2025 Year In Review

2025 marked the fifth anniversary of Secondhand Stories, and we still get the question "Why Chickens?" all the time. Over the years, our response has grown and changed. (See our full answer to why chickens here!) As we accept more rescues, learn new treatment options, and discover new personality traits, we come to understand the unique place our society has imposed on chickens. While many people see them as commodities, we see them as companions, and in 2025, we continued to inspire compassion for chickens through rescue, education & advocacy. Every chicken deserves respect and dignity, and you helped us help them.

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.

• This year has had more heartbreak than we thought possible. We said goodbye to 5 of our wonderful chickens: Henry, Ellie, Penny, Potato & Olive. We also said yes to an urgent request for a very ill abandoned chicken who needed help with a peaceful passing. We named her Marigold.

• A sweet respite from the pain of losing so many beloved chickens came in March, when we collaborated with Ralphy's Retreat to rescue a sweet hen from North Bay. Ari joined us and immediately filled our hearts with love. 

• Throughout the year, nine implants were given to help prevent reproductive illness, including for Mocha, who gave us the scare of our lives in March. She had two stuck eggs. Looking back, we can see the good that came from this situation: we learned how to do intramuscular injections, and opened a door for our vet to consult with another vet in the USA who had experience in this area, and we also developed an additional vet partnership that allows us to perform implants ourselves.

• Bubba joined the family after her former flock mates passed away, and she was all alone, which was no good. Chickens are social beings, and so we brought her into the family, and now she lives happily with Ezra, Gunta, Ari & Eggie.

• Rolo has had quite the foot journey this year - starting with part of his toe self-amputating, to bumblefoot that wouldn't respond to antibiotics, to surgery! Through it all, Rolo remained his adorable, cuddly self and was an absolute angel. After his surgery, he had a full recovery and now happily runs around with the hens all day long. As a bonus, we were able to introduce a new therapy (cold laser/PBMT) to our treatment roster.

• Hershey, following in his brother’s footsteps, developed a bad case of bumblefoot. Luckily, Hershey’s bumblefoot was treatable with a few months of foot soaks, medication, and close attention and care. At the end of it all, we’re happy to report that as of December, he is bumble-free!

• We welcomed Eggie to the sanctuary in July after her flock was attacked by a coyote. Luckily, Eggie narrowly escaped with only a few scratches. Her family wanted to make sure Eggie wouldn’t succumb to the same fate and asked that we take her in - it’s clear how much she’s been loved. She enjoys being held and companionship and will peck your ankles to be picked up and cuddled!

• This year, we finished the 6th coop, allowing us to move Chickpea & Tofu over into this space where we could offer them an expanded run. Now they get to explore, forage and exhibit all their natural chickie behaviours under a safe canopy of spruce trees. They adore watching everyone else and having the perfect vantage point to see cars pass by on the road.

• In turn, this meant Chickpea & Tofu’s old coop could act as our medical isolation coop, a much-needed addition to the sanctuary operations. This coop allows us to isolate new intakes in a natural environment, rather than keeping them indoors in our spare bedroom as we previously did. The combination of coop bedding, foam-padded flooring, a non-air-conditioned space, a covered run with access to dust bathing, and the ability to hear and see other chickens ensures a better transition to the flock families. It also means that when we are at capacity, we can separate any chickens that may have behavioural conflicts or medical issues requiring isolation. 

• It couldn’t have been better timing, as Snowflake joined our family in November. Snowflake was surrendered from Toronto after her siblings passed away, leaving her as the last remaining hen at her Urban Hens TO pilot home. With snow getting into a collapsed roof, we knew we had to step in for this special girl. She’s begun her introduction to Oscar & Mocha and continues to win our hearts more and more every day.

• Also in November, our neighbour spotted a Bobcat, prompting us to invest in additional security features for the sanctuary, including video cameras and spotlights to help Craig and me monitor any predator concerns more closely. We’re happy to report that these have helped greatly, and we’ve not noticed any concerns with predators around the coops. 

  
  

• Not to be missed were all the little things we did over the seasons to improve the lives of our chickens, ensuring they weren't just surviving but thriving. Just two small examples: we served up some watermelon slushies and celebrated Gunta’s 6th birthday (the only chicken we have an official date of birth for). We’re now on YouTube Shorts and TikTok, sharing our chickens' unique personalities with the world so they, too, can see how deserving of love and care every chicken is!

  
  

• A behind-the-scenes change in animal care came when we transitioned the chickens' medical records to our new Airtable database. This ensured we could better track how we’re providing the best possible standard of care for our chickens, making records easily accessible to the vet and helping us catch any abnormalities between monthly health checks.

P.S. - 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

Beyond the privilege of rescuing the most adorable chickens in the world, we had the most incredible time inspiring compassion for all chickens through our education & advocacy.

• We hosted our third annual vegan cookbook giveaway to encourage people to try new cruelty-free recipes and to promote Veguary, led by the Afro-Vegan Society.

• We published blog posts on chicken care in the cold, Marek's Disease, biosecurity, and insight into our monthly health checks - all aimed at sharing important information about the best and most humane care for chickens. We also shared ways to celebrate an eggless easter with humane alternatives on social media.

• Liz spoke with Anitha Rao-Robinson on the Kindness is Everything podcast and discussed some of the issues associated with hatching backyard chickens, wrote a guest blog for Pets & People 101 titled “Opening My Heart & Home to Chickens”, and spoke about the importance of sanctuaries as an influence to veganism and ways to get involved with local advocacy efforts at VegOttawa Fest.

• We received grants to develop a formal humane education sanctuary program, including informational pamphlets, thanks to the Animal Protection Party of Canada, and to launch What The Flock?! Fridays, thanks to the Pollination Project. Both helped us share knowledge and shocking information about how animals are farmed in Canada. 

• We advocated for chickens in the Ontario provincial election by reaching out to candidates, sharing our concerns, and we advocated for better protection of backyard chickens by creating a 17-page report for Smiths Falls. We presented at a town council meeting and shared our insight with multiple media outlets, including CTV News, CFRA, Hometown News, MyFM, and more! We were also invited to participate with the town of Petawawa on a committee to review their backyard chicken bylaw.

• We hosted our 2nd Annual Open House, welcoming 211 folks, 15 vendors, and a team of amazing volunteers to celebrate compassion for chickens. And, over the course of the year, we welcomed over 60 people for private tours of the sanctuary! We hosted groups for Smiths Falls Old Home Week and with the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OCAPDD). Plus, we hosted volunteer days for MeetUp, Community Investment Day, and more!

Business Partners

We couldn't do it without the incredible support of our amazing supporters. Our monthly donors, business partners, grantors and every single individual person have helped shape this year in one way or another. We are especially thankful to the incredible local businesses that chose to donate a portion of their sales to our rescue chickens: Rachel Therrien Accounting, Bestowed Cards, Birch Jewellery, Keepin' It Vegan, and Vegan Supply Co. Make sure you support these small businesses as they give back to our community!

Finances

As with every year before, the most significant expenses this year came down to the chickens and making their lives as happy & healthy as possible. While our expenses continue to grow as our sanctuary does, we remain committed to fiscal responsibility and transparency. (Numbers below are as of December 15). In 2025, our annual cost per resident was $1,899! 

Medical (46%) - $19,077: Our medical expenses in 2025 have included end-of-life care for several chickens, implants, exams, treatments and medications. Some of the most notable costs include Rolo's surgery, Mocha's treatment for her stuck eggs, Hershey's bumblefoot care, and the various needs of Bubba, Daisy, Olive, Oscar, Snowflake and others.

Chicken Care (13%) - $5,296: This includes the chickens' basic food needs, bedding, and supplements. It also accounts for a new air filter for chickens who need to stay in our spare bedroom (in the winter, the window couldn't be kept open, and with bedding for Penny & Ellie, it got very dusty), playhouses for the chickens (sponsored purchases), enrichment treats & toys, nesting pads and more. Some miscellaneous costs that added up included cables for our video monitors, paving blocks to elevate food and water, new water bowls, a garden hose & sprinkler for the chicken veggie garden, a refresh of soil for the coop runs and cleaning supplies such as shop vac bags and filters and a chicken poop scooper.

Shelter (13%) - $5,439: The majority of our sheltering costs have been for materials for the medical isolation coop & run. We've also purchased magnets for finding metal around runs (to pick up any lost screws, staples), rented a rototiller for our chickens' veggie garden refresh, a disposal bin rental and dumping fees for Ezra's coop ceiling demolition, flood lights and security cameras (sponsored purchase) for predator protection.

Operations (16%) - $6,701: Earlier this year, we combined our operations, marketing, events, and fulfillment categories, but have since divided them again. Operations costs for this year include: insurance, donor database fees, merchandise for resale (i.e. t-shirts), website & marketing plans, domain costs, postage & printing, integrity commissioner fee, annual corporation filing fee, DonorBox & banking fees. Important Note: Nearly half of this (7% or $3,027) was spent on merchandise for resale, to help us fundraise. Examples of merchandise we purchased this year include t-shirts, stickers, and calendars.

Events (9%) - $3,557: Many of our event costs were covered by grants, but expenses still need to be tracked. We purchased food for volunteer days, a new banner for events, and paid fees for the 32Auctions platform, as well as insurance & tabling. We also had supplies, signage, event rentals and workshop fees from the Open House. 

Programs (4%) - $1,716: In 2025, with an extended focus on advocacy & education, we added a program line to account for non-event-specific program costs covered 100% by grants received. Included in this were survey gift cards, printing and design costs for our egg-replacement art, chicken promise postcards, sanctuary signage, our new "Compassion for Chickens" pamphlets, What The Flock Fridays Prizes, Scouts Presentation Supplies, and Riddle Ranch Games.

We've submitted our application for charitable status! For farm sanctuaries, getting charity status is tough because the rules around the food system and "public benefit" make it hard to qualify without censoring our vegan advocacy work. Many sanctuaries struggle with this, so we're taking action! We're urging the government to recognize compassion for chickens as a public benefit. We owe this milestone entirely to the legal expertise of the team at AEL Advocacy, who provided the guidance needed to navigate these complex regulations and complete our application.

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.