IF YOU ask Sarah Sabin what she loves about chickens she says she’s been asking herself that for a long time and doesn’t really know the answer – she just loves them.

But after a bit of consideration and further questions, she reveals that as pets they are less demanding than cats or dogs because apart from feeding and watering, they more or less entertain themselves.

She also says she finds them fascinating as each hen is different and they have personalities, while watching them can be very entertaining and relaxing at the same time. There is also the added bonus of enjoying the fresh eggs they produce.

However, they do react to people’s emotions and if the owner tends to be highly strung, then so will the chickens, she says. However, if people are calm and relaxed the hens will be too.

The wife and mother of three, who runs Newland Poultry near Malvern, had pet chickens as a child and bred them, on and off, for years.

About 16 years ago she and her family moved to Newland and bought a 20-acre smallholding, inheriting a flock of chickens from the previous owners as part of the deal.

“I have bred chickens on and off since I was a little girl and when we moved here the previous owners left me a lot of hens and it started me off again,” says Sarah.

Since then the breeding has flourished and her business has expanded to include a shop selling feed and everything else people need to have a few chickens of their own as pets at home.

“It was not remotely planned. I just had more and more people asking for chickens so I started to get more chickens. They also asked for the feed and accessories.”

At a rough guess, she now has about 1,000 chickens and more than 30 varieties and runs a business dedicated to hobby of keeping chickens.

“We were there at the right time when the whole explosion of keeping chickens happened. It was great,” says Sarah, whose husband Shaun is a carpenter and helps out with the business by building the pens.

She attributes some of their success to the recession; chef and all round good egg Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall with his land-share project and a resurgence in self-sufficiency and keeping hens in the back garden just like people did decades ago.

But six years ago, as the business was going along nicely she decided to spread her wings and open a hotel – one for chickens of course. Well it’s the closest a chicken will probably ever get to a hotel.

Technically, it is hen boarding – similar to kennels for dogs and catteries for felines.

Sarah thinks she was the first to provide this service in the UK as, after considerable research, she couldn’t find anyone else doing it. Now there are a few more people dotted around the country doing the same thing.

“We started boarding chickens about six years ago. I had been thinking about doing it but hadn’t taken the plunge. I had a lovely customer from Birmingham who was desperate to get me to look after her chickens. She pushed me into doing it really. She was going away on holiday and she bought her own chicken house to us and there were about 10 hens.

“We knew there was a gap in the market there and had toyed with doing it but she gave me the push I needed,” says Sarah.

“The first time was a bit of an experiment to check it would all work smoothly. It was great and we had no problems.”

The demand for boarding hens grew and Sarah decided to invest in some special portable hen houses, which are easy to clean and move around the field so the chickens get fresh grass.

The standard ground level accommodation will house up to four hens with a covered run, while there is a luxury first floor accommodation with a bigger run and overhead space for up to 10 hens.

Room service is on tap with food and water delivered fresh each day – owners can bring their own food if their hens have special diets – and the accommodation is meticulously cleaned with disinfectant after each stay and both the individual coop and the field are fox-proof.

Sarah, who lives on site with her family, says the boarding hens actually have the best views – their field offers an uninterrupted panoramic view of the majestic Malvern Hills.

This hen hotel can house a maximum of 154 chickens at any one time and Sarah says they are fully booked throughout the summer holidays, although that doesn’t mean they are at full capacity. Some owners choose to book their precious feathered friends into the luxury accommodation even though there are just a few of them.

“It has been a big investment but I am pleased we did it.” She has customers booking the hen boarding from all over the Midlands as well as Gloucestershire and one regular who brings his six chickens from Manchester. The bookings have ranged from just a few days to eight weeks and if the owners are just away for a week Newland Poultry will collect and box up the eggs for the owners to collect on their return.

“They are their babies. Chickens seem to be as popular as rabbits and guinea pigs. They are hugely popular now,” says Sarah.

She adds that it is always better to keep pets at home but anyone with hens who wants to go away has to get someone in at least twice a day to let them out, feed and water them and put them away at night.

“It is quite a commitment for someone to do that and that is what puts off some people having chickens.”

But at Newland Poultry they try to make it a home from home and give the birds a holiday while the owners take a break. “It is very secure, safe, hygienic and low stress for the hens when they come here.”

Each bird is inspected when it arrives, so that Sarah can make sure it goes home in the same condition and they are checked daily to make sure they have no injuries. Sarah is also a qualified Avian SQP which allows her to prescribe certain avian medicines.

“We have hens of all ages and we may get them with health problems when they arrive but I can spot a sick hen when it comes in. We have had a few that have come in with health problems and we have sorted it out for them and they have gone away better.”

She says boarding chickens is really fascinating because they get all sorts of different birds - some she’s never seen before and some really exotic chickens.

But while her customers can enjoy a welcome break knowing their pets are being well looked after, Sarah admits running her business is a 24/7 job all year round. Although she loves her work, she hasn’t been away on holiday for years.