A CHARITY in Swindon is now calling fowl – thanks to Zurich.

The financial services company has a massive base in the town and each year its charitable arm gets staff out and about in Swindon helping projects in need of assistance.

This year they made a difference at Threshold Housing Link, a project which helps single homeless people into their own home and independent living.

Zurich staff helped create a chicken run – and provided five egg-laying hens rescued from a battery farm – at the Old Appleyard project, Threshold’s hostel for homeless men and women with substance misuse issues.

Phil Smith is the operations director at Threshold and getting the firm in was his idea.

“It was a great day,” he said. “Everyone helped make the chicken run, build the chicken coop and transplant some plants to make a complete fox proof environment for the five hens.”

It is hoped that residents at the Threshold facility will now manage the chickens..

Richard Strange, the team manager from Zurich Cares Graduate Team, said: “The group raised the money to buy the materials for building the run from scratch.

“The chickens were so keen to get involved that they laid eggs before they even got to the coop.

“The next step was designing and building the run.

“Threshold were great on the day, providing us with bacon sandwiches and a barbecue for lunch.”

Volunteer Sonny Green said: “For me personally, having never touched a screwdriver in my life, I was under the belief that this was an almost impossible task to achieve. However, with a strong team morale, we managed to build a most impressive home for six previously uncared for chickens.

“It was even heart-rending leaving behind the happy clucks.”

A resident at the Old Appleyard said: “The idea was great and although I didn’t much like the idea of handling the chickens at first I now quite like looking after them and knowing that my eggs are fresh each day. It saves me a lot of money too.”