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2024 was a pivotal year for the sanctuary. We made the difficult but necessary decision to say goodbye to the bookshop as we transitioned our focus exclusively to growing the sanctuary. With this change, we've rescued 12 more chickens and not only provided them with a loving forever home, but were able to advocate for the ones we've not been able to save. Your support throughout the year has allowed us to flourish and we can't wait for you to check out our 2024 Year In Review to see what you helped us accomplish!
With all our love and gratitude,
Liz & Craig
The Chickens
At the heart of it all are the chickens. Everything we do is for them.
If you've followed our journey throughout the year, you'll know this was a year filled with loss. We said goodbye to 6 of our beautiful hens: Cora, Georgie, Margaret, Angie, Maggie and Jewel. Each of them had a special place in our hearts, and while we wish we had more time with them, we loved every second we got to care for them.
We were also able to help someone pay for a peaceful passing for a non-sanctuary chicken who had an inoperable reproductive mass pressing on her spine, causing painful impairment.
Throughout the year, 6 received implants to help prevent reproductive illness.
Chickpea and Tofu joined our family in February, joining Potato to create the sweetest Veg Club Bromance ever known. It’s rare to have “Disney” moments in sanctuary life, where all it takes is one meet-cute. Yet, they've been inseparable since their first sleepover and have been living happily ever after together.
Henry gave us quite the scare earlier in the year, but with testing, we were able to discover our old man had painful bone spurs causing arthritis in his joints. He's now being kept comfortable with anti-inflammatory and nerve pain medications that he gets every day. In September, Henry was seen at Lynwood Animal Hospital by one of Canada’s only board-certified avian specialists. Dr. Roscoe checked out Henry’s eye, which has been a source of worry for us since he first joined our family. We’ve tried various treatments and medications and are happy to report that his new regime is working well. Henry’s been keeping his eye open more often and seems much more comfortable.
Ellie moved inside to his very own bedroom and has found love with Penny, a sweet little hen with severe leg deformities that cause her to have difficulty walking. It was an unexpected pairing, but as we brought them both outside for their sun and dust baths, Penny would approach Ellie gently and coo at him. It was kismet, and these two gentle souls have formed such a pure bond with each other. Penny was brought to the vet, and we devised a plan that includes a wheelchair, checking her regularly, and providing her with comfort management medication.
Along with Penny, we also welcomed 9 other new hens to the sanctuary this year:
Suzie - Due to health issues, her loving home couldn’t keep her anymore. Suzie is a young hen who lost her siblings and was the sole remaining chicken. The owners wanted her to have friends again; we knew we could make that happen. She's become best friends with Henry, Alma and Sophie, along with Annie, Etta & Lottie, too!
Ruthie, Oats, Daisy, Emma & Olive - The RODEO gals (We're infiltrating the inhumane rodeo hashtag with cute photos of chickens.) were welcomed to Oscar & Mocha’s flock to help with Oscar’s excitement in mounting Mocha. Now he has six wives! They've settled in and love their new diggs and family. Every day we're learning more about their personalities.
Annie, Etta & Lottie ("the book chicks") - These sweet babies were Penny’s sister in their previous home, but they were bullying her so they were separated. We named them after three females who informed my love for books from a young age and introduced them to Henry and his flock where they are happily settling into life with a big family.
We also expanded two outdoor runs to allow more space for our flocks to explore, forage and exhibit all their natural chickie behaviours.
Throughout the year, we've conducted health checks on all the chickens every 6-8 weeks and kept a Chicken Medical Records Master with brief one-page summaries of our chickens' medical histories to help streamline veterinary care. Their wellbeing is paramount, and we're grateful to be entrusted to provide the best standard of care possible for them.
Ps - Did you know we have a Meet the Chickens page? Read all their bios here and you can sponsor a chicken here.
Advocacy, Education & Outreach
We remained accountable to our supporters by publishing quarterly updates for January - March, April - June, and July - September. *Note: This year-end recap serves as a Q4 update.
We hosted our second annual vegan cookbook giveaway to encourge people to participate in Veganuary and try a vegan diet.
We published blog posts on chicken enrichment and implants - sharing important information about the best and most humane care for chickens.
We spoke about chicken care at the Chicken Chat with Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary.
We added a resource on our website to help the public with rehoming requests when we're not able to accept any new rescues.
Liz spoke at the International Animal Rights Conference about lobbying the government for change (recording here!) and the Canadian Animal Law Conference.
We participated in the Caregiving is Activism Series.
Craig wrote a guest blog for Legal Impact for Chickens.
Perhaps most exciting, we hosted our first-ever Open House, which was a resounding success.
Business Partners
We couldn't do it without the incredible support of our amazing business partners. While we're no longer selling books, we can't thank our pick-up locations enough for their support: Art of Bean, Happy Goat on Laurel, Keepin' It Vegan, Lainey's Luck, and Strawberry Blonde.
We are also so thankful to the incredible local businesses who chose to donate a portion of their sales to our rescue chickens: Animated Coffee, Bestowed Cards, Birch Jewellery, and Yarn over Crochet by Olga. Plus, we send a huge thank you to Strawberry Blonde for donating chicken cookies for our fundraiser.
Make sure you support these small businesses as they give back to our community!
Media Features
Finances
The biggest expenses this year all came back to the chickens and making their lives the best they can be. While our expenses were more than we anticipated, we have you to thank for helping us raise enough funds to cover the costs of rescuing so many new faces this year. Medical (55%): The biggest change was that our medical costs have more than tripled from only $5,203 in 2023 to $18,065.07 this year. This included costs such as end-of-life care, implants, medication, exams, x-rays, supplies, and one very special 3D-printed wheelchair for Penny!
Chicken Care (10%): Our chicken care costs increased with the number of rescues we took in, but you helped us so much with our feed, bedding, and enrichment (i.e Mealworms).
Shelter (10%): Our shelter costs were much lower this year, with a lot of infrastructure in place starting in 2023. This year, we focused on building Ellie's indoor coop, signage for the sanctuary, stump removal (for accessibility during tours), chicken wire/posts/gate supplies for expanded runs, and vapour barrier for winterizing runs.
Events (10%): One of the costs that was unexpectedly higher than we anticipated was the amount we'd need to invest in events. After realizing the cost of renting vs. purchasing tents, we decided to purchase 3 tents for our Open House so that we could use them year-over-year. This also includes portapotty rental fees, tabling fees, insurance, volunteer day snacks & beverages, and the 32 Auctions hosting fees.
Operations (9%): We make every effort to keep our operations costs low. Included in this are: website hosting renewal (2 Years), donor database fee, donation form fees (Donorbox, Stripe, Paypal), banking fees, and also includes 50/50 draw winnings sent to two winners.
Fulfillment & Marketing (6%): Includes costs such as gas for book delivery volunteer, the purchase of Lindt chocolates for fundraising resale (raising over $600 net), holiday cards mailing, our Wix email marketing plan, post cards & business cards.
Stay tuned for next week when we announce our 2025 goals and budget!
All this would not be possible without the generous support of people like you.
You can donate here if you're inspired to make a year-end gift to our sanctuary.
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