the hens

After the Rebellion, the hens joined the other animals in the exhausting labor of the farm, working from morning to night under the supervision of the pigs. They were counted among the stupider animals, unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart, and were thus excluded from the decision-making that shaped their lives. Despite their toil, the farm's prosperity never reached them; the benefits accrued almost entirely to the pigs and dogs.

In January of the second year, Napoleon, through Squealer, announced that the hens must surrender their eggs to meet a contract of four hundred per week with Mr. Whymper, the proceeds to buy grain for the farm. The hens, who had just begun laying for the spring sitting, protested that this was murder. Led by three young Black Minorca pullets, they rebelled by flying to the rafters and smashing their eggs on the floor. Napoleon responded swiftly: he cut off their rations and decreed death for any animal that gave them food. The dogs enforced the order. After five days of hunger, the hens capitulated, and nine of them had died. Their bodies were buried in the orchard, and the farm officially attributed the deaths to coccidiosis.

Once the rebellion was crushed, the hens became a tool of propaganda. They were heard remarking to each other, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days." The farm's economic growth continued without improving their condition; they remained hungry and overworked, while the pigs grew fat. The memory of their brief defiance faded, and they were reduced to compliant producers, their eggs sold weekly to the outside world.