Battery Hen Welfare Trust

“

Working to inspire a Free Range Future”

Registered Charity No: 1109060

Dear SupportersI wasn’t quite sure how to start this Newsletter; I didn’t want to get serious – well not straight away and I didn’t want tospout about how you can help me make a difference

again

… I’ll save that for later, too. Then I took two calls, one after theother and that gave me the perfect reminder on how to reach the people who may not know about us and/or the hens.Firstly Olga rang to ‘apologise’ for not being able to adopt some ex-bats due to her feather phobia; she went on to say shewanted to contribute to the charity because of the difference ex-bats had made to her life since the loss of her husband.Then Jenny rang; having adopted some girls a matter of weeks ago, she and her boyfriend decided to fundraise on our behalf just because the girls had brought so much pleasure into their lives – you can read more on both the stories insideMy conclusion: the hens inspire people, they bring a new dimension to our lives so we must maximise their marketingskills.Other ingredients in this issue include Happy Eggs and where to get them, a focus on our fabulous fellas around the group,some fascinating facts on eggs and loads of feathery brown things doing what they enjoy most … free ranging!Jane X

Newsletter No 20

www.bhwt.org.ukPhone: 01769 580310Email: info@bhwt.org.ukNorth Parks, Chulmleigh, Devon, EX18 7EJ

2009

So long as it’s positive all levels of media attention are usually good for us. This quarter brought a wide rangeincluding a prime slot on Countryfilewith regular presenter, Adam Henson,adopting some girls from our CoventryCo-ordinators, Ian & Mollie Farrar.Viewing figures: 6 Million plus!We had another mention in

Waitrose Illustrated

magazine and

Country & Border Life

magazinecovered all aspects of hen keeping with a featureon adopting ex-bats. We also featured in Horse &Rider and Country Smallholding.We had TV slots on BBC Look North in Lincolnshire,BBC Spotlight in Devon and BBC East Midlands.Radio slots were broadcast in Oxford, Bristol andEssex … all reaching people who may not haveheard about the BHWT! We even appearedon

National Geographic

around the globe

AND WHEN YOUR EX-BAT HAS FINISHED LAYING …… simply chop some onions, dice some carrots and pop her in! Plucked first of course! So said ElizabethLuard, regular writer for

Country Living

magazine, who adopted some ex-bats a year or so ago and wrote apiece about the merits of keeping cheap chickens and facing the credit crunch with ‘bright’ ideas! As you canimagine I received quite a postbag, mostly offering all sorts of suggestions for recipes involving ElizabethLuard herself! Suffice it to say she got a fair roasting from our disgruntled supporters!Out of curiosity I contacted the magazine and was not surprised to learn that the suggestion to pot roast spenthens had in fact been written by Shona Corford Poole; someone who didn’t own hens and had no knowledgethat organisations like ours existed! Apologies aside, and Shona did take pains to show remorse for her clumsy reference, a little simple homework would not have gone amiss and a follow up correction or evenfeature would have been a nice balance to their whopping faux pas!At the other end of the scale, MedwynRoberts, Holywell Town Centre Manager,reached 3,000 local residents with a fulltwo pages of positive publicity in his localpaper, Holywell News. Medwyn evenprinted our cake poster inthe paper –invaluable.

Adam Henson

Blinkin’ brilliant: Trixy Gallagher, Anna Allen, ToniClarkson, Lisa Cornish, our own Corinne Careyand Michelle & Eloise Boulton collectively raised£2,858 with their BUPA 10k fundraiser! Specialthanks to Trixy whoin her own rightraised a whopping£1,172.Phil and AngieEvans were at itagain raising £550in the Flora LondonMarathon; andLucy Patterson andJo Cowper raised£200 betweenthem in the Exeter Half Marathon.THANK YOU!Dr Nicola Rymes sent us £50 egg saleproceeds from her six ex-bats, you’llread a bit more about Nicola later on.

Paul Melnyczuk,Director of GoodLife Press Ltd,presented theBHWT team with acheque for £800 asa result of their recent magazinepromotion. A bigthanks to everyone at Home Farmer magazine.

Finally thanks, too, to supporter, Margaret Bultitude, who sadly died in December 07, but who had the foresight to thinkabout helping hens when she was alive and left a legacy to the BHWT of £2,725. We will use her kind gesture wisely.In MemoryI was deeply shocked and saddened to learn that BHWT supporter, Colin Yamomoto, diedsuddenly from a heart attack at home on 16

May 2009, aged just 37. Colin was one of theearliest BHWT supporters who made a real contribution to the development of the charity.When he first got in touch, it was quickly evident that Colin had IT skills – something I wasentirely devoid of and woefully lack even now – so Colin was willingly roped into leaflet design,newsletter typesetting and all the IT troubleshooting I needed. He was brilliant! Colin was calm,clever and invariably had the problem resolved before I’d finished my panic-ridden whinge!Deadlines were a lot more tolerable knowing I had Colin on the end of the phone and for that Ishall always be grateful.Colin had two passions – cars and chickens and until I met Colin I always believed that cars went ‘vroomvroom’ and hens went ‘cluck cluck’. Not so, hens apparently went ‘bok bok’ according to Colin and he hada number plate on his beloved Puma car to prove it! I have to say he had a point!I shall really miss Colin, he helped on re-homing days too and will be missed in so many ways at the BHWT. I only hope hewould be touched and pleased that his family, friends and colleagues have decided to give funeral donations to his favouritecharity. It’s a tribute to Colin that over £2,200 has been raised in his memory.

Cop Lane Primary School inPreston whose year 6 class (withteacher Ian Ashmore) raised£180 for us, painting free rangeeggs and holding a huge cakesale, just look at them! Theyrecently sponsored two of our hens as well..Chess Dynamics, amilitary defencesystems company,organised a 'ChickenDay' for us and raised£100.50. They held acake sale and raffleand dressed up!

Kip Spurway’s family and friends kindly donated £590 in her memory. Kip loved her chickens.

Michelle and EloiseBoultonCorinne Carey withdaughters Jaccaba &BrailenTrixy Gallagher

Anne Sharrard isn’t a very well lady, but she still findsenergy to help the girls and we’re adopting her suggestion to include a regular donation form in thisNewsletter. Anne also kindly sent us £50; thank you.

Just look at this lot:

If you would like to find out more about leaving us a gift in your Will, please contact Lisa Tate on 01769 580310