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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.

The barking owl at a more appropriate time of day, when all the chickens are tucked up safely in their coops.

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.

Princess Lola just after rescue with horrific wounds from a bird of prey attack

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.

Lola now. Still a princess, a bossy boots and full of sass. Healthy and happy (except when she has to stay in the coop.)

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.

Donate to the Netting Fund

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.

Give the hens their days back

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.