Sanctuary update February 2021

Sanctuary update time!

It is craaaaaazy busy as always and we can’t let the snow slow us down. Spring is around the corner and we know what that means: babies and garden injuries!
We are prepping the hospitals by putting in hot water. This will help saving time as some basic washing up can be done inside the hospitals rather than outside in the washing up area. We are also stocking up and moving storage around. As always, you can find the most urgent needs on our amazon wishlist. https://amzn.eu/9uE8XXQ
Thanks to a generous donation we now have a separate metal shed with the things for our horse field. This means that heavy sacks don’t have to be wheelbarrowed through the entire site, back and forward. Thank you!

Building work is never-ending at the site with old buildings being adapted or repurposed
We have built 4 temporary aviaries suitable for birds of prey with wing injuries that are moving into their second stage of rehab. There is also a new aviary for the crows. The dishwasher is now installed, saving us from handwashing the 100s of old GU jars we use for water and food dishes.
Hog ward 1 has been created to prevent a bottleneck in the 2 current hospitals, allowing hogs to move on in their transition from the necessary heat in the ICU down to release temperatures without overburdening the main Hogspital. This means that we can better cope with a high number of intakes – at one point we had up to 25 hedgehogs per day coming in…. Thanks to your amazing support we also changed over lots of our carriers, meaning that we now have the same size carriers and cages that can be stacked safely, rather than a mishmash.

It’s not just Covid making things extra difficult but bird flu out brakes in the UK meant that DEFRA ordered bird owners to cage all birds. 4 large temporary aviaries have been built to house the usually free-running fowl population of Hallswood.
This means a lot of extra straw! Therefore, we are extra grateful to the customers of Ken’s Corn Stores in Taverham prepaying for bales of straw for us!

A new indoor area has been created for Kevin the pig along with his entourage of cockerels who keep him company. I can see a children’s book here, can’t you? Kevin and his friends at Hallswood 😀

It has now been 7 years since we built our first hospital. 7 years! Repairs have been carried out on the floor and the under-counter storage has been improved. I can see that we will have to rebuild or extend in the next year or two.

Do you remember the emergency pond dig last autumn? When our volunteers dug a brand-new pond in less than 1 week? Well, I am soooo happy to say that the pond is looking great and the fish are thriving.

Future projects for this year are:
1. A new outdoor hutch area for hedgehogs. This is for pre-release.
The new area will be covered to make it easier for volunteers and staff to keep clean and dry.
2. A new fox habitat will be built backing onto the hog area providing an improved environment for the resident foxes.
3. A second fox habitat to be built later in the year along with a Deer habitat in the woodland area.
4. New shelving and storage covers to be fitted in the Hogspital.
5. A new office area will be built by the gate enabling the main hospital to expand into the current office with the treatment area situated at the front, mammals in the middle room, and birds in the back room.

As you can see we are busy busy and it is just thanks to you guys we can do this!
I don’t know if you understand just how amazing this is: that thanks to your support, not only can we survive through a pandemic, but grow!
Wow!

We love you <3
xxMaria

https://hallswood.co.uk/how-to-help/

Posted in Animal rescue stories, Front page top, Help Hallswood, Thank you.