Cherishing Chickens: Karla's Uplifting Journey

By: Donna Culotta

It’s time for April showers, green grass, pert flowers and little chicks

This story is a shout-out to all the people in the AP who raise chickens and I know there’s a lot. It would really be cool to write about all of them, and of course we know that’s impossible, so I’ll write about Karla Armand Appleby of Hessmer.

Karla’s story about chickens is attached to another C-word: cancer. But let’s not go there just yet.

Karla’s love of chickens began as a child when she visited her grandparents, Ruby and Alex Wyble of Plaucheville. They had a farm and Karla loved it and their chickens.

Much later and after marriage she had her own chickens, but the messiness of life got in the way. The chickens may have lost out but Karla always kept the desire to have them clucking out in her yard.

When she was diagnosed with Stage-3 lung cancer, Karla was knocked for a loop. Everything about cancer is problematic especially the cure, if there is such a thing.

The affects of chemo, the very thing that’s trying to save you, kills you in other ways.

“I had nerve damage, muscle soreness, surgeries, it was one thing after another,” she said. But to look at her, to speak with her, you would never know. It’s a sad violin she refuses to play.

She and her husband, Scott, moved from Lafayette back to “da parish” so Karla could be with family.

Scott just had two questions about Avoyelles: “Do they have Auto Zone and Harbor Freight?” And we all know the answer.

“I never thought I’d live in Hessmer,” Karla said. “It’s good people, quiet and I love it.”

They moved to a home on three plus acres with plenty of room for Scott’s hobby of restoring old vehicles and Karla’s chickens.

“Scott built a chicken coop for me” she said and somewhere out in the backyard I could hear them singing their chicken song.

Karla is all in when it comes to her chickens. In the living room there’s a net brooder with chicks.

“In the extra bedroom I have the incubator,” she commented. “If the hen hatches their own chicks, they stay with the mother.”

Karla diligently researched what kind of chickens she wanted. The one thing she knew for sure was she wanted chickens that were “different, pretty and fluffy.” She also wanted “chickens that laid blue, green and dark, dark brown eggs.”

There are sites for all that and Karla perused and read.

“It’s all online, I googled as well as looked at chicken groups on Facebook.”

She knows her chickens well and said “they all have their own personalities.” For example there’s the Polish hen she once had. That breed is known for its large, fluffy crest of feathers.

“Her feathers had to be cut because they’d get in her eyes and her mouth but when she could see she picked on all the other chickens.”

Karla sold the Polish chicken very quickly when someone wanted to buy her.

“She was the only Polish I had and I’ve noticed when chickens are young then become teens and are the same breed they stick together.”

Karla said that right now all her chickens are getting along except for two that were fighting for, perhaps, pecking order.

“I finally separated them, put one in the brooder and when I put her back in the coop they were okay. But it was a rough fight!”

Talking about personalities, Rose gets jealous if Karla is holding another hen, “she jumps up and pushes the other one away.”

I asked if they all had names and Karla said, “The majority have names from my childhood friends like “Sharon Lachney,” “Melanie Tassin” and “Suzette Armand.”

At one point, Karla had Bantam chickens, the small sized hens.

“I had a banty rooster,” she began, “he loved me and would fly up on my shoulder but when he got older he turned into a Kung Fu fighter.” He never spurred Karla but did things to show off.

“I sold all my bantys,” she said emphatically.

As one would expect, Karla takes very good care of her chickens.

“I give them minerals, vitamins and apple cider vinegar in their water. They are never sick.”

And speaking of water, Karla said it’s very relaxing to watch them drink.

“I just love to watch them drink.”

Her 43 chickens also have a well-built coop, actually she has two coops and three roosters to protect the hens.

“My roosters are Yeti, Levi and Roo,” she laughed. “They take very good care of the hens and even let them eat first.”

Roo fought off a hawk to protect his girls, Karla related.

“A good rooster will fight to the death for his hens.”

The chickens thrive as well as Karla. Her cancer may never be gone but having her chickens to take care of has made a huge difference in the journey she is now taking.

“I know my legs have gotten stronger,” she commented. “I just can’t sit around and dwell on what is. Having my chickens has helped me a lot because now I have something that likes to see me coming, something to take care of.”