We've recently rescued various breeds of hens and would now like to find them considerate and caring homes.   If you've never kept hens before, we can give you advice on how to look after them.   They become tame quite easily when kept in small numbers and make interestering and rewarding animal friends.   You might even get eggs!  Hens lay eggs automatically when they reach adulthood and this is whether they have a cockerel for a mate or not.  Hens are sociable creatures and should always have companions so we wouldn't adopt just one unless you already had hens and we were sure they would fit in.   We also have some Italian Quail youngsters - and some very pretty and quite rare hen breeds  ..... 

Including ....                                                                                                        

French Auracana's - These are dark grey/black speckled birds who lay lovely green/blue eggs - pullets only.                                                                

Marans    - lovely speckled grey and white birds who lay deep brown eggs   

Lavendar Pekins - these are charming silvery grey coloured bantams (small hens) with feathers on their legs - like little stockings.   Pekins are real characters and can become very tame.   We also have one Cuckoo Pekin - the same except a fawn colour.                                                                                                     

Japanese Millefleur's  - lovely very unusual and rare bantams - orange coloured feathers with white spots all over them - very upright tail feathers and sweet and alert expressions.                                                                                            

Italian Quail - these are small fawn and brown speckled birds, very neat in appearance and quite shy to start with but they do become very tame and will run to you and flutter onto your hands when they get to know you.   Most quail in the U.K. are farmed in battery cages and slaughtered for food.  In the U.K. 10,000 of these lovely little birds are eaten each week.  They are prolific egg-layers and can produce over 200 tiny eggs a year.

Please get in touch if you are interested in adopting any of our birds - email the sanctuary or phone the sanctuary 01246 456177

We're putting some chicken care hints, tips, care and advice online very soon - watch this space!