I just tucked my 13 hens and 2 turkeys into their respective coops (4 to be precise!). How did I end up with so many birds in my micro-sanctuary? I had 8 hens at the same time last year, all living in one coop.
Clorofil is a micro-sanctuary (accent on MICRO!) and our main goal is education and outreach. And not rescuing as many animals as we can. But somehow within a year, we added 8 new hens and 2 turkeys into our backyard. (We unfortunately also lost 3 hens during that time.) Well, the turkeys were planned, but all the others weren’t.
It started with 3 hens from a friend who moved away, then a little blind hen who was bullied in her flock, then an injured hen who nobody knew how to care for, and ended this morning with 3 hens from another friend who also moved away.
You could think that I don’t know how to say no, but I do (and when I don’t my husband does :). I decline most of the requests and help with the rehoming instead. Now the problem is that all my coops are occupied, and I don’t have the ability anymore to temporarily help anyone or separate a sick hen (although I still have our laundry room / ACR!). So I am declaring: no more intake until we are back to a reasonable number of residents (and coops).
Literally 5 minutes after taking that resolution, I get an email from someone who has a stray chicken in a neighborhood, and is willing to catch her if someone can take her. “Oh great! Just bring it over when you do!” I see myself replying... LOL! But promised, this time I will not keep her (really, I don’t have the space) and will find her a good home.