AUGUSTA — Bill Carey and Karen Barker rescue unloved chickens.

Most were backyard egg layers — until those eggs stopped coming. Some were headed for the dinner table.

At Barker and Carey’s house, no one is dinner.

“These birds all think I’m Daddy,” Carey said. “When I walk out I just yell to them; I call them and they all come running.”

The couple has more than 60 chickens at the moment, with more expected as winter sets in. Then there are the geese, guinea hens, rabbits and the occasional pig. Really, almost any small farm animal can find care on the couple’s four acres of land and renovated century-old barn.

“The good news is, most of these birds will find homes. Even the older ones that don’t, they’ll stay here and they’ll die of natural causes. Which is cool,” Carey said. “You know, they’re happy.”

And if Barker and Carey can’t take the animal in, they know someone who can.

Carey grew up on a farm in central Maine and worked for an egg farm as a teenager. He never forgot how the egg farm chickens were caged and crowded together.

“I used to feel bad for the birds,” he said.

Carey grew up, became an IT consultant and, a couple of years ago, moved with Barker to Augusta.

Then, last year, he started seeing the Craigslist ads for free chickens.

“You talk to the people and they’re like, ‘They’re not laying. I just don’t want to deal with it.’ People say, ‘Well, the chicken coop is too far from the house (and) we don’t want to be traipsing through the snow and the ice, slipping and falling. We just don’t want to deal with them.’ They just want to get rid of them,” Carey said. “It’s cool for the little kids to go out and collect the eggs every day, but once they stop laying, nobody wants to feed them, nobody wants to water them. It’s 10 below zero outside; nobody wants to walk down to feed the animals.”

Carey knew how to care for chickens, and they had the space. Their Augusta property had once been a working farm, and they had painstakingly restored its 1900 barn. Their front yard had grass enough for roaming; their backyard was a nature preserve. 

“So, sure, we’ll take them in,” Barker said. “All of a sudden, it just started. I was amazed.”

By the end of last winter, the couple had more than 160 chickens. They rescued a pair of pigs and other animals from a hoarding situation and rescued ducks that had been abandoned in a foreclosed home. They brought home turkeys that had originally been destined for the dinner table.

“People buy with the intent of slaughtering and they can’t do it,” Carey said.

They quickly became known around the state as the people who would take in unwanted farm animals. 

“We get calls all the time,” Carey said. “We find animals in crates sitting in the driveway.”

The birds have free roam of the property during the day and sleep in the barn at night, protected by one of the couple’s two rescue cats. They get all the food they can eat and fresh water twice a day, even in the coldest time of winter. 

Some of the animals are particularly special to the couple. Barker and Carey fell in love with a pig they dubbed Twiggy the Piggy. They’ve named some of the chickens after family friends, including one blond chicken now known as Gail.

In the winter, the birds only laid a few eggs a day. But as the days got longer, the chickens produced 10 dozen eggs a day. They might have been unwanted before, but they would be wanted again.

“It just made sense to try to find them permanent homes,” Barker said.

With winter over, Barker and Carey began seeking out those new adoptive homes. They figured they could offer a safe winter home for the birds, find summer spots for them, then take the birds back when the weather turned cold again, if needed. 

“A lot of people want birds in the spring,” Carey said. “People showed up here by the carload.”

About a third of the couple’s current birds are return guests, while two-thirds are first-timers. Carey and Barker expect to get many more birds as winter settles in.

Although they don’t take cats, dogs or big farm animals such as horses and cows, they know area farms or rescue organizations that will. Twiggy the Piggy stayed with the couple until she grew too big for her pen. She is now a neighboring farm family’s pet.

It costs the couple about $100 a month to feed their animals. They aren’t nonprofit — they don’t even have a name for their rescue — but some people have donated feed and cash to help care for the critters.

“There’s no money in this, trust me,” Carey said. “This is all done for love for the birds.”

The couple expects to take in animals for a long time to come.

“Probably forever,” Barker said. “As long as there’s a need for it.”

Have an idea for Animal Tales? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or ltice@sunjournal.com.