Hens in the lens for Wigan animal rescue group's new calendar

Lucky Hens Rescue has produced a calendar featuring former caged birds which were saved from slaughter and are now enjoying life in their new homes.

After the success of the inaugural calendar created last year, the team at the Amberswood-based organisation decided to make another to raise money to care for the animals.

Alison Thorpe, who runs Lucky Hens, said: “We sold out of calendars last year. People were asking if we were doing it again.

“It’s another fund-raiser to cover the winter feed because it’s always more expensive in winter.

“It’s mainly the sheep, horses and pigs as they need hard feed because there’s no grass and the chickens can’t get to the grass, so they need to eat a lot more too.

“We need extra thick bedding and more hay.”

They asked owners to submit their favourite photographs for consideration and received so many replies that several birds appear for each month.

The hens are seen in all different situations, including walking in the snow, eating pumpkins and even being cuddled.

This time all the animals featured were rescued from slaughter by Lucky Hens.

Alison said: “I think the pictures are fabulous, they are absolutely wonderful.”

The calendars are now on sale and are already proving to be popular.

“There are quite a lot of pre-orders coming through already, so fingers crossed all 200 will be spoken for by the end of November,” Alison said.

* Calendars cost £9.50 each or £18 for now, available to order at luckyhensrescuenorthwest.weebly.com.