We are a little farm in Brewster NY and didn’t just lose 150 chickens and 50 ducks, we lost feathered friends with names.

The avian influenza virus, which was most likely transmitted by wild migrating geese, hit our flock, and it was inevitable to euthanize all the birds after a positive result.

Thanks to the USDA and Department Of Agriculture And Markets they were euthanized humanly with carbon monoxide.

Then it was suddenly surreally quiet on our small family farm. We are heartbroken, but want to move on!

Raising chickens for eggs is a labor of love and a gift to the community that we are excited to offer again once we recover from this loss. Our family, friends, neighbors and all customers reassured us in our mission of providing the best organic eggs from happily free ranging heritages chickens and ducks.

We hope to raise enough money to not just restock the flocks, which means cost for new birds, feed, and maintenance. (They have to be raised outside of the farm until we can have birds back on the premises after a 120 day fallow period which will be end of August.) We would also like to improve the protection of our birds from by wild birds transmitted diseases by building a roofed and fenced area for the migrating seasons. A roofed area is the only thing we can do better than our original set up, if we don’t want to stop free ranging, and we absolutely don’t.

Extra protection shall also bring the building of sanitizing stations for disinfection of shoes and tools, etc. as well as a quarantine station for new birds before being introduced to the existing flock. That will not be included in the fundraiser.

Then there is the loss of seven months of not getting and selling eggs. Especially now in summer at the peak of laying we are losing our summerly profit of about 3,000$, which we use for the compensation in winter when we have about 1/10 of egg production and more feed to give.

I will be very transparent with the costs and will answer any question about the project!

There is a compensation from the state, but that’s a small percentage of what we need and will cover the costs of buying new birds (100 chickens, 50 ducks) and feed them organically until they are laying with the additionally more expensive starter feed.

Luckily we will get some chicks and all the ducklings from schools, to whom we gave hatching eggs in the past or right before the outbreak for their classroom experience!

We want to thank everyone who is supporting us in these rather hard times both emotionally and financially!

We do appreciate any help in form of volunteering, money, material and/or just kind and encouraging words!

Here is the rough list of the costs:

Raising the chicks at another local farm until August : 1,100$

Loss of not sold chicken and duck eggs from mid April to the first laid eggs around mid November: 3,000$

Material and labor for a roofed and fenced area for the migrating seasons: 30,000$