HUNDREDS of chickens were saved from Chinese dinner plates at the weekend and given new homes across Oxfordshire.

Farmer Peter Reade hatched the cracking plan to sell off his stock of 16,000 hens for £1 each for charity on Saturday.

The effort has raised thousands for Send a Cow, a charity which helps African families produce enough food to eat and sell, which Mr Reade founded.

Mr Reade bought the chickens for eggs and manure after visiting a charity farm project in Africa.

He said: “It was absolute chaos here on Saturday.

“People were taking hundreds of chickens at a time.

“Some people came back the same day to get more and people were telling me they had already got eggs from the chickens by the time they had got home and opened up the box.”

Mr Reade said he managed to rehome about 1,400 chickens, and the rest were sold for meat, with some being sent to China.

Oxleaze Farm,at Woolstone near Faringdon, has also been selling eggs from the chickens to a supermarket chain.

But it only accepts them on a 12-month contract, and now the hens have reached the end of the cycle, Mr Reade had to sell them off before buying more.

Among the hundreds of people flocking to his farm in Faringdon, was Maria Crocker, and her sons, David, nine, and Thomas, four.

She said: “We have wanted chickens for a long time.

“We bought three on Saturday and had an omelette with the eggs the same day.

“They were absolutely delicious.

David is pictured with Erin Kelly, six. and one of the chickens.

Picture: David Fleming