Spreading the message far & wide

We started planning for our one millionth hen at the end of last year. Of course, the very first task was writing to King Charles and his selfless response gave the charity the platform from which to launch an ambitious campaign to promote the hens we so love.

With three key staff all busy hatching babies (congratulations go to Kylie and son Beau, to Elaina and her son, Casey and to Fran whose second daughter Ottilie arrived in November), the charity recruited additional external resources.

Sonder Communications assisted with PR, and the aptly named social media team Happy Yolk created and rolled out our socials campaign leading up to the day Henrietta’s special home was announced. Firstly both teams were immense fun to work with (my goodness it felt suddenly so flat for all of us as the event passed!) and secondly both helped the charity to focus and achieve great coverage across national media and social networks. Our one millionth hen campaign culminated in the reel created by Simon Moore which received more than 780,000 plays - the highest number seen on our platform and reaching new audiences!

Throughout the campaign we held meetings with Buckingham Palace, Highgrove and the King’s Foundation and we are immensely grateful for all the guidance given on royal protocol. Holding a meeting titled ‘The Royal Household & BHWT Communications Planning’ was a moment to savour - how often does an opportunity like that arise; again huge thanks to His Majesty for his kindness. And what lovely, helpful people they were.

So thank you to Katie, Leona, Rose, Alissa, Maya, Zoe, Dax, Simon, Aaminah, Emma, Paul and Scott. You all made our special achievement even more special.

Whilst saying our thank you’s, I would like to thank all of you reading this magazine for helping the charity in one form or another. As I explained in my intro, the team at Hen Central are so driven to do more to help hens and whether you offer a home and (or) donate for other reasons, I hope your faith in us is strengthened by our recent success.

Receiving funding through your donations allows us to develop in multiple ways and our Christmas Appeal is all about building more teams and increasing the number of hens we rehome annually, helping to reach our second millionth hen faster.

However, as always, the BHWT looks further and wants to dive deeper into improving awareness of the power of consumer influence as well as the therapeutic benefits of hens. You’ll read more on this on pages 44 and 45.

Whether you’re able to give a small one-off donation or a regular gift, the charity pledges to each donor that we will make your contribution work to the benefit of commercial laying hens. And be assured, we are ambitious.

My final thank you, but nonetheless important, goes to my lovely Hen Central team and Board of Trustees. Most of my colleagues have been with the charity for a long time, but as with all organisations, we have our challenging moments, and I’m quite sure I oftentimes drive my team potty with my punctilious ways (sorry guys!). However, I can honestly tell you that we are the best at stepping in to help each other, in collaborative team work and fun camaraderie. And not infrequently someone will comment on our work setting off my goosebumps and making me feel super proud of our collective achievements and super lucky to have them.