Blacula the Chicken

Our small flock of chickens that we had when we were living in Long Beach, California all had names. Awesome names. Ridiculous names.

Lady Cluckington.

Turban.

The Doublemint Twins, aka Eggatha Christie and Judy Plume.

Geronimo.

Old Yeller.

Big Momma.

You’re not supposed to name chickens that you’re in theory going to eat someday. And while we were in Southern California, we had no intention of processing any of our birds, to put it nicely.

We currently have about 35 ladies running free on our land, and none of them have names.

Except Blacula.

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We had a crate inside the chicken coop this spring to keep a runt chicken segregated from the rest of the flock. We’re not sure why she hasn’t grown at the same rate as the rest of the chicks we bought at the same time as her, but keeping her in a crate in the coop ensured that the gal wouldn’t get trampled.

So a few weeks ago, Josh and I go into the backyard to feed chickens and water the garden. My job was the former – I open the big door on the coop, and I’m greeted with a huge puffball of feathers in my face. And a leg sticking out at a weird angle.

“JOSH!!! I need help!” I yell. “I have no idea what I’m looking at here!!!”

Before he got there, I calmed down enough to figure out one of our young black chickens had tried to jump on top of the crate, and got her foot stuck in between the bars. And she was kind of hanging upside down by that foot. I cooed at her all mama hen style as I held her wings together with one hand and untangled her from the crate with the other.

And when we set her down in the yard, that leg that had been stuck just kind of hung there.

Limp.

Like a wet noodle.

The chicken tried to walk, but that leg was completely out of commission. She managed a couple of hops on her good leg, dragging the other leg behind her.

There’s no way she’d survive in our backyard in that condition. Buzzards and hawks circle the skies in our neighborhood on a daily basis. Greedy chickens aren’t keen on sharing food with a lame duck. We had no idea what to do with this girl, so we put her in another crate in the chicken coop until we could figure it out.

She sat in that crate for two days. And we still didn’t know what to do with her.

I rearure you, eating her was one of the ideas being tossed around.

So after two days of solitary confinement, Josh let her out just to see what would happen.

And that crazy chicken just started walking around like nothing happened! She’s got a little limp now, but not anything like the dramatic leg falling off scene we witnessed 2 days prior.

Naming that crazy supernatural undead chicken one of the best names ever makes me pretty happy.

But don’t worry. We’ll still eat her.

Freelance Illustrator Steph Calvert • Steph Calvert Art | https://stephcalvertart.com

Freelance illustrator Steph Calvert is an award-winning artist with 24 years of experience working as a creative professional. She is based in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.

Steph Calvert has expertise as a children’s book illustrator. She is an expert surface pattern designer for art licensing and creates line drawings for publishing and product design. Steph has years of additional expertise as a mural artist, creating original art, and logo design for small businesses. She is currently querying literary agents with her first author/illustrator book projects.

National SCBWI Conference, 2023
Illustration Summer Camp – The Highlights Foundation, 2021
Make Art That Sells, 2017
BFA in Computer Art – SCAD, 1999


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