One of my favorite movies ever is a film called Everything Is Illuminated. In the movie, there is an older man who has a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. I loved this dog and loved this name, so when we were hatching eggs from Poe’s son in 2021, I decided, if we got a black hen, I would have to name Poe’s granddaugther Poe Jr. Jr.

We got one, and she was beautiful.

She was also very shy, very standoff-ish, but I figured I could win her over in time. I always do, but Poe Jr. Jr. was in for a tougher time that I thought she would be. Because Poe Jr. Jr. was a loner like her famous grandmother, she became a target for a young rooster born the same year. He got on her too much. Eventually, I decided it was just too, too much, and he had to go; however, when a rooster gets on a hen too much, he damages some of her feathers. I make little jackets when this happens, but it helps only in certain areas. Still, Poe Jr. Jr. wasn’t in too bad of shape at all, and I knew she would molt in the fall and get all new feathers.

For some reason, she didn’t molt.

I have never seen such a thing. Every year after their first year of life, chickens molt to get rid of their old feathers and grow new, beautiful feathers for the coming year. They usually molt in the fall, so they are ready to go for winter with a nice, thick batch of beautiful feathers. The molt can be hard on them. Well, it almost always is. It takes a lot of work to grow new feathers, and the pin feathers can be painful to touch. When we have a chicken having a “hard molt” where they have lost a lot and are growing many new feathers, they will just hide from the rest of the flock for days or longer. Still, the molt is necessary and wonderful in helping a chicken live a happy, healthy life. New feathers once a year are critical.

When Poe Jr. Jr. didn’t molt last fall, I was worried. She had some bald spots for sure, and it seemed so strange that she never molted. I thought maybe she was off schedule, but fall came and went. Winter came and went. Spring came and went. Still, no molt.

By this summer, she just looked downright scraggly. I was so worried about her and not sure what to do. Chickens will just naturally lose feathers to normal wear and tear throughout the year. After two years without a molt, I was worried she wasn’t going to have enough feathers to make it through this coming winter. A couple of times, I captured her in the evening to make sure she didn’t have mites or a skin condition. I could see nothing wrong, just a relatively bald chicken.

My plan was to look into having a sweater made for her for the winter. I cannot crochet well enough to make one for her, but I know people who can. And, if that didn’t work, I thought she was either going to have to move into the garage, or I was going to have to take her to a vet, even though I had zero hope that any vet would know anything at all.

Then, last month, I noticed that maybe her little underneath feathers were coming out. It looked like a molt, but I wasn’t sure because of her history. I kept a close eye every day, and finally, I saw them–the pin feathers! Poe Jr. Jr. was finally getting new feathers.

And, oh my goodness! When she finally got her new feathers, they were more gorgeous than I could have imagined. When chickens molt for the first time, you really see who they are in terms of their feathers. They will change some, and though I have found that they will change a little with each molt every single year, there is nothing as big as the change after the very first molt.

Poe Jr. Jr., who was all black before with a little bit of green sheen, is now still mostly black, but there are little random brown feathers in the mix. Her green sheen is also just extra. It’s almost blue. She looks like a model chicken, and I am so happy for her.

On top of this, she is no longer hiding from everyone. She is still a bit of a loner, but I see her with her people a lot more. Plus, she doesn’t run from me anymore. The other day, Poe Jr. Jr. took a treat from my hand for the first time in her life! I had tears.

And, I swear, when I went to take a picture of her for this blog post, she let me do a full photo shoot of her. She definitely knows she looks better. She must feel so much better. I love this little chicken, and I am hopeful that now I can really get to know Poe Jr. Jr.

Petty’s babies are, perhaps, the most beautiful mix we have ever had on our little farm. I think the only other batch we had that was so beautiful was Broody Hen’s babies, but she ended up having four boys out of her seven. I am still not sure, but we may have four girls, maybe five girls, maybe, if we are really lucky on this one beautiful bird, six girls. I have seen almost zero chest bumping amongst the babies, but it’s still very hard to tell.

But I am pretty sure that one of the little black chicks, who I thought might be a boy because of a little bit of comb showing early, is actually a girl. The comb just never took off, though this baby is part Easter Egger, a breed with very little comb, so this can make it tough to tell the sex of the bird if you are going by the comb. So we will see, but based on everything in total, including bone structure, I think this one is a girl. She’s the one on the far left in the picture. If you look closely, you can see her little puffy cheeks!

I am super excited this baby is a girl because she hatched from a Cora egg. Cora is Poe’s grand baby. This means this baby is Poe’s great grand baby. And she’s black! Cora is a white Easter Egger, and the daddy is Rooster, who is red and green. This means this little baby got her black feathers from Poe’s line, and that makes me so happy and melancholy at the same time.

My son said we should name her Poe Jr. Jr. Jr. We already have a Poe Jr. Jr, who I need to write about this coming week, so I said we needed something better. Since it’s almost Halloween and this baby is from Poe’s line, I thought she should be Lenore. How lovely is that?

In the years that I have been working with and learning from chickens, I have learned a lot about how powerful a will to live really is. I have had a few chickens clearly let me know they were ready to die after struggling with health problems, but mostly, I have observed that chickens really want to live–just like most of us.

Today, I gave Vanilla a spa day. I have been working too much this week, and I haven’t kept a super close eye on the flock. Vanilla is molting and was looking a little rough. I did do a mite check on the flock this week, but I didn’t check everyone–just my usual suspects (all of my older chickens with weaker little bodies) and then a random sampling from the young, healthy girls. I don’t always have time to check everyone, but I have to do pretty regular mite checks on the chickens because ours are not protected from wildlife.

They are fenced, but birds, squirrels, and chipmunks have interactions with our chickens. I have seen chipmunks playing with the baby chicks. It was fantastic, and it happens quite a bit. This is not good biosecurity. If bird flu came to our area, we would have to figure out a way to cover our run and keep the chickens in the run. They would be devastated. They live very good lives, and part of that goodness is getting to watch a chipmunk. Truly, some of them will show interest in the chipmunks, and I don’t think to eat, though I could be wrong. But I have definitely seen the chickens hanging out with the crows in the fall when they are all eating from underneath the leaves. It’s a joyous time to be a bird of any kind during that season.

This leads me back to Vanilla because, much like Mary Jane, Vanilla has an amazing will to live. Vanilla is a meat bird. She was pardoned in 2018, along with Millie, because Millie-Vanilla, because girl you know it’s true.

I loved having both Millie and Vanilla. They were the best birds. Very sweet, very smart. But they grew apart as friends. Vanilla made friends with Mary Jane, as well as Emily and Charlotte, our Buff Orpingtons. Millie never made friends. Neither one of them had genetics on their side, but I noticed Millie deteriorated when she quit hanging out with Vanilla and was alone more. It could be a coincidence, but she died at two years of age. Of course, it’s also important to note that’s about right for a meat chicken, specially a Freedom Ranger chicken. Vanilla, however, thrived.

Over the years, Vanilla has been a great layer and a great member of the flock. She is now five years old and is one of the top chickens, though she’s very chill. She’s curious about me, will run for treats, but in her older age, she has developed struggles with her hips and with vent gleet (maybe). I keep trying to treat it, so I am not sure. But I just give her a bath fairly regularly (she will also stand in the rain to give herself a bath on her own), and she lives a happy life.

Today, however, I am worried. I just can’t imagine that she will make it more than a few months more. Still, today, after her spa day, which consisted of a warm bath, a good dry, lots of hugs because she’s so chill and lets me, and lots of the best treats, she perked up. I can see that really good care can extend the life of a chicken, and I can see why house chickens can sometimes live so long. Life is harder with the flock, even though we try to keep a chill flock. Anyway, she did perk up, so we will see. I do think we’re getting close though.

Of course, I remember writing these very words about Mary Jane last fall. Now, there’s a will to live. Mary Jane is six and a half years old now.

Working with our chickens has taught me an important lesson that I try to apply to my life. I can see that feeling a sense of purpose, even if it’s just knowing how to enjoy the day and watch the chipmunks, can help with longevity. As I have been struggling of late feeling without purpose and a little disillusioned about the world, this lesson has helped me. I am just having to learn to be patient as I figure out my purpose. I think I want to work with animals more.

Our son spends a lot of time outside. He thinks better when he walks, so he walks a lot. He’s always out there where Petty and her babies hang out. He is not a chicken person like I am, but I have recently found out that he has been observing Petty and her crew. This makes me happy.

He said that Ruby hangs out with them quite a bit. I have seen this a lot myself, but I guess it’s happening even more than I thought. He said the babies watch Ruby all of the time, and I have seen that she never pecks them on the head when they come around, as other chickens likely would. I was telling him about how these baby chicks are such a sassy crew, and he said it’s because Ruby is such a strong influence on them.

I can see this. Ruby is a strong personality. I wish everyone could come meet her and see what I see, but she’s shy. Even when our neighbor comes over, she hides. The other chickens love our neighbor and run to her just like they run to me, but Ruby runs and hides. Ruby is an absolute character of a chicken, and I wish a scientist would come study her.

Anyway, she’s difficult though, and I am kind of bummed she seems to be having such an influence on the this new crew of babies. Hopefully, their genetics will win the day; only, of course, we do have one Ruby baby. It’s a girl, I am pretty sure.

And I am not even kidding. This morning, that tiny little girl charged my feet for a snack! Just like Ruby.

I am slowing learning which of our baby chicks are boys and which are girls. I used to be so much better at determining sex of the baby chicks, but now that we have Lavender Orpington in the mix, all of the rules I used to know have gone out the window. I still think I can tell fairly well by behavior though. And based on behavior, I think we have a lot of girls in this batch babies. Time will tell if I’m right.

But I do know a few for sure. One is Ruby’s baby. It’s definitely a girl. And then there’s this one, Silver’s baby. She looks just like her dad; in fact, she’s pretty much identical to Piatigorsky. She’s so beautiful to me, and I have decided to name her Clara because I recently read a biography of Clara Schumann, and I thought her name was so lovely.

So, world, meet Clara! I’m still thinking deeply on names for everyone else. It’s going to take me awhile, I think.

The baby chicks are doing well and are the sassiest group of babies I have ever seen. They worry Petty so much, and I feel so badly for her. Today, the little yellow chick who is getting cream and brown feathers, snuck into the chicken coop and was just sitting there on the bottom roost all by herself while her poor mama fretted outside worry because she couldn’t get in.

“Quit worrying your mama,” I said, as I chased her out of the coop.

Of course, we all know that she is going to continue to worry her mama because that seems to be what children do. There’s really no avoiding it, is there?

Rooster is molting and very run down. Two days ago, I thought he had died. Today, Ron thought he had died. Thankfully, he is not dead, but oh my gosh, I know we are on borrowed time. I like Dvorak as a rooster. He does a pretty good job, but there will never be another Rooster. I hope he can recover after he finished molting. I gave him extra treats today. He looks fine. I suppose he’s just tired. He’s worked very hard and worried an awful lot for a long time.

There is a old sign I got at a thrift store many years ago when he was young. I put it on the coop door because it read, “Rooster’s Coop.” It’s all faded and really should be removed, but I can’t do it. I’m worried it might jinx me. I have to keep it Rooster’s Coop for a while longer.

On the bright side of molting, Poe Jr. Jr. is molting! This is great news because she is three years old and has NEVER molted. I have no idea why, but she finally molted in a big way. I keep telling her how beautiful she is because she looks terrible right now, but to get fresh feathers is going to make a huge difference in her life. I was worried I was going to have crochet a sweater for her to survive the winter.

Finally, today, I got the best picture of Ruby! Isn’t she just gorgeous? Her little baby chick Petty is raising is a beautiful bird. I am trying to get a picture of her, but she’s the most shy. Anyway, this is Ruby in all of her glory in the beautiful sunlight on a beautiful September day. I’m going to treasure this picture of this little hen with a giant personality for a very long time.