Clucking good retirement

Christoforos standing amid retired farm hens at a farm, where hens are used to fertilise and mow olive groves in a pilot project, which has boosted crop yields and helped combat disease, in Akaki, Cyprus. — Reuters

ORGANIC farmers in Cyprus have recruited hundreds of retired hens to fertilise olive groves in a pilot project they say boosts yields, counters disease, and helps to manage food waste.

Saved from slaughter after their egg-laying years, hens peck and poop to their hearts’ content among olive trees at the organically certified Akaki Grove, on the green foothills of the Troodos mountains west of Nicosia.