PicoBlog

I have on a few occasions had a chicken on my head. When the ladies were a bit younger and liked to perch on my shoulder, they often made the trek up my hair and on top of my head. (Though I always worried over it they never had an accident while up there.) It’s hard not to feel festive with a chicken “hat” consisting of exactly one live chicken. But now that the girls are bigger and have better things to do than sit on me for more than a few seconds at a time, my head is sadly unadorned.

Maybe that’s why I was so mesmerized when I stumbled onto the above photo of actress Colleen Townsend posing with a chicken on her head. Other than the fact that the photo was taken in 1949, I couldn’t find much more information about the image (or the hat which was presumably made out of a taxidermied bird). To my surprise, the chicken hat was far from a one-time phenomenon. That same year, the photographer Irving Penn took a photograph of his wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn wearing an even more elaborate version of a chicken hat that almost looks like two cocks getting ready to fight. In 1918, French actress Alice Delysia was also photographed looking like a Greek statue with a bird perching on its head.

These chicken hats from the 1900s were likely throwbacks—at least in part—to a craze that swept fashionable circles in the late 1800s. For a period of time, it wasn’t uncommon to walk down some of the more fashionable city streets and see women with one or more birds expertly posed on top of their heads. I couldn’t find much information on why or how the frenzy for feathers got started only that by the 1880s it was such an issue that "more than 5 million birds were being massacred yearly to satisfy the booming North American millinery trade,” as Douglas Brinkley writes in The Wilderness Warrior. Many bird species were hunted nearly to extinction even though, like the passenger pigeon, they initially seemed so numerous it was hard to imagine humans could ever put a dent in the population. Because birds were killed for their feathers, most hunting took place during mating season when their plumage was the most beautiful, leaving even more chicks orphaned (or unhatched) ever year.

Concerned women began speaking out about the toll that fashion was taking on birds like the snowy egret whose numbers had declined precipitously. As NPR reports, “Protests by Audubon societies and other bird-lovers were mounted, and state and federal laws — such as the Lacey Act of 1900 and the Weeks-McLean Act of 1913 — were passed.” In 1918, the wild bird trade was finally stopped with the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. People experimented with putting fake birds (instead of real ones) on top of hats as well as, apparently, the odd real chicken. Fashion is wild.

News from the Coop!

I am so pleased to offer you, my loyal newsletter subscribers, a special treat. Follow the link below to take a short personality quiz that will tell you which member of the Best Little Henhouse flock you are. Are you head hen Peggy? The fearless Emmylou? Or a comfort seeker like Dolly? So far the quiz has been 100% accurate. I hope you enjoy it!

Which Best Little Henhouse Hen are you?

Meanwhile the big news here is that a few of the ladies started laying eggs again! It seems more than a little early but the weather in Portland this winter has been extremely weird. Joan laid seven eggs before taking a break again a few weeks ago but Loretta and Peggy are going strong with beautiful teal and olive green eggs.

Chicken News

I love this mysterious article about a chicken in NYC's Riverside Park that's been "roaming around" and "watching dogs." Clearly up to something. [West Side Rag]

The fires in Australia are finally subsiding but one little chicken managed to make it through thanks to a woman who was willing to spend thousands of dollars to help the orange hen recover. [Yahoo News Australia]

A family in Florida is fighting for the right to keep a flock of "emotional support chickens" to help their son. [Daily Commercial]

In good news for chickens, KFC has introduced vegan nuggets to 100 stores in a trial run before expanding nationwide. Since nuggets are basically just a vehicle for sauce, I'm curious if anyone will know the difference. [Vox]

Thank you so much for reading and subscribing to Under the Henfluence. If you liked this newsletter, please share with any chicken ladies or gents in your life. As always, I'd love to hear from you.
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Until next month!

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