “register” section. 

If you have any specific requests or a date in mind that you would like to rehome from, please add this to the notes section.

We also have a few ducks available still!

December dates now open for reservations!

The final dates for 2021 are now live on the website and reservations are open!
11th December -1500 free-range hens available from;
Andover
Basingstoke
Chelmsford
Colchester
Coventry
Devizes
Ellesmere Port
Evesham
Horsham
Lingfield
Llanidloes
Minehead
Newton Abbot
North Walsham (Sunday 12th December rehome)
Reading
Southampton
Taunton
Whaley Bridge
18th December – 1000 free-range hens available from;
Ammanford
Burton on Trent
Congleton
Coventry
Harrogate
Hitchin
Horsham
Huntingdon
Lingfield
Market Rasen
Milton Keynes
Penkridge
Ross on Wye
Selby
Solihull
Southminster
Spalding
Sutton Coldfield
Tenbury Wells
Wisbech
There are still 2000 hens looking for homes on the 27th November.
Lots of collection points across England and Wales open.
Register today for your hens.

Two new dates announced for November

2 NEW dates for November are now live on the website as we are down to our last 4 rehomes of 2021!
6th November will have 1000 free range hens looking for homes from:
Ammanford
Bradford
Burton on Trent
Chelmsford
Colchester
Coventry
Evesham
Ellesmere Port **NEW**
Garstang
Hitchin
Horsham
Ipswich
Lingfield
Llanidloes
Penkridge
Selby
Spalding
Sutton Coldfield
Whaley Bridge
Wisbech
27th November will have 3900 free range hens looking for homes from:
Aylesford
Basildon
Basingstoke
Bedford
Bridlington
Bristol – NOW FULL
Burton on Trent
Chelmsford
Colchester
Coventry
Darlington
Devizes **NEW**
Dolgellau
Durham
Folkestone
Gosport
Hailsham
Harrogate
High Wycombe
Horsham
Isle of Sheppey **NEW**
Lingfield
Malvern
Melton Mowbray
Minehead
Pencader
Petersfield
Reading
Ross on Wye
Solihull
Southampton
Southminster
St Austell
Taunton
Tenbury Wells
Tunbridge Wells
Watton
Whitland
Wisbech
Worthing
Lots of choice of collection points in November.
Reservations can be made via the website www.freshstartforhens.co.uk
No photo description available.

Rehome update with new dates announced

Rehome news and an update.

Yesterday saw 2 barns emptied with almost 3400 hens in their new retirement homes.
This is a special little girl who was found when the Aylesford team unloaded the hens from the crates. This is known as a cross beak or as the volunteers call them a “wonky hen” (they are very popular amongst the farm team who spot them). This will have happened as a result of a birth defect, she has survived 18 months already and will continue to thrive.

A couple of more dates have been announced on the website including a few collection points that have not been open for a little while. More collection points are due to be added this week.

New rehome dates are now live for reservations on the website www.freshstartforhens.co.uk with the following collection points open;

Andover (2nd October)
Anglesey (9th October)
Basildon (25th September & 2nd October)
Burton on Trent (25th September & 2nd October)
Congleton (25th September & 2nd October)
Coventry (25th September & 2nd October)
Darlington (2nd October)
Dolgellau (25th September)
Hastings (2nd October)
High Wycombe (2nd October)
Horsham (25th September & 2nd October)
Huntingdon (25th September)
Ipswich (25th September)
Lingfield (25th September & 2nd October)
Llanidloes (26th September)
Milton Keynes (25th September)
Newton Abbot (23rd October)
Nottingham (2nd October)
Pencader (25th September)
Petersfield (25th September & 2nd October)
Reading (25th September & 2nd October)
Ross-on-Wye (2nd October)
Rugby (25th September)
Selby (2nd October)
Solihull (25th September)
Southampton (2nd October)
St Austell (23rd October)
Sutton Coldfield (25th September & 2nd October)
Swanley (2nd October)
Taunton (23rd October)
Tenbury Wells (2nd October)
Thanet (25th September)
Wakefield (2nd October)
Wareham (2nd October)
Watton (2nd October)
Wisbech (25th September)
Worthing (2nd October)

We can not do this without your support in the form of rehoming a few hens or sharing the love for the work we do by sharing our posts to friends, family and other groups.