Invisible

Updated July 21, 2025

There’s an invisible cost behind that egg on the supermarket shelf. There’s an unspoken price behind those scrambled eggs on your plate.

Someone pays it—not in coins or cash—but in body, in freedom, in life. That someone is the humble hen. Hens like Bessie, Freya and Laura—three spirited ISA Browns whose names speak of courage, not currency.

ISA Brown hens, like designer dogs, have been selectively bred for human want. Unlike their ancestor, the wild Asian Jungle Fowl, who laid only a handful of eggs each spring, today’s hens lay over 300 a year. Egg, after body-draining egg—until their fragile bodies give out.

Even hens who escape the commercial system and end up into backyard flocks—are they ever truly free? When winter comes and daylight shortens, egg-laying naturally slows—and alas, so often too does human kindness. And many gentle hens are cast out.

Homeless, but not helpless—for chickens are nothing if not resourceful.

So was Bessie, named after pioneering aviator, Bessie Coleman, who defied gravity and prejudice. Like her namesake, our Bessie rose. Bruised, but not broken, she now soars—across paddocks, not clouds. And if you stand close enough, she’ll fly into your heart.

Freya, the fearless explorer, channels Freya Stark. She charts her own course—curious, dignified and unapologetically free.

And Laura, named after the youngest solo circumnavigator of the globe, sails daily into new adventure. #tinywings #bigheart

Though they make up the largest number of avian animals on earth today, chickens are among the least visible

These feathered wonders remind us—they are not egg machines. They are sentient beings with rich inner lives.

They grieve.

They bond.

They dream.

And yet, they remain unseen.

Though they make up the largest number of avian animals on earth today, chickens are among the least visible—reduced to “layers”, “broilers” and “stock”.

But they are more—so very much more.

What if we saw them?

What if we stopped taking what they never freely gave?

What if we chose compassion over convenience—and cracked open a world of kinder choices?

When we see hens like Bessie, Freya and Laura, we don’t see ingredients. We see possibility. A world where justice isn’t rationed by species, and worth isn’t measured by productivity.

And while we cannot change history, we can rewrite their story.

The time is now.

The first step is simply seeing them.