HUNDREDS of caged hens have been saved from slaughter to cheer up inmates at a Dorset prison under a charity initiative.

HMP Guys Marsh has adopted 200 'jail birds' from the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) to help improve the emotional wellbeing of prisoners.

The prison holds up to 450 men, some of whom have committed serious crimes.

Wayne Walters, livestock and project management instructional officer, has worked at the prison for 14 years and was inspired to try something different to help the inmates.

He helped transform an unused area of the prison into a "hen heaven" complete with handmade flower boxes crafted by prisoners which sit outside a newly erected coop.

Since the hens have arrived at the prison there have been improvements in prisoners' mood and behaviour, according to the charity.

Jane Howorth, founder of BHWT, said: "The charity has supplied hens to almost a dozen prisons across the UK and I wholeheartedly support Wayne's initiative, seeing only benefit in rolling out the model across all UK prisons."

The charity has more than 900 volunteers who help find homes for over 60,000 hens, which would otherwise be slaughtered, every year.

Regarding their goals, the charity says on its website: “We think all laying hens deserve to enjoy natural freedoms whilst they lay tasty eggs for us to eat; that means freedom to roam on green pasture, freedom to enjoy sunshine, freedom to scratch for insects and freedom to lay an egg in a nest.”

The charity says that there are about 16 million hens in colony cages throughout the UK.

The charity also sets out to inform the public about what foods contain caged eggs, including some pastas, quiches, cakes and mayonnaises.