A South Lakeland animal shelter has been caring for 26 battery hens since trustees agreed earlier this year to allow them to be taken in.
The Wainwright Shelter at Grayrigg is currently looking after 11 birds after the others were successfully re-homed. Prior to their arrival, the hens had been crammed into small pens 24 hours a day, but are now enjoying the freedom of the shelter.
Wainwright Shelter supervison Becca Walker Shelter said: "We get quite a lot of battery hens as they have no use to farmers once they come to the end of their egg-laying life, and so are replaced by younger hens.
"We always need homes for them, so anybody with a secure garden and a hut can take them."
Some of the chickens were fully feathered when they arrived but others were not in such good shape. But within a couple of days their combs had turned pink and within a week they were starting to get new feathers through.
The shelter has had one of its busiest years to date, and Becca believes that the current economic climate is responsible.
They have had 146 cats and 78 dogs this year and the newsletter says that a lot of animals are coming to the shelter due to people losing their homes and moving into rented property where animals are not allowed.
"We had an awful lot of people just turn up on the doorstep with them without any warning and we have just had to squeeze them in somewhere until space became available," says the newsletter.
As well as the hens, the shelter has also seen a rise in cats carrying kittens. "We wish people would realise how young female cats can be to have their first litter and how much strain it puts on their growing bodies," said Ms Walker.
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