About Us
At the end of 2014, Starr and I moved from CA to Las Vegas to be with Starr's mom, Nana. Nana had a rare form of cancer in her lung and had to have it removed. She didn't know how long she was going to be around and wanted all her kids home with her, including myself since I've been part of this family for over 25 years.
Shortly after we moved, Nana started her bucket list of wanting feathered friends. We adopted two hens and a rooster from our local shelter. Then every week it seemed Nana was stopping at the shelter...sometimes she came home with one box, sometimes six. Then came the ducks, the peafowl and a turkey. We all fell in love with the Australorp breed of chickens she adopted. They were beautiful, friendly and heat tolerant.
So Nana ordered 25 Australorp chicks from a hatchery. We knew nothing about hatcheries at the time and it's not something we ever did or would ever do again BUT we have no regrets because three of the most beautiful souls we have ever known came from that group of chicks. Three little hens that changed our lives forever...Pickle, Mud Pie and Moon Beam.
Mud Pie arrived from the hatchery with splayed legs. She couldn't walk and scooted on her side. We had no experience with splayed legs or chicks but after doing some research, we were able to correct Mud Pie's legs and she could walk again.
While Mud Pie was learning to walk again, she was separated from the other 24 chicks. Shortly after, Moon Beam got her foot stuck in one of those chick feeders with all the holes so we separated her with Mud Pie to recover. Then came Pickle, who we found sitting in the middle of the brooder, hunkered to the ground shivering. We took her out and put her with Mud Pie and Moon Beam.
Moon Beam and Pickle are quite a long story. As time went on, they both develop deformities in their legs. Moon Beam had legs that bent backwards at her hocks (knees) with her toes curled and Pickle had one leg going backwards and her toes curled on her good leg. Neither could sit up without help and neither could walk or stand.
The three of them became best friends, especially Moon Beam and Pickle since they were both immobile. We had no idea at the time what to do for them but we knew we had to dip into our creative sides to give them the best lives we could. They were fighters and we were not going to give up on them just because they were different.
We started to add more special needs chickens and ducks to our group of three calling them our Misfit flock. We wanted our girls to feel like they were part of a group and it worked...they developed incredible friendships.
There wasn't a lot of people at the time on Facebook who had disabled chickens, no special groups, no other pages with information so Starr started this page to show people that disabled chickens can live a good, meaningful life. They can have friends and do what chickens do...maybe differently but they can still do it. So that's where the name came from...our three girls who lived in the Las Vegas hot desert.
Over five years ago, we lost Moon Beam. Within two months, we lost both Mud Pie and Pickle. The bond that was between the three of them was unbreakable, in life and now in death.
We now dedicate our lives to over 80 rescued animals and just recently became a 501c3 organization. Our official sanctuary name is Tender Loving Coops. TLC is not just letters here, it's our passion.
In honor of our three girls, we will always continue to help those who need special attention. They taught us more than we could ever have imagined and we do our best to share that knowledge with others. So if you ever see us post about these three, you know who they are. Forever they will remain in our hearts.
ps...Nana is cancer free!