Constantia resident, Michaela Irving is hosting a group exhibition, Henfluencers and Fowl Play, in honour of chickens on International Respect for Chickens Day on May 4.
Image: supplied
On International Respect for Chickens day, chickens are being given a seat at the table, without requiring them to be on it.
Constantia resident, Michaela Irving is hosting a Henfluencers and Fowl Play, a group exhibition at her home and organic garden. The event will be filled with singing, poetry, storytelling and a display of local artists’ sculptures, paintings, photographs and drawings.
International Respect for Chickens day is observed on May 4 by animal advocates and organisations like United Poultry Concerns to raise awareness about the plight of chickens in farming and encourage compassionate treatment.
Ms Irving is raising funds to host the group exhibition to not only draw awareness of their plight but their “intelligence, beauty, sensitivity” through art.
“Chickens are actually highly intelligent and affectionate. Most people hardly come in contact with chickens and don't think about them when they buy their chicken meat. Unlike cows that roam on open fields drivers pass by, chickens are farmed in big buildings," says Ms Irving.
“I do like to know where my eggs come from because the rules that classify standard free-range eggs just mean that chickens can actually move their legs and walk around a tiny space. So I don't agree with that, it's not a nice life for chickens.”
“I've always had an interest in having useful pets that could sort of pay their way, I feed them and they lay eggs. But of course I love my girls much more than that. They're my little babies now,” Ms Irving says.
Her two hens are named Tannie Maria, after the Sally Andrews books, and Pharoah Nefertiti, after Pharoah’s chicken due to her hooked beak that made her resemble a vulture as a teenager. The hens roam a portion of her third of an acre plot in Constantia, allowing them to eat grass, scratch for bugs, sandbath and share garden produce, cabbage, kale, spinach and are fed chicken for extra protein.
“As a child I would create gardens for fairies and frogs, now I grow vegetables for loved ones including my hens. I thought I would just keep hens for their usefulness and so that I knew that the eggs I eat are from happy, healthy hens. But the rewards of experiencing hens laying eggs in my bed on cold winter mornings, cuddling in the lawn, rehoming roosters and helping hens through broodiness have been immeasurably amazing,” Ms Irving says.
Isobel Knox, of Glencairn, a surrealist painter exhibiting on the day, says hens are unsung heroes.
“I loved feeding poultry as a child, always watching and the one thing that always stayed with me is how amazing it is you can throw down a whole pile of chicken feed, a mountain of tiny little pieces, they come along with nothing except their beaks and they pick up each little piece individually. Like magic in no time at all the feed is done. I often think about that when I do seemingly impossible tasks. Hens are amazing.”
To support Henfluencers and Fowl Play, contact Michaela Irving on irvingmichaela@gmail.com.