Supermarkets are now 'struggling' to keep up with the demand for free range chicken following Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's expose of the poultry industry earlier this month.

Sainsbury’s has reported a 60% surge in demand for free range – and a 55% increase in demand for organic), while Waitrose saw demand for organic chicken rise by 31% in the second week of January while sales of free-range meat went up by 24%. Other supermarkets, however, have been oddly quiet on the issue...

You've seen the TV show, you've bought the t-shirt and are never going near another battery-reared chicken breast again. But what more can you do to ensure a good life for chickens? The next step is adopting your own. Providing a steady egg supply and a lot of feathered fun, chickens make great garden companions and it's entirely up to you if you choose to keep your bird as a pet or ultimately eat it (or both!) But it's important to keep them happy while they're with you. Here's our roundup of chicken coops for your garden.

With prices starting at £118, Taylor's Garden Buildings has a huge selection here of happy homes for garden chickens. Some of these pens are not only suitable for chickens; if you want to get really adventurous, the site suggests you could use them to house ducks, bantams geese and even quail!

Follow the jump for more top-notch chicken coops!

As a long-term veggie and seasoned believer in animal welfare, it came as no surprise to me to see the carnage and mayhem in a shed of intensively farmed chickens last night on Hugh fearnley-whittingstall's Chicken Run on Channel 4. And what's the betting that Hugh's mock-up barn was practically the Ritz compared with the far larger real sheds that don't get shown on TV?

But that familiarity didn't stop me from feeling a sense of sadness and resignation at the fact that some people I've talked to afterwards (even one of those taking part in the show) will continue to buy intensively-farmed chicken because it's so much cheaper -- as much as one third of the cost -- of free range. With this in mind, how has the show affected your choices? Fill out our poll, and be honest!

If you saw Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall getting friendly with some hens yesterday and felt warm and fuzzy inside, you might want to invite some of these marvelous birds into your home. Now, depending on how serious you are about chickens, how much space you have and the amount of time you can dedicate, there are all kinds of ways you can do this. Here are a few options:

For those with a bit of space in the garden and are lucky enough to have plenty of time to spend with your birds, Eglu is the way forward. With comprehensive, online support on the Omlet site, this is the best option for first-time chicken owners.

They may have paid him countless millions to irritate us all in TV ads, but that hasn't stopped Jamie Oliver from publically criticising Sainsburys' bosses for 'chickening out' of a televised debate on factory farming.

In Jamie's Fowl Dinners, the ethically-aware chef will take the viewer on a shocking journey through the murky depths of intensive chicken farming in the UK. As part of the investigation, he invited the big four supermarkets, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, to speak in a debate on farming methods. But all four supermarkets refused to take part, putting Oliver in a difficult situation vis-a-vis his long-term business partner.

X-Factor winner Leona Lewis is doing a good job of convincing me that reality TV stars do serve a purpose other than our gleeful voyeurism, after I learned that she's spoken up for vegetarians everywhere who'd like to see a bit more variety in the non-leather fashion market.

The long-term veggie singer has announced plans to design her own collection of non-leather shoes and accessories, while calling for more established designers to follow suit and offer more stylish leather alternatives. "I have been a vegetarian since I was 12 and I hate the thought of animals being killed just for our pleasure, so I won't wear leather," she said.

Gordon Ramsay, once branded a 'cold-hearted animal hater' by PETA is to join fellow chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in a new show to air in that will expose cruel farming practices and encourage consumers to make more ethical choices when buying meat, eggs and dairy products.

The show, entitled the Big Food Fight is part of a Channel 4 season to promote healthy eating and let viewers in on the often unpalatable truths about where processed food comes from, including battery chicken farms. Coinciding with many people's new year resolve to live more healthily, the show and others in the season will promote organic, free range meat all through January. [Via Ecorazzi]

WSPA have done some phenomenal work to promote animal welfare over the years, campaigning tirelessly against cruel practices like bullfighting, bear baiting and whaling. They really are a great organisation, and very worthy of your pennies. You can join for just £3 a month, but next year they'll be inviting members of the public to laugh as they donate, with a very special comedy event that will raise tons of money for animals everywhere.

Last year, animal-loving comics including Ricky Gervais, Robin Ince and Phil Jupitus headed the bill at WSPA's Stand up for Animals show at Hammersmith Apollo and over £80,000 was raised. This year's even will take place on Sunday 24th February, and if you'd like to be there a limited number of reduced price tickets at £19.50 are going on sale today only. To purchase yours, log on to the Ticketmaster website as fast as you can this morning. Normal ticket price is £25.

PETA has harnessed the power of Web 2.0 for one of its most vicious campaigns yet, with a spoof dress-up game poking fun at 'Trashley' and 'Hairy-Kate' Olsen for their decision to wear fur.

'Dress up the Trollsens is based on he many 'drag and drop' dress up dolls found on the internet, but with a sinister twist: in this version you adorn your chosen twin with 'fatal fashion', consisting of dead dog handbags, bleeding fur coats, choked chinchilla caps and murdered mink miniskirts (nice!). My finished 'Hairy Kate' doll is pictured left.

While the twins have been wearing fur for some time without receiving any special treatment from PETA, it seems that the final nail in the coffin came when they chose to include it in their new fashion line The Row ("Death Row, more like" as PETA's website put it). While I don't approve of all PETA's tactics (does anyone!?) I have to applaud them for lampooning the Olsens for making such an irresponsible and backward-looking decision in a brand new clothing line that will be the envy of many young women.

Having caved in to public demand, the humpback whale being monitored by Greenpeace is now officially to be known as Mister Splashy pants. Hurrah! etc. But what is to become of the sea-dwelling mammal we've all been talking about now?

Greenpeace is asking all those who voted in the poll and their friends to sign a petition to make the Japanese fisheries agency promise not to harpoon Mister Splashy Pants. The agency, Greenpeace claims, intends to kill 50 humpback whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and Mister Splashy Pants could be one of those whales. So please, do your bit for whales everywhere and take 10 seconds to fill out the simple form.

And if you're suitably tickled by the MSP 'phenomoenon', you can now even buy a whole range of Mister Splashy Pants merchandise, with all proceeds going to Greenpeace.

This morning, as I ate my cereal and held my eyes open with toothpicks, I was informed that the mild UK winter weather (mild?!) has caused the latest litter of hedgehogs to be born late, leaving them with not enough sources of food to survive the coming frosts. In honour of our struggling spiny things, here is a piece of cutesy geekiness for you.

These hedgehogs are fluffy and can be unzipped to store CDs and carry them around with you safely. If you trust your younger kids not to open the case and smear the discs with sticky fingers, it can also double up as a plush pal for them. At just $16 (£8), the Huggable Hedgehog CD Case makes a nifty stocking filler for young eco-conscious techies, too. And don't forget, cow's milk can kill real hedgehogs, so lay off it. That is your public service announcement for today.

[via Babygadget]

Madonna's in trouble with animal rights campaigners again, after she had her sheep dyed different colours for a photoshoot with Vogue. Yes, it seems that owning your own flock is the next step from pop mega-stardom, and Mads is keen to show hers off to the world in glorious technicolour.

The thinking behind the shoot at the £9million Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire owned by Madonna and Guy Ritchie is said to be paying homage to photographer Cecil Beaton, who owned the property in the '30s and '40s. But the RSPCA is not impressed, arguing that the stunt "sends out the wrong message" about how to treat animals. A spokesman pointed out that even if the dye is safe for the animals, others might copy it with an unsafe dye.

The newly-coiffured pink, yellow blue and green sheep were unavailable for comment...

One of the maddest things I've seen on the web for some time has to be this new marketing site from the Fur Council of Canada, claiming that fur is 'the ultimate eco clothing'.

If that wasn't preposterous enough a claim in itself, the strapline used on the site is 'protecting nature while pampering yourself'. Now, I'm sorry if I've missed something here, but in what way is cruelly trapping animals and stealing their skins in the name of fashion 'protecting nature'?

The council tries to make the case for fur by saying it's environmentally friendly, because it's a renewable resource, biodegradable, and that trappers have to have the interest of the land as their top priority because they depend on it. "Farmers who do not care for their animals will not remain in business very long", they say. Somehow, I don't think that will convince PETA...

They may be wholly against inflicting pain on defenceless animals, but for some veggies and vegans a bit of fun with willing humans is an entirely different matter. If you're a kinky veggie for whom leather is a phobia rather than a fetish, VeganErotica.com is for you. Here you'll find a selection of faux leather restraints, harnesses, belts, collars and whips, as well as vegan friendly lubricant. All items (well, bar the lubricant!) are made to order by the site owner, so you just need to send in your measurements, or those of your partner in play, and she'll create the perfect fitting item.

All faux leather products on the site are made of a particularly resilient substance called Lorica, which is resistant to scratch marks and tears. If you're feeling creative, you can just order some of this material from the site and make your own gear!

Related: Vegan condoms: enjoy dairy free sex! | Sex aids for vegans from Lovehoney.com

I think I may have just discovered the holy grail of eggs!

Respectful Eggs are special because not only are they free-range, the methods used to produce them care for the environment in a number of important ways: the hens' feed is all sourced locally to reduce carbon emissions, the farms they live on are powered by wind and solar energy, and they cost no more than ordinary free-range eggs.

And best of all, they even have a chick cam which lets you check out what the hens are up to! It's a far cry from anonymous, malnourished birds in cages, that's for sure. [Via Green Girls' Global]