Life After Farm to visit Geraldton and rehome ex-commercial hens deserving of an ‘eggcellent’ second chance

Clucky locals looking to give former commercial hens an “eggcellent” second chance have the opportunity to be part of rehoming service Life After Farm’s upcoming adoption and rescue drive in Geraldton. The group is visiting Geraldton in April and May and has issued a call-out to Mid West and Geraldton locals looking to welcome hens into their households. In this specific event, Life After Farm will be undertaking a run of hy-line, vaccinated and still-laying hens. The rescue group has opened the run to the areas of Yanchep, Lancelin, Jurien Bay, Dongara and Geraldton and is looking to rehome the 16-month-old hens from free-range farms. Life After Farm is a West Australian initiative focused on transitioning 16–18-month-old commercial hens from high intensity environments into “loving, free-range backyard homes”. The environments the chickens were rescued from included caged, barn, or free-range arrangements. Monique Ware, Life After Farm founder, said the hen rescue drive had now been in operation for 3½ years and all started when she worked at a free-range egg farm and discovered hens were culled after they hit 16-months old. “I thought to myself that there has to be another way, because they’re so young,” she said. “The farm I was working at had 2200 chickens every three months that had to be gone, and I didn’t want that for them.” Ms Ware said the hens, often feather-sparse, received a second chance and regained their health quickly while continuing to lay eggs as “popular, affectionate companions”. The group rescues hens from eight farms and rehomes them across the State, visiting up to 50 towns from Geraldton to Albany and Kalgoorlie. The initiative gives hens “another shot at life” and saves them from being killed once their commercial productivity is deemed by their farm to have decreased. Ms Ware said she was hoping to get interest in 640 hens, the maximum amount of hens for transportation, for the upcoming run in Geraldton. “This will be our fourth time coming to Geraldton and I just want to spread the word to get everyone involved to rehome the chickens,” she said. Life After Farm co-ordinates 15 adoption and rehoming events in WA and has nearly rehomed 50,000 hens.