no balaclava-clad, graffiti-spraying activist. She

belongs to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT),

an organisation set to give battery hens a new lease of life

when they have passed their egg-laying prime.

Adele laughs off the idea of being a militant. ‘We're not

like that at all,’ she says. ‘When you first contact the

farmers you can almost hear them thinking that and

they're a bit wary. But what we're trying to do is work with

the farmers not against them.

‘At the end of the day they are running a business within

the law. A lot would like to change over to free range but

are worried that people won't support them by buying

British. People will always look at keeping their shopping

bills down, but free range eggs are only a few pence more

than the battery ones.’

Adele first got involved with the BHWT, set up in Devon,

when she sent an email wanting four pet chickens for her

garden in Haslingden.

Now she has 12 pet chickens, including two cockerels

and she is the only BHWT co-ordinator in Lancashire. That

means she re-homes chickens in houses across

Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. She’s even had

people travel from Scotland to collect birds.

‘Chickens seem to be very popular as pets,’ she says.

‘More and more people like the idea of having their own

fresh eggs every day. I think they taste even nicer than the

organic ones you can buy in the supermarkets because

the hens are feeding on real grass every day.

'They make great pets. Often people say they are like

dogs with feathers. They cluck round my feet when I'm

hanging the washing out - it's a nice feeling. They're also

very low maintenance. A big bag of feed only costs £12,

but they also eat scraps and keep the slugs down.

'The average person will take four or five hens, but

some will take 50. They go to families, small-time egg

producers or simply people who just want a low

maintenance pet.'

The work Adele does as a co-ordinator for the BHWT is

a happy ending for the hens. The birds start laying at 22

weeks and will stay with the farmer for around a year. After

that their egg production goes down, so the farmers will

send them to slaughter. But re-homing them as the trust

does means the hens live out the rest of their lives - about

another seven or eight years - in relative ease.

'I’ve always wanted to work with animals; she adds’. In

my wedding speech four years ago I said it was my

ambition to have an animal sanctuary.’ With four acres of

land, two donkeys, two dogs, three cats and 12 chickens,

it seems Adele is well on the way to realising this dream.

For more information about the Battery Hen Welfare

Trust see the website at www.thehenshouse.co.uk.