Milk Maid
What’s the best documentary you’ve seen lately? Is it the Netflix phenomenon, “Making a Murderer?” Or the film about Mr. Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
Whatever genre of documentaries you’re into, it probably can’t compare to my favorite documentary, “Chicken People.” “Chicken People” is a 2016 documentary film about people who breed and raise chickens for exhibition.
It is focused primarily on three subjects who compete in the Ohio National Poultry Show in Columbus, Ohio.
After an overview of people who have a passion for raising poultry, the film focuses on three main characters — Brian Caraker, a musical theater performer from Branson, Missouri; Brian Knox, an engineer of high performance race engines from New Hampshire; and Shari McCollough, a homemaker from Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Being an animal person in general I really related to this film. But especially now that I have birds, I found it a little more fascinating. However, the lady Shari from Indiana, definitely loves her birds way more than I love mine.
They are often found in her house and she spends hours bathing and blow drying their feathers.
The man from New Hampshire, Brian Knox, he is a very intriguing specimen too. I can relate to him as he can trace back generations of his birds right from memory.
I can do that easily with our cattle and my rabbits. The film also features small cameos from other “chicken people” from across the United States featuring people of all different ages.
The first time I watched this film was with my brothers. We had our fair share of laughter, eye rolling and relatable moments with the people and animals on the show. About three quarters of the way through the film, there was a woman from Ohio featured. She was talking about how she makes diapers for her “special birds.”
These birds are the ones that she allows in her house and even on furniture! I couldn’t believe it, but the best part was one of my brothers looked up and said, “Hey I know her! She also has goats!”
That drew a lot of cackling from the peanut gallery. Because Ohio hosted the National Dairy Goat Show this year, we knew that the diaper wearing chicken owner would be there. Much to our delight, my brother managed to visit with her multiple times and even took a photo with the “Chicken People” star.
As you’ve read in Byron’s column, he just returned from a trip to Branson, Missouri. My favorite subject of the “Chicken People” documentary is Brian Caraker from Branson, MO.
This guy is in his thirties and whenever his chickens don’t win, he is fairly petty. He cracks me up because in several of the clips there are all his trophies and ribbons in the background. He also sings to his birds and the documentary follows the trials and triumphs of his professional singing career.
From watching the film and following is farm on social media, I knew that he was a singer in the “Number One Hits of the ‘60’s” show. Byron didn’t attend that show, much to my disappointment.
However, he brought both Cherri and I little travel brochures. As I was flipping the brochure, I was elated to stumble across a full page color advertisement for the hits of the ‘60’s show. On that ad was a fellow chicken owner, but a much more famous chicken person, Brian Caraker.
The saying, “It’s a small world,” definitely rings true with the neat chicken people connections I’ve had lately. If you haven’t seen the “Chicken People” documentary, I highly recommend it!