Sam’s Ark:one boy's fight against battery farming!

In the Summer 2011 issue of In Focus, the story of Sam Keenan’s (Year 8) fight against battery farming was featured. Sam wrote to the Queen, putting forward his case against keeping battery hens.  He soon received a reply to say that Her Majesty had directed that his letter be passed straight to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Since then, Sam has continued to rescue chickens about to be ‘retired’ from their battery cages and nurtures them back to health. Luckily, Sam’s parents have a smallholding so he is able to look after about 50 birds at any one time and, once their feathers have returned and they are thriving in the open air, Sam sells them to good homes and invests the money he makes in rescuing more hens.   Battery hens usually become good layers once they have been re-habilitated, so he is also putting their eggs to good use, adding the money he makes from selling them to the rescue war chest.

If you are interested in giving Sam’s chickens a good home or buying his free range eggs, please contact helen.keenan4@btopenworld.com

Eggs £1.20 for 6, Hatching eggs £3 for 6, Laying hens £10 for 2.

Sam’s advice to those thinking of taking on a pair of his chickens:  They are easy to look after and you only need very small area if you just have two. They are great at recycling the food waste that you would throw into the bin - into eggs! No smelly bins is a bonus. Chickens even eat the waste egg shells which is very good for them.  Virtually all back yards in Liverpool and Wirral would have had couple of chickens in the past, so you need very little space to keep a few happy chickens.