These rescued chickens are getting comfortable in their new home at the Warren Peace Bunny Sanctuary.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

A flock of chickens that were abandoned in the Central Okanagan wilderness probably wouldn’t have survived much longer if they weren’t discovered and taken to the Warren Peace Bunny Sanctuary in Lake Country.

Antoinette Monod, founder of the sanctuary, said 22 chickens came in on the evening of Jan. 27. One more chicken, discovered a day later at the same spot, was brought to the sanctuary this morning.

“A mom and daughter found the single chicken while they were out taking their dogs for a walk,” Monod said, adding that they were unaware of the other 22 when they called her.

“I said ‘bring it down, we’ve got its family,’” she said. “The other chickens all came around when the last one arrived, they were all talking. It was a happy ending for her but crazy to think she would have been out there another 24 hours.”

When Monod first learned that a flock of chickens had been abandoned she began to cry.

“I spend all day outside in the cold, I know what it’s like out there. They may or may not have been loved wherever they grew up, but they were safe with food and shelter and then they’re just dropped off in the middle of nowhere – they don’t know what to do.”

Monod said some of the chickens are as skinny as skeletons and are struggling to stand. Maybe of them have frostbitten feet and she worries parts of them will be lost. The red spikes on the tops of their heads may have also been permanently damaged by frostbite. And although it’s the middle of winter, they all have bugs living underneath their feathers.

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She assumes the chickens were left on the rural road for at least one full day, but said it’s difficult to guess how long they spent in the elements because they were possibly starved and poorly treated before they were abandoned. 

Chickens lay fewer eggs in the wintertime, and the ones found on Postill Lake Road didn’t have enough flesh to be worth butchering. Monod suspects they were left behind by lazy people who no longer considered them useful.

“They’ll tell themselves the chickens will feed the coyotes, or maybe they’ll survive out in the wild. But it’s really cruel.”

Monod realizes people sometimes have to get rid of their pets or livestock, but she said it’s more humane to euthanize an animal than to leave it for dead in the woods.

Also, it costs money to euthanize an animal, whereas “people don’t have to spend money on abandoning them,” she said.

Chicken owners have phoned Monod in the past to let her know they could no longer take care of their birds and they would have to be put down unless a new home could be found. In that event, she will either adopt the chickens or find a them new home, while trying her best to avoid splitting up a flock.

“It’s hard to introduce chickens into a flock that’s already established, they peck at the new ones. Birds are kind of mean that way – if you break up a flock, try and integrate a new chick into other flocks, it’s a whole lot of trauma.”

But the Warren Peace Bunny Sanctuary has an orchard and plenty of space, so the new flock of chickens will hopefully be able to integrate with the existing chickens by summertime, she said.

READ MORE: Bunnies abandoned in downtown Kelowna under care of Okanagan rabbit sanctuary

Since the chickens have been in her care, they have been much more interested in drinking water than food, she said. But they’re usually napping when they’re not eating or drinking.

The sanctuary – where about 50 other chickens lived prior to this week – already had a coop for the new flock to stay in.

“There’s nothing wrong with the coop – it was empty because our chickens decided they wanted to move, so they went to the goat shed and kicked the goats out,” Monod said. “Then the goats got other accommodations.”

Once the chickens recover, “they’ll be able to run around in a little area in the sun and live their little happy chicken lives,” she said. “But first we got to make sure they survive.”

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