# Subsidised laying-hen distribution: give households hens that eat food scraps on site

**Solutions:**

- [Subsidised laying-hen distribution: give households hens that eat food scraps on site](https://communityfix.org/issue/31)

**Outcome:** success
**Location:** Vendée department, France (46.6705, -1.4267) · scale: region
**Implementer:** Trivalis (Syndicat mixte départemental, Vendée)
**Period:** 2013-01-01 → 2014-07-01

## What was done

Trivalis, the departmental household-waste authority for the Vendée (France), ran a hen-and-coop distribution as one tool in a decade-long waste-prevention strategy, explicitly tied to a national target of cutting household waste 10% by 2020.

After a pilot judged conclusive on 37 households in 2013, the operation was scaled up: in 2014, 1,200 hens and 600 coops were distributed to ~600 households (two hens per household, two households per commune) across the department, working through 22 local authorities covering the Vendée's 282 communes. Hens were supplied by Antigny Nutrition, a regional traditional-poultry business. Notably, Trivalis supplied the coop as well as the hens — removing the build-it-yourself barrier.

By around 2017, 929 individual or collective coops were in place across the department (homes, retirement homes, schools).

## Context and results

- Trivalis frames the hens as deliberate "relay" households — visible local examples meant to spread the practice and raise wider awareness, especially among children, rather than as the diversion mechanism in itself.
- It is one strand of a broad prevention programme: the Vendée also distributed over 100,000 individual composters. Over the period, the department's residual ("grey bin") waste fell by 93 kg per person.
- The hen operation's specific tonnage is not isolated from that overall figure — its role is partly demonstrative.

## What a replicating authority should know

- Supplying the coop, not just the hens, removes the single biggest practical barrier to participation. Trivalis gave households a ready coop; many other programmes leave this to residents and lose applicants to it.
- Spread thin for demonstration effect. Two households per commune across 282 communes puts a visible example in nearly every village — useful if the goal is behaviour change, not just the tonnage from those specific households.
- Pilot first. A 37-household trial preceded the 600-household rollout.
- Treat hens as one strand of a prevention programme. In the Vendée the headline result (−93 kg/person residual waste) came from hens plus 100,000+ composters plus collective composting — the hen scheme is a complement, and its standalone tonnage was not separately isolated.

## Metrics

- **Pilot households (2013)**: – → 37 households
- **Households served (2014 rollout)**: – → ~600 households
- **Hens distributed (2014)**: – → 1200 hens
- **Coops distributed (2014)**: – → 600 coops
- **Communes covered**: – → 282 communes
- **Coops in place department-wide (~2017)**: – → 929 coops

## Lessons learned

- Supplying the coop as well as the hens removes the single biggest practical barrier to participation - Trivalis gave households a ready coop rather than leaving them to build one.
- Spreading distribution thin (two households per commune across 282 communes) puts a visible example in nearly every village, maximising the demonstration and behaviour-change effect.
- A small pilot (37 households, 2013) preceded the 600-household departmental rollout.
- Hens are best treated as one strand of a wider prevention programme: the Vendée's headline result (-93 kg/person residual waste) came from hens plus 100,000+ composters plus collective composting combined.
- The hen scheme's standalone diverted tonnage was not isolated from the overall prevention programme - a reminder to measure each channel separately if attribution matters.

## Sources

- [Réussir Volailles — 'Concilier économies et agrément : des poules pour moins de déchets ménagers' (Trivalis / Vendée operation)](https://www.reussir.fr/volailles/concilier-economies-et-agrement-des-poules-pour-moins-de-dechets-menagers)
- [Trivalis — 'Quantité de composteurs et de poulaillers en Vendée' (programme figures)](https://trivalis.fr/quantite-de-composteurs-de-poulaillers-vendee/)

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Canonical: https://communityfix.org/case-study/23