There’s no need to get in a flap about your hens when you go away for a break... they can go on holiday too.

For library assistant Maggie Wainwright has started a boarding service for chickens in her Oxford garden.

“Hens are very social birds and need a nice environment to be happy,” said Maggie, who has four ex-battery hens of her own.

She decided to start Hens’ Holiday after being unable to find anywhere close to home to leave her birds when she and husband Mark went to South Africa for a wedding.

“We had to take them to Malvern, which is about an hour away,” said Maggie, 57, of Deans Court, Cumnor. “I thought this is ridiculous, so I decided to get something up and running in Oxford.”

Maggie’s birds are free to roam her enclosed garden during the daytime but guest hens will have a large run to forage around in.

They will be locked in a secure coop at night, let out at sunrise to be fed and have clean conditions and fresh water at all times, she said. The service aims to cater for people who keep a few hens in their gardens.

“It’s becoming very popular,” said Maggie, who got her original chickens two years ago, after son Josh, 21, went to university.

“Lots of the big garden centres now sell hens and bantams and chick coops and feed. My grandmother had hens in her garden, and my cousin and aunty, so I got the idea it wasn’t so difficult.”

PRICE LIST

Maggie charges £1.50 per hen per night or £6 per coop per night (holds six medium hens). She offers a pick-up and drop-off charge at £1 per mile
For further information and booking see website hensholiday or email chooksaway@hensholiday.com

And she’s found that to be the case. “They are very easy to look after and it’s so nice to have fresh eggs, we usually get one a day,” said Maggie, who works at Magdalen College.

Of her original three hens, one is still going strong and was joined by three new birds in December. “They are so nice to come home to. They come up to the French windows and peck on the glass to be fed,” she said.

Although Maggie’s business has only just been launched, she has already had bookings and enquiries – including some unusual ones.

“I’ve been asked to take quails and I can handle those. They are similar to hens and I can read up about them,” she said. “But I said no to taking an eagle. I don’t have the experience... and I didn’t fancy feeding them baby chicks.”