Official letter from Raystede Animal Charity -Eleanor Stourton. 

Dear Friends,

Please take this letter as one of authority that The House
Nameplate Company are undertaking a matched funding appeal to raise funds for a
new corn shed on behalf of Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare. All funds
donated to the appeal during the month of November will be matched by The House

this letter. The contact within the organisation for this appeal is me, Eleanor

Stourton. I can be reached on

estourton@raystede.org

or via the Fundraising Office on 01825
840 747. Details of the appeal detailed below.

At Raystede we now have three large poultry enclosures. We
take on ex commercial hens from farms when they retire to prevent them going to
slaughter at the age of just 18 months in addition to ‘back yard’ hens,
cockerels, ducks, geese, Guinea fowl and turkeys. These are usually from
private homes who for whatever reason can no longer care for them.  We have seen a rise in unwanted birds this
year because of fears over food security with quarter of a million more homes
taking on chickens at the beginning of March. Not all these homes have found
chicken keeping is for them and are now looking to rehome their flocks.

We have also found more people have hatched chicks and
ducklings than normal as a means of distraction during lockdown and inevitably
cannot keep all the adult birds with cockerels being a particular problem as
they are often given up due to noise complaints or fighting with resident males
when they reach sexual maturity.   All the
domestic poultry that comes into our care are available for rehoming to vetted,
appropriate homes but can and sometimes do remain with us for life.

 An individual
approached us having hatched five ducklings in his one bedroom flat with no
garden during lockdown. When the ducklings reached two weeks and were starting
to make a mess of the bathroom, he realised he would have to find an
alternative solution for them. They are now safe in our care. All our birds are
fed on layers pellets and have a corn ration, a higher concertation of which is
fed in winter when they need to heat their ‘inner furnace’ overnight as
digesting the corn creates warmth. We also feed all of the wild birds that nest
on the lake a grain ration once a day (twice a day in winter when food is
scarcer and we see a rise on birds coming to take shelter).

This grain is stored in a corn shed. Last year’s appallingly
bad winter storms have highlighted the pressing need to replace it. The general
wear and tear of many years in service means it leaks in heavy rain and rodents
such as rats and mice have caused significant structural damage to it. We
cannot order food in bulk which would be much more cost effective as there is
not the space and due to its lack of weather proofing, we often have to throw
away large amounts of food as it quickly becomes rotten. It’s design and shape
means we cannot access it with a loading vehicle, only manually which means one
member of staff struggling with heavy feed bags which is both a health and
safety risk and means the daily task of filling it up/emptying it is a massive
drain on time and resources. I have included some images of the current
arrangement to give you an idea.

We would like to tear down the shed and replace it with a new
one. The new corn shed would improve efficiency and cut costs. It would mean we
could buy our grain in bulk which is cheaper as there would be more space and
no risk of contamination or loss from rodents and moisture. As the new shed
would be a  larger structure we could drive a loading vehicle straight in
to load/unload which would make the whole process faster and safer, freeing up
staff to concentrate on other elements of their work. It would have more
longevity and be better designed and prepared to quite literally weather the
increasingly extreme storms of winter which seem to be a new pattern in climate
change.

Here is a break down of the costs
of the project:

Road kerbs x 6 £ 54.00

Drop road kerbs x
2    £68.00

Path edgings x 10  
£34.00

Black plastic sheeting x 2 rolls
£120.00

Sheet steal x 3 £120.00

Timber shuttering 18 meters
£74.00

Fencing plus pedal gate in close
board £287.00

Sundries £ 80.00

Concrete 6 meters £680.00

Building Structure 12-foot x 18 foot
£ 3,499.00

Rubber roof (with 25-year
guarantee) £1,100.00

Labour   £1,000.00

Total: £7,419.40 including VAT.

Kind regards,

Eleanor Stourton