Lefty’s Place Farm Sanctuary: Chicken Stories 2

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, this one, profiles of their rescue chickens.

Dumping chickens is not a something anyone should be doing. Chickens have no way to protect themselves from predators and Isa Browns cannot fly up to branches as some chickens can. Dumping chickens is a complete act of cruelty. If they hadn’t been found, they all would have been killed by predators that night. This is what happens when humans see chickens as only egg machines. Once they drop their egg production, people want them gone. This is why I do not ever condone anyone getting hens for their egg supply. You wont love them and see them for who they truly are, you will expect them to lay you their eggs daily and treat them as nothing once their production slows down. You know what’s a great alternative? No eggs. Not that hard.

Emperor’s New Groove’s been here a week, but in that time he’s managed to let everyone know that he owns the joint. He’s put our biggest bully Isa Brown (Skyways) in her place and he’s shuffled those tiny legs dancing about 8 thousand times. I call him “The Emperor’s New Groove” and he’s a huge personality in a tiny body. He and his brother were dumped at Christmas. Can’t have rooster where you live? Then don’t hatch them! Seriously, how stupid and cruel are people.

The Emperor’s New Groove is a handful in two ways. He literally is small enough to fit in my hand and he is also a man with a big attitude and a burning passion to be in charge and cause trouble. New Groove is a very young boy, he was found dumped in a suburban park at Christmas time and when he arrived here all his dreams came true. He has eight little Isa Browns and his brother in a flock that he believes he is completely in charge of. He also believes he is also in charge of the 8 other flocks here and causes chaos most days by trying to steal hens away from other roosters, chasing hens 20 times his size and just generally making life more of a drama than it should be. New Groove will grow out of this, all young roosters can be a handful until they find out what life and being a rooster is all about and I will wait that out and protect the other flocks whilst he matures. I wont be dumping him at a park like his last human did who irresponsibly dumped him because he was a boy.

I say, yet again, if you cannot keep the roosters you hatch, STOP HATCHING CHICKS.

GPS Tracker is doing well. She arrived via Melbourne Chicken Rescue a few weeks ago now after she was found by some kind hearts wandering the streets in Coburg completely emaciated and smelling like death. I can never be sure what the pasts of the chickens who arrive as strays are, but I have a pretty good idea that perhaps GPS was kept in a backyard in a cage for eggs. She had no idea how to really dustbath and only had her first bath yesterday after watching everyone else. She smells like a chicken who hasn’t been able to bathe for a very, very long time and she’s just not sure how to be a chicken, but she’s learning. Big flocks of chickens are wonderful for teaching new and traumatized hens how to be a chicken. Chickens need chickens. Chickens need the earth. Chickens in no way need or want to be your egg machines.

She tests my patience daily. She’s broken almost everything I put up here including my favourite glass. All in the quest for corn.

GPS Tracker has a very clear ambition in life. It’s all about finding corn. She is obsessed with corn. She’d never tried it before she arrived here, but now it’s her whole life. Every single day she’s in my feed bins. Every single day she is up on my feed prep tables and in feed buckets and in other flocks coops just on a never ending quest to find corn. She kicks everything off my tables and just drives me crazy each day, especially when I’m behind in chores, but I still love this cheeky girl. GPS Tracker was found as a starving, smelly, covered in bruises stray running around Coburg.

H Division Gaolbreak (that’s pronounced Jailbreak for us North Americans) arrived on Monday and what a character she is. As a stray, she was frequenting a backyard and sleeping on a clothesline. She’d leave and return again until the kind people decided to reach out to Melbourne chicken rescue, who showed me the photo pretty fast and I said “of course I’ll take her”. This little lady had been on the street a while. She’s so smart. She’s already getting out of the places I put her in and will choose where she wants to sleep thanks very much. She has a scream on her that sometimes(from a distance) reminds me of a wonky eyed chicken I once knew.

Johnny Two Hats looks after 19 silkie hens and they all came from a silkie meat farm in Sea Lake two years ago. Edgar’s Mission underwent a huge rescue of the farm and Johnny and his girls arrived here in January of 2023. I also have another rooster named Dumpling Air Supply who came from the same farm and Elton, who has since passed away, came from there as well.

Johnny is super serious. He is serious about keeping his hens safe. He is serious about having his meals on time. He is serious about hens staying in their area. He is serious about corn rations. He is serious about staring down Spartacus through the fence and he is just generally serious about life. I guess when your past has been so horrifying and all you used to know was life in a cage, having a life of freedom really is serious and really is something he is so desperate to keep.

Just here with Manny as she takes some time doing her favourite thing – pretending she’s driving a car. Manny arrived on Valentine’s Day 2020. I watched her hatch in an incubator at my Grandfather’s nursing home. As soon as she hatched she desperately looked around for her mum that she was never allowed to have. Hatching Programs deny chicks of so much, but denying any baby of their mum is just abhorrent.I took Manny and many of her siblings home with me and they are collectively known as “The Little Babes”. Manny’s obsession is cars. She loves all cars and will chase your car down the driveway. Beep beep!

This was meant to be Mrs Mangle‘s last photoshoot (with bee). She’s been so sick. Ever since her friend Tontine died, her health just plummeted. She had barely eaten on her own, she didn’t want to get out of her bed and then an infection set in. Last week she went in to crop stasis and to my horror, sour crop set in. For those who don’t know what that means, sour crop is one of the last things a chicken’s body does before the body shuts down. The crop is a pouch that holds food before it enters the stomach and when it stops working, your chicken is in big trouble.

I thought my cranky old hen was about to leave me and I was upset. My life here is a constant rollercoaster of hellos and goodbyes, but this one had my heart just sitting in my throat and my tears falling at the mere thought of not having my grumpy lady here anymore.

After throwing everything at her again on the weekend, I moved her from the bed she shared with Tontine (Bobby’s old bed) to another room. I got up the next morning and her crop had moved, she was chatting and eating. Now, I’m unsure if the antibiotics had just kicked in or the change of bed gave her some sort of will to fight, but whatever it was, Mrs Mangle is doing much better and is here with me now throwing food all over my bedroom floor.

Mrs Mangle is such a warrior. She was a sentinel chicken for the government. She had her blood taken weekly to check for mosquito born viruses. She was then rehomed to a school where she received no pain relief at all for her leg. Now she is here, where she finally found her best friend Tontine, lost her and has gone through so many stages of grief to try and find herself again.

I’ve just told Mrs Mangle that I’m taking her disgusting favourite pillow away from her today to be washed. She’s pretending she can’t hear me.

Goodnight from Mrs Mangle who totally trashed her area before going to bed and giving me old lady side eye. Mrs Mangle celebrates her two year anniversary here soon. I never ever thought this limping old hen would be here so long when she arrived. She had been a sentinel hen for the government – having her blood taken weekly to test it for mosquito born diseases and then she lived in a school where she was neglected until a kind heart saw her struggling and reached out to me. In her time here she found her best friend in Tontine, lost her best friend in Tontine, has been force friended by Pickles and has had to listen to me sing her songs every morning incorporating her name in to them. She’s the crankiest lady but I love her so.

Mrs Pelham does not put up with nonsense and will peck you on the head if you annoy her. Even the Isa Browns are scared of her and that tells you something!

Mrs Pelham came from another sanctuary who was out of their depth with chickens. Chickens aren’t actually the “easy” animal to start with when you start taking in animals, but they always seem to be the first animal everyone takes in first because they are small. The thing is, there is nothing small about caring for chickens. If you do it properly, they are the most labour intensive animals out there.

Mrs Pickles is tiny in stature, but huge in her sense of self. Pickles believes in herself more than anyone I know and will push her way through a sea of silkies with ease whilst complaining the whole time. Pickles hasn’t seen her friend Mrs Mangle in a while because Mrs Mangle has been quite sick, but today may be the day for a reunion.

I pulled open a crate at a poultry abattoir in December, 2019 to find half the crate of hens had already died due to heat exhaustion and the rest were clinging to life. One of the hens I pulled out of that crate was Plumcake. Back then she was emaciated, terrified and her sadness consumed her entire soul. Her sadness, and all those hen’s sadness, weighed me down as I walked through the bushes to get out of that abattoir holding terrified hens who had been through no less than hell. We could not rescue them all, there was thousands there and only two of us. These hens were hens who had lived in an egg farm. All egg farms send their hens to death before two years of age.

Plumcake is now the most beautiful, affable, large and most talkative hen in the world. Every day she finds me to come and lick my pants whilst chatting to me and telling me her daily stories. She is such a joy and her life means as much to her as your life means to you.

Photo Shoot (4)

Best Friend On The Payroll likes time alone to think about where sunflower seeds come from and eating sunflower seeds; Jeremy Spoke In Class Today likes to fill silence spaces with her voice, but will not speak when asked a question; Sparrow likes to sneak up on everyone at dinner and do a sneak attack and grab the best food fast; Princess Buttercup keeps a voodoo doll of me under her pillow and sticks her beak in to it multiple times a night.

When you’re ten minutes late for your dinner reservation and the restaurant door is locked.

Roger Ramjet: rescued from a Christian school who threatened to kill him if he wasn’t taken. Hills Hoist Snapper found perching on someone’s clothesline angry and scared.

Smart Casual’s integration in to Spartacus’s flock has begun. She arrived yesterday from The Lost Dog’s Home after being found as a stray. Some chickens need to get in to a flock as fast as possible so they don’t stress, some chickens prefer to be in a small flock and some prefer a large flock. Integration is a stressful process for all concerned but picking the right flock is always the key to success. I have quite a few integrations going on in several flocks right now with new arrivals being quite thick and fast the last few weeks. Chickens cannot be just thrown in to flocks without integration, this is a recipe for death. Chicken’s have family structures that are seriously so complex and most people don’t understand that. This is why if I have no integration areas free I may ask you to keep the chicken you want to surrender longer or look after the rescues you have for just a bit longer.

This lettuce sharing method I’m using here with Smart Casual is great for chickens who are really keen to join the flock as fast as possible. It gives everyone time to see each other and chat under positive circumstances. I expect this little lady to be in this flock in roughly 3-5 days. Luckily her time at LDH acted as a quarantine period, so she can get back to chicken life here asap.

Day 5 integrating in to her new flock and Smart Casual is out with everyone and is part of the family. Just as I picked, she’s been accepted without drama. I have two hens who arrived one month ago who had been implanted just before they arrived and they are still struggling to integrate. Integrating newly implanted or moulting hens takes so much longer because they are in a heightened state of stress. Keep this in mind when integrating your chickens. hot. I’m an hour behind in feeding because I’m hot and cranky. Crinkle Cut is upset about that and took it upon herself to feed herself.

Squeek’s best friend recently died and she was left all alone. Her beautiful humans wanted the best for her, so she’s here to make a new life and family. Squeek is still grieving for her friend and is also moulting, so integration will be slow going for her, but that’s ok…no rush here.

Triangle Of Happiness’ happiness stems from things like having freedom to be a chicken, having delicious food and having a large (but not too large) chicken family. One thing she really dislikes though is humans. She came from a backyard with a small group of other heritage breed hens that probably weren’t cheap to buy and then they were left without vet care for many years so they arrived here with so many health issues. Two have since passed away from their problems, but for now, Triangle Of Happiness is doing quite well and happily existing in her chicken world.

Windmill arrived with her sisters about three weeks ago now. A whole crate of young Leghorn point of lay pullets were found on a busy highway. The crates they were found in were the crates used by the chicken meat and egg industry to transport hens to farms and to slaughter, these girls were on their way to a horrible life in an egg farm. Thankfully some kind hearts stopped and called for help and all the hens ended up at Edgar’s Mission. Leghorns are an absolute joy, so I couldn’t stop myself offering some a home here. Already completely obsessed with corn and knowing the routine here, they run around the property like white ballerinas.