Last of the Summer Wine - inside another chicken coop

Nora, Ivy, Pearl, Edie and Glenda are very lucky ladies! They have recently moved to a new home. Mike Taylor has recently rescued these five little ex battery hens and now their life is quite different to how they had been living in the past.

Mike prepared their new home well in advance and made a new coop out of a combination of a rabbit hutch, an old wardrobe and a chest of draws. His clever recycling has given these lovely ladies a cosy new home and he has even gathered old logs to make their run more interesting as they love to peck at the small insects that climb all over them.

Mike approached the Battery Hen Welfare Trust ( http://www.bhwt.org.uk/. ) They put him in touch with the local representative for his area and they arranged for delivery. Within a few weeks Nora, Ivy, Pearl, Edie and Glenda were settled in their new home.

"They arrive in a wide range of conditions" Mike said. "Some of them had very few feathers at all, but some were not too bad." But already Mike has seen an improvement as they grow healthy again and he is even getting a few eggs every day from them.

This one had very few feathers, but she seems doesn't seem to bothered as she explores her exciting new run


Mike is very handy with making things and he even rigged up a way of opening their coop in the morning while still enjoying his morning cuppa. He tied a ball of string to the door of the coop then ran the rest of the ball all the way to his house and tied it next to the window. This means on dark winter mornings he just opens the window, pulls the string, and the ladies can be free to roam for the day. Ingenious!

I was curious at how he had come up with their names, Mike is a massive fan of Last of the Summer Wine, so it was the obvious choice. Mike just saw his feisty little hens and immediately named them after the characters from the hit TV series. Nora is even playing up to her namesake by becoming the bossy one of the group. So the pecking order is well and truly established.

It's a wonderful feeling to think there are people like Mike who make the decision to take on these poor bedraggled little creatures. But with a bit of love and care, these ladies are now set to make a full recovery in their happy new home. I can't help wondering now if Compo, Foggy and Clegg may make an appearance at some time!