In our earliest days of farming, we had over 70 hens. When I met Ches, I had never held a chicken, let alone raise one. But I admit that started with him wanting a flock of 11 led to me becoming obsessed with chicken breeds, and whenever our Pittsboro’s Country Farm and Home offered a new breed, a couple would mysteriously “follow me home from work” . We had brown eggs, tan eggs, blue eggs, white eggs, green eggs. They were a work of art.
We had no kids back then, so Ches & I (okay mostly me) named them all. I remember Nugget, Kitty the rooster (named by my niece), and Nixon (she had a crooked beak and couldn't clean herself so we gave her weekly dust baths -resulting in her being our most socialized hen).
When we purchased our first property we had less land than we did as renters, so when we threw our house-warming and invited several other local farmers, our “party favor” was a chicken…or five. (Tell me you live in Alamance county without telling me you live in Alamance County.) We whittled the flock down to 20, and over the years, hawks, dogs, and death by misadventure decreased their number until the last few years when we were left with just the bird we named “Zombie chicken”....who will need to be the subject of her own post.
You may have heard egg prices have gone up recently, and we missed the general bustle a flock of chickens contributes, so it was on our bucket list this summer was re-establish our flock. We purchased 30 “straight-run” birds: meaning we’ll know whether they are hens or roosters around the time some of them start crowing. Our daughters wanted to name them, so last week we purchased some leg bands and a good sharpie and set the task of finding a few dozen good bird names.
Their approach was effective if a bit literal. Whatever the chicken was doing at the moment we tried to name them, became their name. Thus, we have Biter, Digger, Clucker, Lazy, Jumpy, Hider….you get the point.
The experience has been running through my head ever since and I can’t quite let go of the metaphor of it all. I mean you bite a 9 year olds finger one time and all of a sudden the whole village calls you “Biter”.
But in all seriousness, entering our 13th year of farming, there are some “chicken names” we’ve hoped to establish, and some that may have gotten pinned to us years ago that we hope to let go. If someone were to come to our land and name us based just on what they saw in the moment, would it be one of those names we hoped to project? “Hey - there goes Soil Builder!” Look, it's "Surprisingly Delicious Mushroom Snack” ←-hey, it could happen! As a mom, there are times my chicken name might have been “Heavy Sighs” or “Yells about shoes alot”.
What’s your chicken name? Hopefully not Biter! But my poor maligned chickens have been for me a good reminder of the power of a first impression.