Back to basics

In a world of artificial intelligence and carefully curated content, these past few months have been a welcome reminder that, actually, most social media users crave authenticity. It is so easy to fall into the trap of following trends and posting content that doesn’t align with core values, but we’ve found our best performing posts recently have come from our supporters themselves. Quite simply, you want to see happy hens living their best lives, and we’ll happily oblige. Here’s some of our highlights.

Facebook

As confirmation of the above, one of our most successful posts of 2025 was a simple appeal to find more homes for hens. This powerful shot of a hen, fresh from a farm, enjoying the sunshine for the first time was viewed more than 530,000 times and gained over 2,000 interactions and shares combined how affectionate these little birds are.

In January we shared the news that cages for laying hens could be a thing of the past thanks to a DEFRA consultation which you’ll have read more about in the earlier pages of this magazine. This image, which has been well used over the years, struck a chord and the post had 222 comments and over 2,000 interactions.

Transformation Tuesday continues to be a popular theme; this is a striking example of the way ex-commercial hens transform, especially in their combs and wattles, and indeed some people questioned if it was in the fact the same hen. We can confirm it certainly is, and little Cosmo is living her best life with ex-BHWT staff member Emma.

Instagram

We all went a bit giddy when C&E interviewee Giovanna Fletcher invited us to be a collaborator on her reel back in January after adopting hens from our Buckinghamshire site. We were right to be excited, because the post was viewed more than 930,000 times, with 98.6% of those being people who did not follow the BHWT. This meant a huge spike in our online following, and we cannot thank Giovanna enough for raising awareness of what we do.

Who doesn’t love a bit of gentle chicken chatter? A heartwarming reel we posted, kindly captured and sent in by BHWT supporter Lauren Cushnie, showed her hens enjoying a natter in their cosy coop before the day had started. You loved it as much as us and it attracted 41,627 views, reaching 30,101 accounts in the process. Oh the power of user generated content.

This stunning shot of El Hefe, who lives with our Essex volunteer Sophia Roma, was posted in celebration of her eighth birthday – a huge milestone for any ex-commercial hen. El Hefe is often the subject of Sophia’s gorgeous photos and we’re so grateful she’s a happy model!