Chicks, Chooks ...A Hen by any other name.. by: Steph Newton.
Little Hen Rescue do a marvellous job under intense pressure. They look after sick and poorly hens when the get some ex battery hens and find them a permanent home.
If you have any problem ata all you can always phone for advice. Nothing is ever too much trouble. They rely on contributions from members of the public for helping towards costs and you can also "give on-line".
The lady who is responsible for creating this group is Jo Eglen. Many of the 5,750 chickens Jo saved were so stressed they had lost their feathers.
So she asked locals to knit them jumpers.
And she received an amazing 1,500 in just two months.
Mum-of-two Jo, a teaching assistant of Norwich, Norfolk, said: "We've had so many different kinds ? Christmas-themed jumpers, multi-coloured ones, some with bows and stripes."
She started rescuing battery hens and finding them new homes after visiting a farm. She said: "I saw how they lived and died. I just thought it was such a waste of life."
Jo Eglen, who set-up the rescue centre in 2008 at Newton Flotman, asked BBC Suffolk to help find homes for the birds using the airwaves:
"It's the biggest operation we've ever done. We've done 2,000 with help from another chicken rescue, but never 4,000 on our own.
"In the intensive farms, their egg-quality goes down, but once they're out in the open and free-range they will lay an egg every day for you.
"A bag of food costs about £6 and if you've got six hens that'll last you three weeks."
The British Egg Information Service (the egg industry's promotional wing) says around 10 billion eggs are consumed in the UK each year - and of those 8.5 billion are produced here.
Of those, 58% are from battery hens (or 'caged' birds as the industry calls them), 38% are free-range or organic and 4% are barn eggs. The Service's spokesman Kevin Coles said: "We produce eggs from caged birds because the consumers want to buy them.
"The UK has the largest free-range flock in Europe, but there are consumers out there who want the cheapest [battery/caged] eggs and if the UK didn't produce them, they'd be produced elsewhere."
Mr Coles said standards are in place for caged birds: "Losing feathers isn't a problem for the birds. They lose them through rubbing on the bars of their cages.
"It doesn't look nice, but the welfare conditions they're kept in are important. If the birds are stressed or unhappy, they'll lay fewer eggs and that's not in the interests of the farmer.
"Consumers will vote with their pockets ultimately."
Chickens are quite easy to keep and endear themselves to you within a few days. There are so mant types to enjoy, so do your homework before you part with money. Again Little Hen Rescue will advise too.