John Doonan’s bus may be well familiar with transporting hens of a human sort, but this time the chicks on board were feathered and full of voice. 

Local woman Diana McChesney has rescued up to 1,000 hens which were due to be slaughtered. 

The hens made their way back to Fermanagh by bus and on board a cattle trailer borrowed from a local farm. 

Speaking about what spurred her to rescue the birds Diana said, “I got half a dozen hens from a different farm at the beginning of lockdown and I found that it helped as the hens were a great boost to us during that time. 

I thought about getting another half dozen so as I was thinking about it other people said they would be interested in a few. I then put out a message on Facebook and it just spiralled. 

“I am a vegetarian so I always went for free range options. I like to see where my eggs are coming from.” 

To date Diana has rescued 1,000 hens and with a little help she brought the birds to Fermanagh to a temporary base with rehoming already underway. 

 “We went up on a hen bus and borrowed a cattle trailer from the fun farm. “It’s hard to know the fate of the ones that you are leaving behind, how do you pick and choose which one comes and which one stays? 

“The lorry turned up full of crates to take them away and I just thought let’s take a few more. People are helping to find homes for them.

“These hens have been laying all their lives so I’ll be eating eggs now for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Diana joked, and added, “You can’t get fresher than that.” 

This is the first time Diana has ever taken on such a mammoth rescue but she’s no stranger to helping animals in need having previously rescued dogs. 

Commenting on how the hens are settling into life in Fermanagh Diana remarked, “They’re all here and they are quite vocal but I’m not sure that they realise they have been rescued. Fermanagh is going to have a lot of clucking hens now.”