Ida-Mae and Clara — In Plummier Days
Not that it makes any difference. But, I have discovered that it wasn’t Clara who was feeling ill. It was Ida-Mae, Clara’s almost-twin sister. I’m embarrassed to admit it but, for almost a year, we’ve been calling our (now) missing hen by the wrong name!
I know that for a fact because yesterday, after seeing that beautiful black and white hen in such obvious distress, I looked up her history. Not that I have ancestry.comforchickens (if, indeed, there is such a thing) but I do write about various chicken milestones in my blog. I was curious about how long we’d had “Clara” and when her “almost-twin” had died, so I took a look in past blog posts. Here is what I found:
June 20, 2020 – a pair of Barred Rock hens came from our neighbors down the road who generously answered my plea for a couple of hens to increase our puny flock of two — if you can really call two hens a “flock.” They are beautiful, mellow additions and, for a while, are being isolated from Slutvana and Little Red Hen in the once-up0n-a-time “Broody Coop” … Their former owners estimated them to be two years old.
In June 2020
June 27, 2020 – In the seven days since we’ve had them, they’ve give us seven eggs. They are totally sweet, good-natured girls. We are calling them Clara and Ida-Mae.
December 14, 2020 – I had just finished writing my blog about chickens’ sleeping habits yesterday when I went to let the girls out of the coop and found Ms. Clara toes up just behind the roost…
And, apparently, without missing a beat, I’ve called Ida-Mae by Clara’s name ever since. I’m so sorry. It sort of reminds me of the Victorian habit of changing a living child’s name to that of a sister or brother who has just died. My own great-grandmother Richardson, born October 30, 1856, was Christened Anne Maria Taylor but when younger sister Medora Law Taylor (1864-1869) died, Anne Marie became Annie Medora Taylor. An odd custom I’ve always thought. And here I’ve done it to our chickens!
No matter. Whether we remember her as Clara or Ida-Mae, she was still missing this morning. Missing and presumed… you know the rest.
I did not know siblings carried the names of a deceased brother or sister. Wonder how that got started.