Cluck Club! Offering our egg heroes a second life

Do you like eggs? Or cakes? Custard? One way or another, nearly all of us eat eggs fairly regularly. But do you know much about where they come from? They're the product of millions of hens, each laying an egg a day. But hens can only keep up that rate of production for about a year. It wears them out and they start laying less regularly.

When that happens, egg farmers don't need them any more and most of these hens end up being killed - even though they might otherwise live for another 10 years. Farmers Manon and Brice felt that was a shame. They found a way to save more than a 100,000 hens over the last couple of years. 

Loveable, and useful

The couple set up a charity called Les Caquetteuses - literally 'the clucking girls' in French. It helps find new homes for hens that are no longer laying enough eggs to meet the requirements of egg farmers.

People find the hens good company, they love to be petted and are very friendly. They love to eat up leftovers and peelings - up to 150 kilograms in a year! Their poo is a great fertiliser for gardens. Each hen can drop 15 kilograms of fertiliser a year.

And, of course, they're still happy to provide their new owners with fresh eggs - even if they're not as productive as they were. Fancy a feathered friend?

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