“I felt it was really important for me to see a commercial farm and I was very impressed. The hens looked really happy and healthy, just how all hens should be.”

This was 14-year-old schoolgirl and animal welfare campaigner Lucy Gavaghan’s reaction to her recent tour of Wood Farm, Waresley, Bedfordshire - a member of RSPCA Assured and the first commercial laying hen farm Lucy has visited.

You may have seen on the news recently that Lucy helped convince three major supermarkets to stop selling eggs from caged hens has enjoyed her first tour of a commercial farm.

She gathered 460,000 signatures of support for online petitions calling for the supermarket giants Tesco, Morrisons and Asda to stop selling eggs from caged hens.

Her tireless campaigning paid off when all

three announced they would go cage-free by 2025!

Farmer Charles Mear showed Lucy around their 250-acre farm where there are 28,000 free range hens which producing about 25,000 eggs a day.

Lucy and her mum Jenny were shown the tree-covered ranges, inside the sheds, the egg packing station and also the mill where the family mixes their own feed for the hens.

Charles said: “Lucy has really made the supermarkets sit up and take notice, she’s managed to open doors to make a real impact and proved she is a force to be reckoned with.

“The welfare of the hens is our top priority. We think happy hens produce quality eggs, so it’s great that the industry has got someone like Lucy pushing for change.

“We wish her every success with her campaign.”