I did some searching on Google and saw the announcement several places, but without many details. It sounds like somebody is giving away an organic flock at the end of their production. Either they can't find a cull market for the hens and are trying to avoid disposal costs (disposing of 32 tons of birds is no small feat), or somebody has paid the farm for the spent flock so they can be "rescued" by giving them away to people who want to continue to raise them.
16,000 hens eat 2 tons a day. If they are not releasing the birds to the public until January (or May?) these birds must still be in production and will be offered up when they have finished serving their purpose.
I've posted my thoughts on this before and I'll post them again. 100's of millions of layer hens are raised, and 100's of millions are culled every year in the U.S. In my opinion these birds are rescued when they are dispatched. If you want them for your own peace of mind, or as a cheap source of layer hens, then so be it, but to call it a "rescue" is stretching it a bit. You are only extending the birds' lives to place them into service for yourself.
I have a large organic flock that will go to cull after a year of production to be replaced by a new flock. I would have no problem giving a few birds to people who wanted them rather than sending them to the processor. I would have a problem with somebody showing up thinking that they need to "rescue" them. These birds are livestock, I treat them as well as I can, but they are raised for a specific purpose...
