Loads of sites come up in my feed. Some I scroll through, others I block and a few catch my interest and I click through to their page. I’ve profiled two rescue groups for my blog: Fresh Start For Hens in England and Tikkun Olam in the States. I reached out to Lefty’s, a 20 acre sanctuary in the Macedon Ranges, Australia and asked if they were interested in doing an interview with me.
From experience I know that folks running a rescue are busy 24/7 and don’t have a lot of spare time. I suggested that I scroll through their Facebook page to see what I could use. As it turns out, it took me a couple of hours just to get through the last three months and I ended up with so much material I decided to create a miniseries: The Price Of Eggs: Commercial Layers’ Tragic Lives, LPFS’s origin story, stories of Lefty’s birds with health issues and profiles of their rescue chickens.
Best Friend On The Payroll has been here seven weeks today. She was found dumped in a clearing in the bush with lots of other hens. She is the friendliest, sweetest hen but lately she started acting a little more stand offish so I knew something was up. A check by my vet diagnosed a grade three heart murmur which she is now on medication for.
Little Dynamo Betty arrived here in early December and from the get go she was zipping around everywhere and pretending she was tough. She integrated in to the flock fine and all has been well. Last week, Dynamo decided to challenge Young Einstein, my big serious Isa, and Young Einstein retaliated and delivered one shocking kick that completely broke her leg bone. Shocked as I was I had to spring in to action, well it was my volunteer, Sally, who sprung in to action. She organised Roaming Vet Surgeons and Vetcall Melbourne to help Dynamo and she and vet nurse Emma worked unpaid to assist the surgery. So bloody grateful I am for such help and support. Dr Tracey did and amazing job and Dynamo is up and eating a buffet this morning that includes that egg you can see in the x-ray.
Dynamo is doing so well after her surgery for her broken leg on Tuesday. She’s absolutely dying to get out and about, but needs to be confined for another 1.5 weeks. She’s very frustrated, but soon enough she’ll be back to her old life. She had laser treatment at my vets yesterday and is currently yelling at me from her little enclosure about how she is totally fine now thanks, let me out.
Dynamo Betty broke her leg here in a freak accident when she was in a fight with another chicken last month. Surgery went great and she came home ready to heal. Sadly an x-ray a week later showed the plate had moved, also moving the bone position. So, I walked around with Dynamo with her leg in this position for weeks, even having her in a sling around my waist trying to give the bone more of a chance to heal. She is an uber active hen and all this has been so frustrating for her and she’s fed up. Last week she got vet clearance to be able to do more things and Friday sees her go in for another x-ray and fingers crossed we have a healing bone.
She had surgery on her broken leg on Feb 11. Due to the plate moving slightly, her healing has taken longer than normal but Friday’s x-ray showed that it’s finally formed a callous! Hallelujah! It’s been a long and frustrating journey for us both.
My two leggy game birds, Footloose and Weird Al, wait on the roof to be let out because game birds aren’t your average chicken. Weird Al (in the background) has a very sore knee and receives acupuncture monthly and has just started CBD oil daily and it seems to be working looking at her on the roof here.
Glinda and Elphaba arrived in November to see out their retirement days here with a larger flock and so they could be medicated twice daily. They are tiny 9 year old Belgian D’Uccles and absolutely LOVE each other. They hold their best friend charms tightly under their wings and must be able to see each other at all times. They now live in a flock of 21 and are thriving with medication and seem to really enjoy the safety and structure of larger flock life.
Littlefoot was rescued as a chick from a broiler chicken farm. Chickens bred for meat are selectively bred to grow as fast as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. When they are rescued, carers don’t expect them to live a long time – it’s often a struggle just to get them past one year old due to their shear size and all the health problems that come with it. Littlefoot made it to seven years old. Seven. The absolute sheer determination of this rooster and his will to keep living was enormous.
He came here in early December to live out his days and spend the last tiny bit of his life surrounded by a group of little Isa Brown hens who adored him, stole his food, licked his feathers and basked in his grumpiness. He would sit in the sun letting it hit his face, taking in the small things that made his life worthwhile. He didn’t want to leave. He was still determined, despite the fact that he could no longer get up and the fact that his heart was rapidly failing. Between me, his lifelong carer and our vet, it was unanimous that Littlefoot was in a bad place and it was time for him to shine on in a new life beyond the stars where he could finally let go of his staunch determination and be free of his huge body that was weighing him down. I didn’t know him for a long time, but I certainly will never forget his willpower to keep going. I think of him now whenever I don’t think my body can physically continue and it spurs me on. What a brave man who completely defied the odds.
Manny and Blue Light Disco. They both turn five years old on Friday. I took them (and others) home from my grandfather’s nursing home not long after they hatched and they’ve lived here in absolute paradise for them since. Both have developed large tumours, both are on pain relief daily and have been implanted again. They sit like this often. They seem to take comfort in the fact the other is going through the same thing.
Marching Band is a darling little hen who tries so hard. She was rescued from an egg industry pullet grower shed in September last year. Her and her rescued sisters suffered horrifying rickets from the absolute neglect and terrible practice on that farm and all of them have significant limps and have never grown to full size. But Marching Band is determined. Her rickets means that her little legs kick out prominently when she walks – like a soldier in a marching band. She knows her name as “Marching, Marching, Marching” and will kick those little legs out in a hurry if she thinks corn is on the menu.
Powerwalker Little Monster
Please send all your best vibes the way of Powerwalker (aka Little Monster) who is going in for her big operation tomorrow to get her dead toe and her massive bumblefoot infection ball off. Sadly, a course of (seriously strong) antibiotics hasn’t stopped the infection, so this is now this cheeky girls only hope. Please cross your fingers for her.
Powerwalker has woken up and is in recovery. Such a brave, tough little hen being looked after at my wonderful vets. I’m very lucky that my volunteer raking superstar, Sally, is a vet nurse at my vets and takes the best of care of all the Lefty’s chickens who are admitted.
Powerwalker Little Monster is doing well after her toe and bumblefoot amputation. She’s eating a lot and today she came outside for some sunbaking. She’s the bravest little girl who answers you every time you speak to her and looks you straight in the eyes.
Powerwalker Little Monster arrived last month from a backyard with a raging bumblefoot infection. So raging that two bones were dead in her toe. Yesterday she had surgery to amputate that toe and she’s now home recovering. She’s tired this morning. Photo One is her foot before surgery and photo three is the toe after surgery.
The last week has been the usual roller coaster of emotions for me. Two chicken euthanasias, one sudden sheep death, two new suprise feral kittens and my pants feeling a bit tighter. I haven’t done a wish list since October, so it’s time to do one. Thanks to everyone for their support and to my vet team for knowing, loving and wanting to help chickens.
The moment she arrived she was just pure joy. All she wanted to do was chat and have company. She sat up on a little perch in an area I made her inside and would sit there and chat to anyone and everyone who went past. She would jump off the perch and wander in to the lounge room to chat to my mum and dad who thought she was a real character. Her little light shone so brightly and she wanted to be friends with everyone, but her story unfairly ended here after such a battle by her and so many of us.
Powerwalker arrived in December with a HUGE bumblefoot on her toe (another photo in the comments) Bumblefoot is an infection that gets in to the foot of a chicken via some sort of cut and if not treated can cause sepsis and death. Powerwalker’s case was the worst I’d ever seen. Her previous owner had in fact taken her to a vet who sent her home with some inappropriate antibiotics. To become a vet and have absolutely no interest in chicken’s suffering or care is something that makes me rage inside. So many vets know absolutely nothing about chickens and don’t even give them the respect of doing a quick google on how to treat chickens. My vet however operated on this sweet girl and threw everything at her. The bumblefoot had cause two bones in her toe to die so the whole toe was removed. She received laser treatment to help speed up recovery and was doing so well and her foot looked amazing until her body just gave up. Her uterus was a mess and causing huge issues. So much untreated infection for so long was just too much for this little shining light of a hen and she died.
In the short time she was here, she made everybody love her with her constant chatting and her positivity. She fought so hard and deserved a beautiful life here, but she got here just too late. So many thanks to my brilliant vet, Dr Gloria and vet nurse Emma and vet nurse and LP volunteer Sally who went above and beyond to try and save this sparkling hen.
Some paths are just so unfair, but all we can do is try and for Powerwalker, we tried so hard and she knew it.
This is Red Legs. She was rescued from a pullet grower shed last year. She didn’t have adequate nutrition or sunlight in that egg industry shed so she developed Ricketts. She’s a huge personality and takes her own tablet medication out of my hand and eats it. So funny. I just made up this Eglu Cube for Red Legs and her flock of nine other chickens because their old pine coop was falling apart and their other coop had the beginnings of red mite lurking. This Eglu coop was bought for The Fraggles, so now they need to keep living in their old pine coop. I’m on a mission to change all the small pine coops to Eglus. I’m on a mission to create more smaller enclosures with Eglus in them for the new arrivals that are constant. They are very expensive, but will last so much longer than the crappy pine coops.
Turnaround Bright Eyes (Every Now And Then I Fall Apart) has never been mobile. She arrived with her bones so badly affected by rickets that she does find it difficult to walk. Recently she’s hurt her bad foot and it’s been even harder for her to get around. She’s receiving acupuncture and laser treatment on it from my vet (who I couldn’t be more grateful for) and she’s currently my little lady who gets carried around with me most of the day and she loves it. She is the absolute sweetest little hen, she loves corn and watermelon and cuddles – never ending cuddles.
Being a chicken sanctuary with so many chickens who need very specific support and medication daily and many chickens like Bright Eyes who look to me as their safety net, I don’t go on holidays, even a night away is impossible for me. I just want to make that clear, this is an all consuming, no holiday, difficult to even go out to dinner kind of thing to do with your life. I’ve had some people ask how they can start a chicken sanctuary of late and I just wanted to make it clear that it’s a full time commitment, reserved for those with strong minds and an absolute utter love for these birds. They rely on you 100 percent.
She hatched in to a dark, sterile room at a hatchery. She desperately search for her mum, but there are no mothers allowed in the egg industry. Chicks are hatched. Males chicks are selected and minced alive because they are useless to the industry and female chicks grow in to pullets who live in huge sheds waiting to be ready to be shipped off to egg farms.
Bright Eyes developed terrible rickets in these sheds. With no access to sunlight and having to fight for food and water, she had no chance. Her legs were so incredibly affected that on a bad day, she could barely walk.
When she was rescued from that shed, she arrived here and she chose me as her person. All she’d ever known was fear and pain and she chose me to be her safety…and what an honour that was.
My sweet little girl who so loved cuddles, corn and watermelon left the world last week after a lovely day. She spent the day walking around in my arms as I did my usual chores and she had a bath and closed her eyes in joy when the hairdryer air touched her little face. She died loved. She was born never to be cared for, never to be seen and never to be loved. She left cared for, loved, seen and she had a name. She felt safe.
Chickens arrive and leave here constantly. My heart is like a battered and bruised old tomato at this stage, but I keep continuing…why? how? I often can’t answer this question even to myself, but my heart has endless secret doors it seems. I think I’m done but then a little hen like Bright Eyes comes along and there’s no way I am not going to make that sad, scared little hen feel safe. Many look at my life with a sort of curiosity and many often feel sorry for me, but when I know these chickens have left this world feeling loved, my heart can rest easy and that’s when I can make more secret doors in quiet parts of my heart that are just waiting for that next chicken who needs me.
The egg industry is absolute horror. Chickens are born to be nothing more than egg machines. Disabled chickens like Bright Eyes are seen to be absolutely nothing. In the end, she knew she wasn’t nothing and that’s what it’s all about.
This is Turnaround Bright Eyes and Together In Electric Dreams. They both have mobility issues and sometimes feel very overwhelmed in their little flock and need time out. I purchased this coop a few years ago with the help of you guys here when I asked for donations. It’s been an absolutely essential time out area for chickens who need some space and I thank you very much for the help always.
Lefty’s Place’s number one Valentines. They love each other dearly.
Vet Day
Lots of chickens checked. New residents having their first taste of the doctor. Lots of acupuncture. Thanks for your support in giving these chickens a cared for life after their (mostly) awful pasts.
Marching Band got her acupuncture; Ab Fab checked out fine; Elphaba’s heart is worse than ever. Her sister, Glinda is doing well though; Smart Casual arrived just before her appointment yesterday from the lost dogs’ home. New life ahead.
Thanks to Tamara Kenneally for sharing her stories and photos, used with permission.
For more info and to support Tamara’s work check out her photography page and Lefty’s Place Farm Sanctuary.
Bitchin' Chickens 
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