There's, like, a lot of chickens in here

As some of you might know, I spent last weekend in Columbus, OH at the Ohio National Poultry Show. It’s the largest poultry show in the United States and this year there were over 700 exhibitors showing more than 8,400 birds! If you’re ever in Columbus in November, you need to stop in because it’s really a unique sight. People often compare it to the Westminster Dog Show of poultry. The chickens aren’t doing laps on a leash around a ring (great idea for next year though!) but I imagine going to a major dog show would be a similar sight when it comes to the blow drying and brushing and tweezing and nail trimming and moisturizing combs and wattles that goes on. These are pampered chickens! More than a couple of them get electrolytes or other vitamins in their water to help give them as much pep as possible before judging.

I showed up on Friday before the show officially started but I could tell I was in the right place before I even entered the building. In the parking lot, I heard roosters and geese calling out from the backs of trailers, trucks, and even sedans. People carried chickens under their arms and on their shoulders. Visitors come to the show from all over, driving hours and hours with their birds to make it to this place every year. I didn’t even have a chicken in the game and I flew out from Portland, Oregon!

Many of the breeders I talked to told me that this was a show they especially loved making the time for because they could visit their chicken friends that otherwise would be hard to see. These are people with families and jobs who just happen to love chickens. It’s hard to make the time to travel out of state to visit a friend but it’s a different story when you’re going to a show—and all your friends just happen to be there. What a coincidence! When I heard that a group of silkie breeders get together to have dinner after judging on Saturday every year, I couldn’t help but let out an immediate, “aww” before I even knew I was saying it. There’s something about people coming together around a love for animals that just seems sweeter than any other hobby.

I saw chickens I’d never seen in person before like Yokohamas with their long white tails, white necks, and rich red backs, the La Fleche chickens with their devil-horn shaped red combs and black feathering, or the Modern Game breed, the whippets of the chicken world. (Visit my Instagram to take a look!) When England outlawed cockfighting, breeders developed the Modern Game as a way to show off the chicken’s leggy looks without all the aggression. It seems like the birds can be hit or miss in temperament even among the hens but the ones at the show were all docile and curious. There was something distinctly Art Deco about their looks, thin and dark. They were more like sculptures than chickens and I returned to stare at them over and over during my time at the show.

When you love chickens, you quickly realize that there are some people who understand your obsession (or are at least curious about it) and others that think you’re completely insane. When I mentioned that I was on my way to Ohio for a chicken show, some people were bursting with questions while others just said “huh” and I knew to move on to a new topic of conversation. But at the show, I felt nurtured in my love for these birds—like slipping into a warm bath of shared interests.

Walking from my car to the building, I saw families coming in with kids who couldn’t wait to get inside. One boy, who was about ten, was almost skipping yelling, “Chickens! Chickens! Chickens! We’re going to see chickens today!” I loved listening to people talking about the birds as they walked through the aisles of cochins and call ducks and silkies and polish. At one point, I stopped to admire the faverolles. My chicken, Dolly, is a salmon faverolle which is the most common color for that breed. It’s so much more common that I didn’t actually know there were other faverolles. But at the Ohio National I saw them in black and blue (which is actually gray) and even mahogany.

I’d stopped to admire the row of birds and was standing next to a 40-something couple who looked like they might have come off of motorcycles and walked into the show. They drew me into a conversation about faverolles once I mentioned I had one. I learned that they’d been “gifted” 25 chickens a few years ago and now had 200; that they had some salmon faverolles but wanted to try breeding them in new colors; that they never expected how much they’d love these birds.

As the two talked, they leaned in closer to each other and held hands. Their love for chickens was part of their love for each other, of their home that they’d return to after the show. I knew that when they got back that night, they’d go out to visit their flock, turn to each other, and ask “what should we do next?” I hope I see them next year at the show, carrying in a few pampered, fresh faverolles for judging.

Chicken News
(It’s almost Thanksgiving so turkeys are making a guest appearance)

Eggs from production layers could be used to hatch rare or extinct bird species [The Atlantic]

A woman in Florida is going to court to keep four “emotional support chickens” that live in her home. [Newsweek]

Because beauty standards never die, even chickens apparently prefer pretty people. [Better Homes and Gardens]

Wild turkeys running amok in New Jersey. The jokes write themselves. [Gothamist]

An organization called the British Hen Welfare Trust has popularized the practice of rehoming “spent” battery hens in the UK. I’ve seen people with ex-battery hens on Instagram and it’s wonderful to watch these ladies learn how to be chickens again. [Eastern Daily Press]

News from the Coop

Loretta and Joan are on the tail end of their molts. Between them being out of commission and it getting down to 30 degrees some nights, our egg supply is dwindling. I know you can put up artificial lights to keep the chickens laying longer, I feel like it’s better for the girls to get a break. Chickens are already bred to lay so many more eggs than their ancestors do. A lot of them die early from impacted eggs or ovarian cancer and since our girls are primarily pets (who just happen to provide breakfast), I’m doing what I can to let them live as long as possible.

It took over a year but we’re finally getting attacked by mice in the coop. I finally had to start taking the feeder down at night and while I was worried that the ladies were going to complain about breakfast not being on the table as soon as they wake up, they haven’t seemed too bothered by it. If I were going to do install this coop all over again, I would definitely put down a concrete pad for it to sit on.

In good news, Emmylou is using the chicken swing! I can’t get enough of it and hope she never stops. Click here to see her in action.

Love,
-Tove

PS. Thank you for reading along into volume three of this newsletter! I know a lot of newsletters go out weekly or even every other week but I thought monthly might be nice for those of you who, like me, have overly clogged inboxes.

If you’d like a shorter version of these emails more frequently, please drop me a line and let me know. Email me thoughts, comments, and photos of your chickens to: underthehenfluence@gmail.com