Lehman's Country Life

I’ve been painting chickens on the mural in Buggy Barn at Lehman’s. Because of this I’ve been spending more time than usual thinking about chickens.  In order to paint them realistically I have been thinking of how they move, how they interact, how they sit and how they express themselves. Anyone who has had chickens knows they express themselves quite well and often times in amusing ways.  Being very social birds, they let their personalities be known and all those little sayings, ’she cackles like a hen’, ’she’s a mother hen’, or ‘he’s hen pecked’ came to me as I painted.   One hen I painted in particular brought back memories of our laying flock and the noise that came from those hens each day when they were laying.  The hen I painted is sitting in her laying box and has that bugged eyed look hens get just before they lay.  I can’t say I blame her!

It wasn’t until I had my own flock that I discovered the hens would lay about the same time each day.  And while they were laying they make a certain chatter that seemed to build until the noise was quite loud, even deafening at times.  And I have to admit it did kind of remind me of a group of woman gathered with everyone talking excitedly all at once.  
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