Hen Haven in Crisis
What the chickens have lost, and how we get it back.
Click play above to listen to me read this article and to hear me chat for a few minutes about the photos.
I haven’t written in a few weeks.
The truth is, the hen haven has been in crisis and it has been a challenge for everyone; the animals, David and me.
I have been wondering how to write to you about it all and have tried a few times and failed. I wrote a draft on my birthday, 3rd July, which was a day that did not go as planned, but I never sent it.
And yet there have been beautiful glimmers throughout this time. Daily cuddles with Max the bunny, noticing a heart in Plum’s feathers the other day, Ginger zoomies and Lola making me laugh, digging into my trousers.
But a lot of the time things have felt less like a Hen Haven and more like a horror movie.
The biggest issue and the reason I am writing to you today is the birds of prey. We went from seeing wedge tails in the sky a couple of times a months, to having them circling daily, goshawks jumping on enclosures and a large barking owl hunting well outside nighttime hours.
We went from deterrents, such as holographic tape, digital radios blaring and boat horns blasting to having no choice but to keep everyone in coops unless they are under close supervision or in a safe, netted area.
We had a very near miss. A hen being hunted by the barking owl in full daylight. That was the end of relying on deterrents.
Most chickens do not survive bird of prey attacks. Princess Lola came to us last year. She was found by a member of the public with horrific wounds to her back, clearly from a bird of prey.
She was only a young hen. To this day, I cannot believe she survived. A lot of that is a testament to Director Isy, who pretty much dedicated her life to Lola for months with vet trips to SASH at least weekly, daily bandage changes and intensive wound care. And of course the amazing surgery and vet care from SASH.
I sat with Lola yesterday. She has such a huge personality. She is not happy about being kept in the coop. Well, of course not! She is very vocal and as soon as I sit on the ground during free range time she chats away, digging at my trousers, pecking me and kicking dirt all over me. Haha. It is her way of showing love.
Despite moments of hopelessness and my bloomin’ depression arcing up, I am a problem solver and I know things will get back on track and be a hen haven once more. Here is what we are doing:
1. Reinforced all netted enclosures to ensure they are extra bird of prey proof. For the pigeons and a few disabled, elderly or young birds nothing has changed. They are safe and enjoy their days as they used to.
2. Everyone else has to stay in coops for now. When I do their food and water and have to physically (gently) push them back into the coop, it is heartbreaking.
3. Closely supervised free range time whenever possible. David and I take different sections. There isn’t much time when we aren’t actively doing animal care, but we aim for at least 2 hours a day where different groups can enjoy their day. I have been combining this with working on netting. Unfortunately there isn’t a way to supervise the whole property at once with the two of us. So not everyone gets out every day.
4. A poster up at the vets looking for volunteers to help supervise more animals out of coops and also to help with the netting. No luck yet but fingers crossed. I will be putting up more posters this week.
5. Small, netted, temporary puppy pen enclosures to give dust bath time.
6. Ordered as much strong, wildlife safe netting as we could afford and got started. 3 big enclosures are newly netted and those birds are having a grand old time.
7. Paid our handyman Tye to do extra hours to get nets up faster.
8. Some fights have occurred within rooster groups and we have had to separate some boys and alternate them in areas to dust bathe and then in coops.
9. New enclosures planned for the groups that used to totally free range whilst continuing supervised free range time and deterrents.
10. And now this… a huge fundraiser to somehow gather funds to net all the remaining enclosures. These enclosures were never built as cages. They were built to eventually be planted up as small gardens and that is still what we want.
So my question for you is can you help us get back on track and survive this crisis?
We cannot take in a single other chicken. We cannot do a battery hen liberation. We cannot save anyone else until we have solved this.
So I have launched a fundraising campaign.
Chuffed is a great fundraising platform for charities. The only thing is when you donate, Chuffed will ask if you’d like to add an optional tip. That tip goes to Chuffed, not to the hens, and it is completely fine to set it to zero.
If you would rather donate via bank transfer that would also be incredible. The only thing is you won’t get an instant receipt. So please do email me so I can say thank you and give you a tax receipt. Here are the details:
Bank:Westpac
Account name: NSW Hen Rescue
Account number: 520192
BSB: 032-289
Historically, we have never come near our fundraising targets. I am always in awe of sanctuaries that regularly hit their $80,000+ 6 monthly targets through crowd funders. I am so happy for them and yet… how?!?
We have roughly worked out how much netting and the new enclosures will cost, including extra work from handyman Tye. If we were to do this alone or wait to find our volunteers the process would take years around the animal care.
We are looking for items cheaper on Facebook marketplace (isn’t that just a cesspit of animal abuse?! Don’t get me started!) but for speed I have had to order the first lots retail and it needs to be strong stuff, not light fruit netting. Our estimated cost is $35,000.
I know!
I have also added $5000 to this fundraiser to cover our upcoming vet bills. Big surgeries I will go into at a later date and another 5 suprelorin implants in August. If we manage to find secondhand materials cheaper then more of the funds will go towards vet bills, which would be a huge weight off my shoulders.
David and I have put our savings into this emergency already and there is nothing left if we are to cover the animal feed of approx $600 each week. At the moment, without rain, we have the additional cost of $365 for water delivery every other week.
I know the fundraiser amount seems huge. It is! And that is part of the reason why some days have felt so hopeless. Things are usually pretty tight even without this.
But little donations do add up. They really do. It all makes a difference.
Since 2010, when we started NSW Hen Rescue, I have made a promise to every animal who has come here. As I lifted Amelie from the battery cage, as I felt the relief of finally catching Toby the rooster from next to the motorway, and with every other animal I have held them to me and whispered or thought very hard, “You are safe now. And you always will be.”
I don’t feel like I am living up to that promise right now and I really hope with your help I will be able to again.
If you can spare anything at all, I would be so grateful. I write every donation on my daily gratitude list because it gives me that glimmer of hope that keeps me going when a resident gets ill, or the electricity stops working or when the septic tank leaks from some unfindable pipe or when my mental health just says, nup, no dopamine for you today.
The same goes for our regular donor hen heroes and substack paid subscribers (can you believe we have 29 now?!) I am always so grateful you choose to support this work.
If you cannot donate or have already donated recently, please don’t feel pressured. Perhaps you would be willing to share the campaign instead? Everything helps.
Here is the link to share, plus you will see me in a short video, find out how we’ve done with the netting so far and witness how cheeky Lola is: https://chuffed.org/project/henhavencrisis
I am writing the draft of this email at 4am. I couldn’t sleep and I set all 42 roosters off when I got up so I thought, ah well, let me stop putting this off and write to the people who care.
So let me leave you with something more positive. Glimmers of happiness and hope from our closely supervised free range time. I will chat about the photos in the audio of this email.
Thank you for being by our side at this time. Hopefully soon we will go back to being a true hen haven.
Love Catherine x
Unfortunately with increasing habitat destruction birds of prey are being significantly impacted and displaced as are their natural food sources,and chickens are an easily accessible food source for them,especially at this time of year because of course birds of prey are now nesting so they are out searching for more food.
One of the reasons the Raptors etc are nesting earlier this year and the Bush Turkeys are doing the same, is they are aware of the temperature fluctuations that we of course aren’t, they are aware of the impending Drought looking to impact us here especially on the East Coast this Summer. They need to get their young fledged before this Drought hits. So there is especially here ,we’ve noticed a sense of urgency for the birdlife at the moment.
I have to say,we simply bypassed netting here on our Bird Rescue Aviaries. The Raptors here are Eagles,Kestrel’s and Powerful Owls,so for peace of mind we simply built a covered enclosure opening into a framed wire enclosure. That gave us the ability to section off areas within that opened enclosure or to leave it as one open space,it also didn’t matter if hail storms hit,or branches etc fell on it, and it was completely safe for all wildlife to move across the top of it if need be. To ensure it was also snake proof we dug out perimeter channel,dropped in quick set cement and anchored the wire into the ground then fixed it onto the frame. It’s then a sturdy secure safe enclosure so no more worry for you both Catherine. Whilst the outlay to build was a little more in the beginning it actually worked out cheaper in the long run as we weren’t having to constantly repair it. A lot of people are now building enclosures like that and also installing cheap little sprinklers that can be turned on in hot weather to help cool the area. It maybe worth looking into that rather than having to constantly buy ,worry about and repair netting. Just a thought. 💜🌿
Sorry to hear about this. A big difference we made was one of those giant wiggly arm blow up things. We alternate location each day and it made a huge difference. Hope you get the supplies you need.❤️