Battery Hen Song - Walking In Circles

An interview with Phillip Lee-Woolf who wrote the sad song about the life of a battery hen - Walking In Circles.

Phillip Lee Woolf breeds rare breed chickens, and he has kept hens since childhood. In 2004 Philip started the Legbars of Broadway business breeding Cotswold Legbars (blue eggs) & Burford Brown hens (chocolate brown eggs) for garden pets and domestic egg production.

"a flash of light, a deadly beam"

Philip wrote a poem to illustrate the plight of the prisoned bird, and this was set to music.

The “Walking In Circles” CD is available at the Legbars of Broadway Web site or you can choose to download the song as an mp3.

What do you want to achieve from this song? Is it more awareness by the shopper or a change of farming practices? (or both?)

It is primarily to raise awareness by the shopper because it is ultimately the shopper who has the power to initiate change in production methods. The farmers and suppliers will only respond to market forces. Supermarkets prefer to sell high value products because they earn more money per square centimetre of shelve space, so in theory they would be happier to sell free range if the demand is there.

What is your ideal scenario for “Compassionate farming” (A kinder world) of egg production?

For farmers to embrace the idea that quality at a slightly higher price is better than quantity, and that the majority of their customers actually want a more ethically produced eggs, and from my experience they are prepared to pay. The issue of animal welfare will never be settled as long as we, the public retain the opinion that we have some kind of divine right to cheap eggs. An egg priced at 25-30p is a very cheap meal for one person – a bar of chocolate at double the price is a very expensive luxury with a small fraction of the food value.

If battery hen egg production is the only way we can get enough eggs, how can a compassionate way of farming produce the volume of eggs needed to satisfy demand?

There is more than enough land available for all UK hens to be free range. Suppose we stocked at 10sq.m per chicken (the Organic standard) - which is the highest standard for chickens. Assuming there are 30 million laying hens in the UK Which would need 30m x 10 sq metres = 300,000,000 sq.mtrs. = 300 sq. Km.
The area of the UK is 245,000 sq. Km. So the laying hens would require – 0.122% of the UK land. Since, according to DEFRA:- Grasses & rough grazing = 51.52% Crops & bare fallow = 18.9% Set aside = 3.5% Forestry = 11.65% Then I hardly think 0.122% is an impossible or unattainable figure. So lack of available land area is hardly a sustainable excuse.

The only thing not mentioned which I would like to get in somewhere is the very important point that a healthy Free-Range hen produces a better, tastier egg. Do you have any good quotes on this subject?

I don’t really want to get too scientific about all this. I think we are talking about free-range hens rather than just healthy hens. What I do know is that, without exception, people who keep their own garden hens insist that the flavour, albumin and yolk quality of their eggs is far superior to those of intensively produced eggs. In my experience, a muscular, fit and athletic hen will produce a quality of egg which cannot be matched by an egg produced in the cramped, unhealthy, environment of the battery egg farm, and it is a sad fact that a large percentage of the population has never eaten, and does not know what a real egg is.

Free Range Hens Produce Nutritionally Superior Eggs
Mother Earth News conducted an egg testing project in 2007, finding that eggs produced by free-range hens compare favourably with those produced by battery cage hens. Eggs from free range hens had up to:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

The study involved 14 flocks across the United States whose eggs were tested by an accredited Portland, Oregon, laboratory, and the results were similar to those obtained via a 2005 study of four flocks. In addition to the Mother Earth News research findings, there have been a number of other studies showing that free-range eggs are healthier than those produced by battery-cage hens.

In other words, if you could change the situation, how would you improve the industry?

To have a total ban on any kind of cage produced egg. This has to be the ultimate solution, and if the industry doesn’t embrace it with open arms, then we are saddled an industry unfit to be producing the nations eggs.

If you’d like to raise money this Easter for a worthy cause, all proceeds from the sale of this song will be donated to the charity Compassion In World Farming.

By sheer good fortune I stumbled across Phillip’s site www.legbarsofbroadway.co.uk as the website was updated with the song, and can therefore claim to be the first person to purchase a copy - a fact backed up by Philip’s email to me when sending me the download links!

Do something ‘worthwhile’ this Easter, purchase Walking In Circles, give it to someone as an alternative to an Easter egg.

Walking In Circles

I’ve just stumbled across Walking In Circles whilst researching a chicken keeping idea…

Folks, you’ve got to go and check out Walking In Circles - A Song About The Sad Life Of A Battery Hen.

This beautiful, but sad song tells the true story about the hellish life of a battery hen.

All Chickens Of The World Unite And Crow About Your Dreadful Plight...

Every year more than 20 million normal healthy chickens in the UK are sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, crammed into a tiny cage with no room to move and express their natural behaviour.

# The price I pay’s too much to bear hidden from the public glare… #

You can hear a clip of the song Walking In Circles and if you wish you can download a mp3 of it for 79 pence or get a copy sent to you home in the mail for £3.49.

All proceeds will be donated to the charity Compassion In World Farming.

In my opinion with Easter coming up, this would make the perfect Easter gift substitute to giving a chocolate egg… So go on, check the song out and if it doesn’t make you think, then you shouldn’t be keeping chickens!

Walking In Circles

Battery Hen Song Press Release As Below.

BATTERY HEN SONG EASTER EGGS FROM HELL March 2010

“Walking in Circles” is a song written to provoke a perfectly timed Easter Egg debate.
Philip Lee-Woolf, a chicken breeder, has written a song about the plight of the caged hen. Most people believe battery egg production is a thing of the past. Sadly, millions of hens are still legally caged, and as some die, the corpses are not always removed from the cages, so egg producing hens, can be forced to live alongside the carcasses. The dark side of egg production is kept behind closed hen house doors. The industry does not want you to see the sadness of the birds who mass-produce eggs for the UK market.

Phillip Lee Woolf breeds rare breed chickens, and he has kept hens since childhood. “There is no doubt in my mind that cage egg production should be totally banned, because it is a barbaric, inhumane way to produce food and there is no good reason for cramming nearly 20 million hens into a tiny cages, with less space per hen than an A4 sheet of paper, in artificial light, and forced to lay eggs until they are slaughtered. Enriched cages are just another form of imprisonment as they only offer each hen additional space the size of a beer mat. “ (Ref. RSPCA)

In 2004 Philip started the Legbars of Broadway business breeding Cotswold Legbars (blue eggs) & Burford Brown hens (chocolate brown eggs) for garden pets and domestic egg production. These hens, are free to roam, and produce tasty quality eggs; in total contrast to bland, pale, thin-shelled factory farmed eggs. Phillip says, “If you observe a hen, she doesn’t walk, she runs everywhere. Free Range hens, allowed to live a normal active life in the open air, produce superb healthy eggs.”

January 2012 should be a month of muted celebration for the 244 million battery hens of the EU when the ban on conventional cages comes into force. Several European countries (31% of EU caged hens) are applying to delay the ban which would result in no significant ban at all! The new, so called enriched cages are being enlarged by a mere 50cm2 per hen so 47% of eggs will continue to come from battery hens.

Philip wrote a poem to illustrate the plight of the prisoned bird, and this was set to music.
The “Walking in Circles” CD is available on Amazon or the Legbars of Broadway Web site
All profits will be donated to Compassion in World Farming. www.ciwf.org.uk
www.legbarsofbroadway.co.uk - please click here to listen. Thank you.

Some facts about the “Eggs from Hell”
2009 We consumed over ten billion eggs in the UK. 65% were from battery hens
2009 there are 39 million laying hens in the UK 30 million eggs are consumed daily in the UK
Caged eggs 58% Free Range 38% Barn Eggs 4%

The British Egg Information Council (BEIC) claims that the Lion Quality Mark on egg boxes and egg shells symbolizes that the eggs have been produced to higher standards of hygiene and animal welfare than required by EU or UK law. This is despite the fact that it permits the use of conventional battery cages that only meet the bare minimum standards of the EU legislation. The public are clearly being misled about hen welfare kept under the Lion Quality code scheme.

A Mori poll in 2005 found that 87% of consumers think battery cages are cruel and yet only 38% of the eggs available for us to buy are from free range hens, showing that retailers and the egg industry are not listening to the consumers’ needs.

45% of laying hens in cages break a bone at some point during their lives. (Webster 2004/Viva )

In summary:
Consumer power can make a difference. Simply refuse to buy battery hen eggs.
The shopper has the power to initiate change in production methods. The farmer and suppliers will only respond to market forces and will respond to our demand.
An egg produced by a free range hen only costs 25-30p - a very cheap & nutritious meal!
Chocolate Easter eggs cost pounds, with comparatively negligible food value.

Contact: Phillip Lee-Woolf Tel/SMS 078 318 490 36
Lee-Woolf Limited, (Registered in England 1984), Lammy Down Farm, Russley Park, Baydon, Marlborough, Wiltshire. SN8 2JY
www.legbarsofbroadway.co.uk

Song lyrics are on the website.
When choosing your eggs, think of The Song, and spare a thought for the hen- she has a life too.

Phillip Lee Wolf: “Anyone who has kept a few hens in the garden will be aware of their need for a busy life, and offer graphic and amusing descriptions of the different characters, the love of space, running, flying, foraging, dust bathing, and an incredible fondness for human company.
Short of giving every person in the Country a conducted tour, or an uninvited visit to a battery hen farm, we may never alter the egg eating habits of the average UK consumer. To appreciate a hen as an individual, rather than a faceless component of a massive flock, prompted me to write a poem that has now been turned into a song which we hope will strike a chord with the unconverted, and help persuade consumers to put an end to the intensive factory farming of egg laying hens. Why?…Because cage eggs still account for more than half of all eggs consumed in the UK. This cruel and shameful trade will only stop, if we the consumers start to buy a free range egg, rather than these cruelly produced and inferior eggs.”

With music and vocals by Dominic, ‘Walking in Circles’ is a small contribution this coming Easter, towards smashing our addiction to the ‘eggs from hell’, and hopefully, lots more people will think of the hen, its feelings, sensitivity, and the most basic need of all - its liberty and choose to eat heavenly produced eggs. ‘Walking in Circles’ - In short, the message is simple, when choosing your eggs - spare a thought for the hen, she has a life too. Think of The Song, and buy only organic or free range eggs.

Walking In Circles

A few weeks back most of the national newspapers in the UK ran a story about three hens and a cockerel named Duke, who’d managed to kill a fox who’d ’broken’ into their hen house during the night.

The fox it appears had been pecked to death after being dealt a ’stunning’ blow by a feeding table, (that got knocked over during the ensuing frenzy) and landed on him after he’d ’broke’ into the hen house!

Chickens Kill Fox

It’s a good job these potential victims weren’t human, as they’d all be up on a murder charge - if what’s happened in recent high profile court cases is anything to go by!

Anyway, if you missed the reports, or want to read through them again or even see the Sky TV footage of Duke, Izzy, Pongo, Pecky and the murder scene check out the below;

Murder Most Fowl
Not So Fantastic Mr Fox
Fowl Play

And if you want to see a video of the crime scene and judge for yourself…

Poultry Revenge

So watch out Mr Fox, there are feathered vigilantes on the prowl!

We’ve got a few posts and items to go on over the next few days and we also hope to add a few extra bits and pieces to the Keeping Chickens site.

There’s loads of news, we’ve basically replaced our flock over the last year due to natural causes, Mr Fox (again!) took another, and illness…

We’ve had to learn how to dispatch a sick chicken who’d spent a month in our make shift chicken hospital and didn’t recover - it was the kindest thing to do in the end, although I hope not to have to repeat it that often in the future!

Anyway, look out for the Chicken Keeping updates and additions to come over the next few days.

Ta-Ta

Tim

Keeping poultry and rabbits on scraps has been republished by Penguin Books due to public demand!

Keeping Poultry And Rabbits On Scraps according to the paper today was a ‘war time’ best selling handbook, that’s making a come back due to the ‘credit - crunch’.

The book was first published in 1941 as Nazi Germany was attempting to starve Britain into submission.

Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps taught people how to raise chickens and other animals for eggs and meat, by feeding them on left-overs from the kitchen.

The book - which originally cost one shilling and sixpence when first published by Penguin Books, is apparantly being republished by Penguin Books due to demand.

I haven’t yet seen a copy of this book, although I have just bought one via amazon - for the link to the book, click Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on scaps.

This post was a while back and my copy has arrived… To see the review page click - Keeping Chickens On A Budget.

At the time of writing, new copies of Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on scaps are available for £4.89, or second hand copies can be purchased for as little as £2.36. Although the publisher said that their decision to republish the Keeping Chickens on a budget book, was partly taken due to the prices of the original on some websites!

According to the paper, the chicken keeping on scraps book makes ‘gruesome’ reading for those of us more used to living a 21st century lifestyle…

The keeping chickens on scraps book is 170 pages and apparently contains many images and illustrastions and is full of valuable advice for those who have now started keeping their own animals in an attempt to save money and stave off the credit crunch.

According to the Penguin Books website, Keeping Poultry And Rabbits On Scraps was issued in 1941, when the national crisis made it essential for every scrap of kitchen waste and spare time to be used for increasing the nation’s food resources, this book enabled the meagre official wartime rations to be supplemented in thousands of homes by a regular supply of eggs and meat, at a minimum of trouble and expense.

It now reappears, in response to many requests, to play its part in the hardly less urgent food-production drive of peacetime. Everything that the small-scale raiser of rabbits or of poultry, whether for egg-production or for table use, needs to know is here: buying, housing, feeding, breeding, diseases, are all fully dealt with by experts, the instructions being given in simple and practical language for the beginner.

Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps was originally reissued after the war, in 1949. Here it is once again, a facsimilie edition with all the delightful original illustrations and advice to keep your chickens and rabbits happy, whether they be in a city garden or roaming in a farm yard.

The paper goes on to describe various sections of the book using quotes from the authors Claude Goodchild and Alan Thompson; ‘In fact there is no known waste from human edible food which is harmful in moderation. Do not be content with using your own scraps; get others to save for you. There are plenty of people too busily occupied, or maybe some too lazy and unpatriotic to exert themselves and undertake any work of national importance…’

Ironically my purchase of Keeping Poultry And Rabbits On Scraps co-incides with my purchase of ‘Keeping Hens on a Budget‘, via the Wikaniko (We-Can-Eco) shopping site ‘garden’ section… Oh well, I suppose I’ll have two books to review in a few days when they arrive!

We added another son to our family on 14th November and named him Jacob. Jacob is doing well and weighed in at 7lbs 11oz.

Would you believe, our eldest - Toby, then two days later came down with Chicken Pox!

He’s recovered and gone back to school, but has passed it on to his brother Zach. Zach is unfortunately absolutely covered in chicken pox spots!

So we’ve been a bit busy, and haven’t had much time to spare to write a post recently. We’ve lots of chicken related news to update the site with, which I hope to upload over the next few days.

Speak soon.

Tim

The chicken keeping article spreads over two pages in the Mail on Sunday and states that thousands of city dwellers are rearing chickens at home - thanks to celebrity chefs who have highlighted the plight of battery farmed hens and championed home grown food.

The article then goes on to compare people keeping chickens in their gardens to the 70’s sitcom ‘The Good Life’!

The article is a fantastic read and mentions the recent Axminster Chicken Saga that I spoke of a few days ago.

The article mentions that the next issue of Country Smallholding magazine is publishing a seven page guide in it’s next issue.

I don’t know whether our 100 foot by 40 foot back garden allows us to class ourselves as ’smallholders’, but it definitely sounds worth getting hold of the next issue to have a read.

Over the last few days I’ve posted on the chicken keepers in Axminster, who seem to be hitting the headlines in both local and national newspapers.

Check Cock-A-Doodle-Don’t and Keeping Cockerels for the stories.

Anyway, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s company (River Cottage) have responded with the following comment;

“River Cottage continues to support and encourage everyone to grow, or produce, more of your own food.

“We believe that this is not only good for individuals, but also a benefit for the wider community.

“Keeping chickens for eggs and/or meat at home is one way to do this. But we would always advocate a responsible attitude to both the health and welfare of the livestock - their environment, as well as consideration for your neighbours within your neighbourhood.”

So as you see, a commonsense attitude to keeping chickens is what’s required - as I said on the post Keeping Cockerels.

Check out the article published in full in the Midweek Herald.

I wonder if this is going to be the end of the Axminster Chicken Saga?

I posted the other day about a news article appearing in a Devon website, regarding keeping cockerels and the trouble it seemed to be causing between neighbours and the local council.

This has now made national newspaper headlines in the Sunday Express and the blame has been ’laid’ firmly at the feet of the success of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recent chicken keeping programme on tv.

The article expands on the chicken keeping craze in that particular area of Devon, due to the close proximity to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the fact that he has a organic produce shop in the area.

With the supposed credit crunch biting ordinary families food budget, coupled with rising prices at the supermarket; there is bound to be a increase in families keeping chickens, and also I think a increase in articles appearing in local and national newspapers about back yard chicken keepers causing neighbour disputes.

Seems like there’s a lot of ‘feather rustling’ and ‘crowing’ over nothing down in that area of the country!

Keeping Cockerels

We are surrounded by chicken keeping neighbours, so perhaps for us the problem wouldn’t be so bad; but some people seem to object to the ‘noise’ of a cockerel crowing.

Some councils have been known to threaten those keeping cockerels with noise related ASBOs!

The thing that surprises me about this cockerel keeping problem, is that it was whilst staying in rural Normandy on a recent holiday to France, that my last chicken keeping barriers got broken down.

The reason being was the house we stayed in was next door to a small holding and we awoke in the morning to the idyllic noises of cows, sheep and chickens. But first up in the morning was obviously the neighbour’s cockerel…

Now I don’t know whether it’s because we usually wake up to the sound of traffic on the road, due to people making the early morning run into work; or because we live just outside the M25 and if you stop to listen you always seem have the gentle background hum of the motorway - the joys of living in the suburbs eh?!

One of the first things we always notice when going on holiday to more rural areas is the ‘noise’ of the quiet. When you’re used to background noise, the quiet can sometimes be very loud and difficult to get used to! 

So we settle in to the new routine and get used to the quiet, the next thing we notice is the early morning cockerel crowing. Now for me, the sound of a cock crowing is nothing short of idyllic. It tells me I’m on holiday!

If given a choice between the early morning sound of vehicles on the road or the early morning sounds of a cockerel crowing, I know which I’d choose ‘hands down’ each time.

But once again back to the point in question, I do not know whether the neighbours (especially the non chicken keeping neighbours) would appreciate us keeping a cockerel with our chickens.

It does seem a little ironic that the newspaper site entry in question about keeping cockerels is in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s home area of the UK.

According to the report one person is quoted as saying; “I think people are being petty and everybody is guilty of it. I just wish everybody would get on with each other. It would be a much more pleasant life if they did.”

It looks like Hugh’s inspirational and successful keeping chickens at home television series has caused the local council’s beuracrats all manner of problems!

Although in my opinion it would makesense to be considerate of one’s neighbours, sound them out about your plans on keeping a cockerel and perhaps give them the occasional box of eggs!

One thing’s for certain though, with the rise of suburban chicken keepers and potentially therefore a rise in people also keen on keeping cockerels, neighbours may have to get used to the sound of something other than mechanically propelled vehicles in the morning.