Chicken Soul
Chickens have been part of my animal family since 1985.
I’ll never forget when I got my first four chickens and released them from their carrying cages. These full-grown hens had never had their feet on the earth before. Their wonderment about the soil, plants, and other sights of the countryside from their securely fenced run was palpable. They looked around in every direction and made soft chicken “oooh” sounds.
As my flock increased and I had roosters, I marveled at their amazing and individually distinct crowing. I could feel how important their singing was to bring up the sun around the world. It was not a story book myth but a necessary connection. I made recordings of their voices in the pre-dawn darkness. I was saddened when I had to find other homes for mature roosters who had the natural inclination to fight each other when in close quarters.
Gandalf
I have always enjoyed the vocalizations of both hens and roosters, who have a wide and subtle vocabulary of soft or startling sounds to announce events or soothe and arouse each other. They are personable, fun, entertaining, charming, and range from sweet to feisty animal companions. They form friendships, loyalties, competitions, and hierarchies, like other species including humans.
Awakenings
When I used to hold advanced animal communication courses at my home near Point Reyes National Seashore, California, many people had awakenings about “chicken soul.”
They had usually never met chickens in-person before and knew very little about them as a group or as individuals. Some thought they must be “bird brained,” flighty, dirty, or good only to eat. When people would be introduced to the flock and do communication exercises with individual chickens, they were amazed to discover many qualities about them they admired including the depth of their thoughts and feelings.
Supreme Chicken of the Universe
In 1996, we were temporarily renting a house after our home burned in a forest fire. The shelter for our bantam chickens there turned out not to be secure enough. One night a fox broke in.
In the morning, I found several chickens dead and others huddled terrified in the corner, including the rooster. One of the dead hens was a Mille Fleur d’Uccle named Marigold, whose body was far from the others at the place where the fox had dug through.
When I connected with Marigold, I saw what happened through the images she gave me. When the fox went after the members of her flock, she attacked the fox, normally the job of a rooster. Marigold died trying to protect the others.
I framed some of Marigold’s feathers and they still hang on a wall in my home. I called her “Supreme Chicken of the Universe” for her noble, death-defying deed.
Many years later, when we lived in Prescott, Arizona, Marigold came back to us, this time as a rooster, whose name was Cricket. It was delightful to watch when Sherman, orange tabby cat, who previously knew Marigold in California, recognized her reincarnation. He sat with his body pressed to the chicken run wire and gazed at Cricket. They came as close to each other as they could through the wire to enjoy their reunion.
The Eldest
I have had a few chickens live to be 12 years old, well above the average chicken lifespan. Cassandra, who, like Marigold, was also a Mille Fleur, arrived in the world on June 6, 2006. She was my eldest of all. This article was inspired by her departure from her body on August 21, 2021.
She slowed down about three days before her death. One eye was blind and the other was losing sight. I knew the end was near when she became uninterested in eating, even with help finding her food.
Gandalf, our Old English bantam rooster, was very close to her. Cassandra had hatched his egg, which was from another hen, and raised him 12 years ago. She was his favorite hen.
Cassandra with her chick
On her last day, as she lay quietly on the ground, Gandalf went over to her gently and asked how she was doing. He understood then that she was dying. I was touched to witness Gandalf bow and hold his beak on her beak in a gesture of respect, love, and farewell.
Cassandra departed very peacefully in the early hours of August 21. As part of her burial ceremony, I held her body up to all the directions, particularly to the sky, where I beheld a gathering of all the guardians and nature spirits of our land. Among them was Rory, a roadrunner who roosted in a cactus tree outside my bedroom window each night for months before his long life ended over three years ago. Cassandra joined Rory as a guardian spirit.
Regrouping
The chickens were very quiet after Cassandra’s departure. She was the flock matriarch and her absence was felt by all, impinging on their daily life in a way which has not been so noticeable when other chickens leave.
As I surveyed their unusual absence of chatter, I realized that Cassandra had been among the most vocal, leading as conductor of the chicken chorus. I miss her distinct music but Gandalf is taking up her baton.
I so appreciate my beautiful chicken flock of ten lovely beings in graceful feathered form. Cassandra’s great soul presence opened wide above and around as she continued to bless us all.
You can learn more about how to connect with your animal friends after they have departed through my book, Animals in Spirit. 
