An Outdoorsman’s Journal: The Old Red Hen

Hello friends, This week’s column is basically about life, hobby farming, being the president of two youth organizations, and my favorite chicken ever!

Over the last nine days I have slept in my truck two nights; had four scheduled events for KAMO (Kids and Mentors Outdoors) and NOAC (Necedah Outdoor Adventure Club); welcomed home Kai Chiaro for the summer; ran my bear baits; had the heartbreak of finding out that my daughter Selina cannot come home for vacation, as she had transmission problems two hours after leaving Missoula; gardened as much as I could; and prepared the beach that NOAC built for a summer of fun. Kai is Michelle’s daughter who will be staying here this summer, as she has her old job back at a local restaurant/ice cream shop.

I have a flock of 16 laying hens and one rooster. The hens are 1, 3, and 7 years old; only one is 7. From October to April they are free roaming; I cannot let them be free during the garden season, as they will tear up my gardens and also destroy my lawn. In the world of chickens, every day, generally in the late afternoon, the rooster breeds each hen. This winter I noticed the 7-year-old hen was staying in the hen house, keeping her head in the corner all the time and getting pecked apart by the other hens. Over a period of time, I realized the cause. The Old Red Hen was not letting the rooster have his way anymore. In January she started sleeping by my front door instead of in the safety of the hen house. I made a nest for her, gave her very nice treats, and every late afternoon she would come wobbling over to her nest, I would hold and pet her, and she would rest easy.

By mid-February I had enough of watching the rooster punish her enough for not allowing him to have his way. I figured 15 hens was enough. Instead of April, I penned them up then. The Old Red Hen went from a skeleton that could hardly walk to a very heavy chicken that had the run/waddle of the property. She is like clockwork; about sunset she hits her nest and sunrise she is up and at ‘em. I hold her like a kitten and she loves me. When

the Old Red Hen was 6 months old, Kai’s mom Michelle and I were about as happy as a couple could be, Kai was in seventh grade, and Selina was in her senior year in high school, probably the happiest year of my life. Now Selina is a biologist in Missoula; Kai is a “Razorback” down in Alabama going to school for nursing, like her mom; and Michelle is in heaven. Three years ago, the Old Red Hen was 4, pretty close to the end of her laying life but the queen of her flock, and one by one her sisters passed away. Michelle and I had just purchased a new Polaris quad ATV so that we would not be breaking the law by riding on my 2013, which is not a quad. Kai was working at the ice cream shop on Highway 21 and, as always, Michelle and I were running bear baits and had our Tuesday night “date night.”

On June 15, 2022, Michelle passed away unexpectedly from sepsis. Many lives were at least temporarily shattered. Michelle loved the chickens, and I am betting The Old Red Hen misses her.

The following March our swimming pool, which Michelle also loved, disintegrated. I had had a pool for 22 years. Within a day, I came up with the idea of building a pond. The pond has been the most physical and time-consuming project of my life. I named it Lake Matilda after my nickname for Michelle, and the Old Red Hen enjoys drinking out of it.

That fall I harvested a large black bear at our favorite bear bait and a 6-by-6 bull elk on a solo hunt in Montana. No matter how bad the bugs were, how cold it was, or how much she got beat up, “Matilda” always demanded to participate and was my partner in every adventure possible.

This was also the time that Necedah’s school administrator and my very close friend, Tanya Kotlowski, talked me into starting an outdoor club for Necedah, what would become NOAC. We have built an ice skating rink with lights, a beach with picnic area, and this week we finished a first-rate disk golf course. At each of these locations we hold events that are a lot of fun.

The Old Red Hen is as happy as she could be, Selina is coming home in three weeks, Kai is making money to exist during the school year, bluegill are about to spawn in the Lake Matilda, and I’m thinking the perch already did. I have a bear tag and an elk tag, and my old saying is as true as ever and that is, “No matter how rough things get, the sun always comes up in the morning.”

Plow forward! Sunset

Mark Walters