Bouquet Buffet for Heritage Chickens Print

Interacting with a flock of foraging chickens on a daily basis was new territory for me in 2023. Starting in the spring, the farm manager began hauling food waste from a local independent grocery store once a week, to feed the red-wiggler earth worms and supplement the chickens' diet. The year-old birds were timid at first leaving the 'security' of their fenced pen, but quickly adopted to the grazing-lifestyle. After the morning egg-laying session, the birds would follow the sun and shade to various parts of the property devouring the plentiful grasshoppers, grubs, and box elder bugs. Intermittent dust baths and chicken gab-sessions, appeared like a sexy hot tub scene, suggesting an erotic tonality to their clucking. With the fierce Rhode Island black rooster named Jagger in charge of his harem, and 1000's of generations of very intentional breeding, these birds are hardy and totally in-sync with moving about their environment. At the smallest inkling of danger, the early-warning clucks and crowing would raise the alarm for us humans within ear-shot. Sometimes Jagger charged-me if he thought I was too close to his girls....and that gave me a good dose of 'fear-for-my life' energy! The fading late afternoon sun would queue them to return to the home-base chicken coop. As my zinnias and hemp crop started to bloom prolifically and be heavy seed, I would bring a few buckets to their pen as a 'thank you' for living to see another day. These never-seen before photographs of chickens eating a bouquet buffet of hemp foliage and heirloom flowers, were the inspiration behind this painting series. 'Bouquet Buffet for Heritage Chickesn' is original artwork by Karina Zedalis (c) 2024, inspired by an image she took while flower farming in Boulder, Colorado. This is #2 painting - large sized - in the chicken eat hemp in 2023 series.