Hensus

We asked, you answered

Every few years we like to get nosy and delve a little deeper into the lives of the people who keep our lifesaving work going – you, our supporters. It’s all in the name of hen welfare (honest), so we thought it only fair that you get insight into the results. So grab a cuppa, take 10, and find out more about, well, you!

General hen-tics

We asked how many hens you keep and their names and, well, there were some corkers! Possibly our favourite answer of all time was this, from one supporter: “Doctor Frankenchicken, Mike, Leprous the magnificent, General Margaret commander of the fleet, Number 9, Lady in red, Oi stop that, pecky, clucky, feather face, Professor Explorer luck, Why aren't you in bed and You're my favourite.” It really had us howling!

As expected, 83% of you who took part had rehomed from the BHWT, and 64% have rehomed more than once which goes to show the addictive nature of our hens. When we asked what motivated you to adopt, the answers were heartwarming.

One response from supporter Jane summed it all up quite perfectly: "So they could enjoy the rest of their life being loved and spoilt." Quite right.

Hen health and fundraising

As with any pet, some of you have experienced health issues with your hens, with 62% having had to take their hens to the vet. Encouragingly, most of you rated the care your hen(s) received as 10/10, which shows the strides being made to offer pet hens improved treatments.

Lots and lots of you have made a one-off donation and / or donated while using our online shop – thank you. It turns out you’re a dedicated bunch as 42% of you have supported our work for between one and five years, with a further 24% being part of our flock for 5-10 years.

Compassionate and kind were two of the most-used words that came up when we asked you to describe yourself as a supporter of the BHWT - we couldn’t agree more.

Shopping and C&E

Over half (57%) of you have used our online shop and the majority of you do so in order to support our lifesaving work. Those who don’t use our shop say it’s because you have a store near you or because you want to save on postage. We hear you, and we can say that we’re working behind the scenes to improve our shop offering and postage costs – watch this space.

We asked what you’d like to see more of in our online shop and lots of you said more treats. One answer wins the prize for most innovative idea - ‘self-cleaning hen houses’! If only...

We were pleasantly surprised to see that 65% of you prefer reading a hard copy of our Chicken & Egg magazine; however, 51% of you would not be prepared to pay to read it.

While we want to continue to subsidise 100% of the cost of the magazine for now, the simple fact is that everything has gone up including the price of print and postage. Any donation you are able to make to cover the cost of your magazine would be hugely appreciated.