This April marks the launch of World Hen Welfare, founded by the British Hen Welfare Trust, and the beginning of a new era for hens across the globe. With charities now established in the UK and France we are incredibly proud to launch an affiliate in America too, HenPals Network. And so, hens are finding their voices in more places than ever before.

From the outset, BHWT founder Jane Howorth’s vision has been clear – that shock tactics and a dictatorial approach don’t work. Calm and pragmatic collaboration with the people able to make change does. That’s why the Trust has rehomed more than one million hens and counting, and why it has played a huge part in increasing the percentage of free-range eggs bought in the UK from 35% in 2005 to 75% in 2025. The BHWT’s work is far from done in the UK, as you’ll read throughout this magazine, but the Trust is now spreading its wings elsewhere so that more hens can enjoy the second chance they so deserve.

But let’s go back a little bit – 21 years exactly, to 2005 when Jane’s passion was ignited by a Panorama documentary on the conditions of commercial livestock. What it sparked wasn’t anger, but a motivation to make change and do better.

Years later, in her thirties, Jane moved to Devon with the documentary still nagging at her conscience. Commercial laying hens remained out of sight, out of mind – the underdogs of the animal world. Determined to change this, Jane tramped country lanes until she found a farmer who agreed, somewhat mystified, to let her take home a few ex-layers – not broilers, a crucial distinction – who would otherwise go to slaughter. She was supposed to take a dozen but ended up with 36, crammed into the back of her Mini Metro.

That first flock of hens was her inspiration to do more. Jane realised that commercial hens have a zest for life, a will to live, and so she contacted more farmers and walked into more slaughterhouses, asking to take their hens.

When her mum and dad died within nine months of each other and she found herself adrift, Jane asked the lawyer dealing with their estate if there was a chicken charity she could make a donation to. There wasn’t, and so we all know what happened next.

Jane bought a van and began attending conferences where many industry bods would recoil after seeing the word ‘welfare’ on her lanyard. The intention from the outset was clear: to work with, and defend the industry, not because some of the practices were perfect, but because attacking them was never the way to make change.

In the years that followed the interest in rehoming hens exploded and before long Jane was forced to move the operation from her bedroom to a proper office in order to manage the sheer numbers of both rehomers and willing volunteers offering to support the charity.

Her approach never changed, and she remained wary of militancy. Farmers are human beings running business with families to support and mortgages to pay. They have pride, and pressures many of us cannot contemplate.

As she quickly found, the hens did the talking for themselves. Each individual flock became ambassadors for the charity, persuading anyone who met them that they made joyous pets and were sentient creatures capable of much more than simply laying eggs.

Over time, the charity’s work extended beyond rehoming as Jane realised that it was never purely about humans helping hens. The effect worked both ways. An education programme was born to inspire the next generation of hen keepers, a hens as therapy project began to take shape in care homes and prisons, and the charity produced a pioneering online veterinary course which to date has been accessed by more than 100 countries worldwide.

But online views alone would never be enough. Jane's next mission was to go global and get physical hands on hens beyond the UK.

And so we arrive in 2020 and the inception of Champs Libre aux Poules, the first official affiliate partner of what would later become World Hen Welfare. Working closely with the BHWT and established by Heidi Carneau, former BHWT volunteer who moved to France in 2019, CLaP rehomed its first 400 hens with ease and has to date found retirement homes for more than 130,000 hens. In fact, using the established BHWT model, CLaP is growing at a faster rate than its UK counterpart did all those years ago – and long may it continue Then came an email from across the pond some years later, asking about our work and enquiring about replicating it in the US. After many excited exchanges and well-timed Teams meetings, HenPals Network was founded and, as we write this, founder Abby Johnson is poised to rehome her very first flock in Maryland – possibly on Jane’s birthday!

Although early days, plans are also underfoot to establish an affiliate charity in Canada, all of which led to the formation of World Hen Welfare, so that these organisations can benefit from the tried and tested methods used by the BHWT to change hearts and minds. Together, we’re giving more hens than ever before a voice and helping people to see the creature behind the egg, not just a box on a supermarket shelf.

From humble beginnings in Jane’s bedroom, Westcountry Retirement Home & Re-homing Centre for Battery Hens has come a long way.

Let’s give a big warm welcome to World Hen Welfare – it's just getting started.

For more information visit worldhenwelfare.org.uk