My animal and me: Caroline is a real mother hen for “Marguerite”

ThoseMy animal and me –Caroline is a real mother hen for “Marguerite”

Saved from the slaughterhouse through an association, the hen benefits from a peaceful life in the banker who collected her at home in Geneva.

Christophe PinolPosted Today at 10:12 am

Caroline Verneret holding Marguerite, a hen, in Geneva, on March 31, 2025, dressed in a green coat. — Caroline Verneret with “Marguerite”, a 3 -year -old Lohmann Brown hen.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia

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Bottal

In short:

The Rettet Das Huhn association has saved more than 24,000 laying hens from slaughterhouse since 2016.
Caroline Verneret hosts her hens in a fully secure luxurious chicken coop.
The hen Margueriteintensive farming survivor, develops a particular relationship with its owner.
City foxes are now requiring constant surveillance of the chickens in freedom.

It is in her chicken coop, in a corner of the garden, that Caroline Verneret welcomes us, in the suburbs of Geneva. The meeting is not commonplace … and the enclosure is no less! Because we are talking about a luxury cage here, as spacious as a large apartment. A real gallinaceous palace decorated with refinement and care worthy of the most beautiful doll houses.

Above all, the palace is now entirely wireless, at the test of foxes, nozzles and other shaves since the carnage carried out by a goupil a few years ago, before the installation of a blanket. “When I come back from work, the first thing I do is go see my hens,” confides this compliance manager in a Geneva bank.

“I feel like Madonna”

After having fought all day against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, finding her “friends” is for her immense relief. “When they see me, they run out towards me – I feel like Madonna with her fans – and they then accompany me for a walk in the garden.” Marguerite in mind.

Of the five hens constituting her livestock, it is with her that this 50-year-old Franco-Swiss has developed the most affinities. “If I sit on a deckchair in the garden, she will come to sit on my knees, then give affectionate beans on my earrings … and in the house, she follows me everywhere.”

She shows us photos of her favorite when she arrived at home two years ago in a pitiful state. Completely depressed, she came out of a year of intensive drain in battery. Marguerite is a survivor, which should have finished at the slaughterhouse, saved by the German association Saves the chicken (“Save a hen”, read below), which has given itself the mission of offering poultry a well-deserved retirement with individuals.

Vera Beyeler heads the Rettet Das Huhn project. Its origin dates back to 2001, when the association was founded Artsdevoted to the protection of farm animals. “Between 2010 to 2016, its initiators saved 3000 chickens from the slaughterhouse before having them adopted by individuals,” she explains. Because in farms, after twelve months of intensive laying, animals are systematically replaced by new recruits, more productive. ”

Hence the launch, in 2016, of Saves the chickenonly focused on hens. Thanks to his work, “more than 1000 hens were spared the first year, and 3332 in 2020, record year”.

“Today, we are working with a dozen companies that send us their animals directly, around 3000 per year. We then find adopters via social networks, or they are the ones who contact us directly through our site. In nine years of project management, I was able to place nearly 24,000 hens, not to mention the many other people we have made aware of The situation of laying hens in Switzerland. “

Today, Marguerite shines, with a plumage with the delicious copper reflections. “I have acquired six hens through this association and I have magnificent memories when I put them in the garden and let them discover this new world, they who have surely never seen herb …”

Last winter, his casserole has once again almost passed the weapon to the left. “An egg has remained blocked in it and broke. Fortunately, the veterinarian did a great job. But I had to feed her for ten days with a 40 cm long syringe, sliding the food in the throat. We fought together, she could really have died, and I think our links were further strengthened after that. ”

Station to foxes

It was during a trip to Italy with her husband, in 2017, that the idea of a chicken coop in her garden. In the morning, the couple is awakened by a rooster in the distance and for the one who grew up while raising hens, the return to childhood is instantaneous. She will take a year to convince her husband to accept her project.

When did “Marguerite” make you proud?

I was impressed by the way she fought to survive this winter after her internal problem. I felt at one point she abandoned, and then she regained the hair of the beast. At home, I comforted her on the sofa. We were against each other, with the cat.

When did she hurt you?

When she got attached to a chick that I had been given and that one of the hens had adopted. She had caught her in her beak and thrown into the air. I thought she was going to kill him. In a chicken coop, the hierarchy is tough.

Caroline Verneret with “Marguerite”, at home, in Geneva.

Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia

When does it eat on your plate?

It is a hell of a gourmet. If I eat in front of the TV, she will come on my knees to see what is on the menu and use herself, if necessary. She loves cold meats.

When did you be afraid for her?

All the time, because of the fox. I compare it to the “teeth of the sea” shark: you do not know where it is, or where it will attack. He will not come when I am with the hens, but once, I was on one side of the house, they on the other, and I suddenly heard them scream. He was a fox.

Will follow two idyllic years, before the Covid strikes, and with him, the foxes who invite themselves in the surroundings. To no longer move. “They wander today without the slightest fear in our gardens. A neighbor told me yesterday having seen one on the hedge of Thuyas. ”

So, if she unfortunately can no longer leave her hens in her free garden in her garden unattended, Caroline catches up by treating her residents like princesses: heated carpet in winter and small pool in summer, even a fan. She even tried to install a swing to them. “They don’t have much interest in it,” she said, laughing, but you don’t even imagine the business that exists around hens, between toys, clothes, organic food or harness to walk them on a leash … Like what, I am not the only one to spoil them! “