Freecycle 2023

I’m a big proponent of freecycling – the giving, or receiving, of goods with no monetary exchange or trade. When I have items I don’t need I donate them to our local recycling centre that operates a Re-store or I post them on our Facebook community bulletin board. And the converse is true as well – when I need something I post an ‘in search of’ (ISO) ad and have been rewarded with lots of useful things.

For me, it’s a combination of upcycling things that might otherwise be destined for the landfill, cutting my budget and the thrill of the hunt. There’s something of a rush when you find just what you are looking for, and for free. If I end up not using it I pass it along to someone else – for free.

I’m also a compulsive list maker. Even as a kid I had a written catalogue of all my Halloween candy and would carefully amend the numbers as I munched through my stash. This post is a mashup of those two pursuits. If you’ve followed my year-end freecycle posts you’ll notice that I’ve made lots of small scores but no big ones like a microscope complete with supplies to do fecal float testing, car canopy shelters or best of all, chickens.

Keeping poultry is relatively inexpensive, but the costs can add up: birds, housing, feed, shavings, equipment, first aid supplies and vet bills. There are some things that you can’t eliminate, but there are ways to trim your spending.

Here are some chicken-related scores from the past year:

• 11 buckets ashes (dust bath)
• 23 bags shavings/sawdust
• Chicken waterers (14 bottoms, 13 tops, 1 tray)
• 4 chick feeders
• Wooden riser for chick feed/water
• Tons of boxes of egg cartons
• Vintage chicken heat lamp

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• Auto coop door
• 31 glass dropper bottles (for Ivermectin and chicken meds)
• Box elastic bands (for egg cartons)
• 5 boxes stuff coop décor (my plan is to decorate the exterior of one of my coops with found objects)

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• 12 Isbar and 1 Olive Egger hatching eggs
• Chicken puzzle
• Ceramic chicken pitcher
• Vintage chicken pitcher
• Chicken socks
• Chicken shopping bag
• Box of lidocaine (anesthetic)

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• 1 bag wild bird seed (BOSS)
• 215 totes of unsold produce through my island’s food recovery program
• 65 cans and 8 bags of dog and cat food (donated by my local vet)

FYI: Just in case you were wondering how my birds can eat that much, they don’t. I often share the produce and food I get with other chicken keepers. I figure what comes around, goes around and am happy to share the wealth.

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This isn’t a brag list, rather my way of encouraging folks that they can get the things they need for free, or often by spending far less than if they just went to the store. The sense of satisfaction I get not having spent money, or by making something myself, or relying on my own ingenuity to make something work is immeasurable.

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It may sound trite, but sometimes the best gifts in life aren’t ‘things’. One of the highlights of the past year has been being mentored by Dr Vicki Bowes, Avian Vet/Pathologist. In the summer of 2021 she kindly accepted my request to be interviewed for my blog, which turned into six hours stretched over two days. When I left I asked if I could send her some necropsy photos for her opinion on diagnoses. She suggested that a more effective learning opportunity for me would be if we sat down together. We’ve now gone through more than 300 cases that I’ve collected for her ‘best guess’ on a diagnosis and have turned them into the series Avian Pathology Cases. I’m so appreciative that she saw in Bitchin’ Chickens my desire to present science-based information and that she was willing to lend her expertise to support me.

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I also have to give a big shout out to Joani Thompson. I have signed up to present at a virtual Backyard Chickens Summit in March 2024. I stepped totally out of my comfort zone committing to producing a 30-minute video and an e-book. This might sound easy to many of you, but I’m someone who doesn’t even use a cell phone and had no idea where to start. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an educator by trade and have no problem creating curriculum; my stumbling block was understanding the actual ‘how’ of making a video. I relied on my old stand-by: posting online asking for a knowledgeable, patient coach to give me some pointers.

Within days I was having coffee with Joani who replied to my post with this:

“I’ve been a filmmaker/photographer for decades with a wide range of experience including radio and TV – not that it’s important in your case. I’ve been specializing in online media and live streaming since the early 2000’s so depending on what you need I may be able to help.”

She quickly disabused me of trying to make a quality video with a cell phone, especially if I had no experience. Before we were done, she was talking about ‘we’ and ‘us’ and had signed up to guide me through the entire process from start to finish – all pro bono! Here’s the introductory video she made for my YouTube channel.

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If you’re interested in how I go about finding things for free or cheap check out Tips From The Queen Of Freecycle.