Aug 04, 2026

A Flock with Heart, Bound for Heartbeet

The 14 finished Emotional Support Chickens — This is a story about a flock bound for Vermont, and the love that set it in motion.

We have been waiting to tell you this one, and it starts with, of all things, a chicken. Fourteen of them, in fact, all hand-knit and headed for Vermont.

Our own Martha has family at Heartbeet Lifesharing, a community up in Hardwick, Vermont where adults of many abilities share a home, a farm, and the ordinary good business of daily life together. Her daughter is one of the friends there.

A little about Heartbeet

Heartbeet sits on a working landscape of fields, ponds, and forest in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, and it is a place that likes to keep its hands busy. There is a biodynamic farm, a garden and greenhouse, a wood shop, textile studios (which, we confess, drew our eye), and a community kitchen turning out good, nourishing food. Adults of many abilities live together in extended-family households, supporting one another through the ordinary rhythms of the day so that each person can uncover and grow into their own talents and interests. Part of the international Camphill movement, Heartbeet was built on a plain and generous conviction: that a life of dignity and opportunity belongs to everyone.

This summer, life at Heartbeet has been in a season of change. As Martha explained, "Many of the friends are experiencing some major shifts in personnel and are also moving into new houses." Anyone who has moved and started fresh in the same breath will recognize the particular unsteadiness of it.

Martha, being a knitter, did what knitters tend to do when they love someone and feel a little helpless: she reached for her needles. "Transitions can be challenging (for us all!)," she told us, "and the impulse to knit each of the fourteen friends an Emotional Support Chicken arose from my concerns which, when shared with Lynn and Judy, became an action plan."

And what an action plan it turned out to be! Fourteen chickens is a great deal for one pair of hands, so the three of them divided the labor. Lynn shaped the bodies of eight hens, Judy and Martha knitted the balance, and Martha carried out the fiddly, loving finish work, sewing and stuffing until fourteen flat little knits became fourteen properly plump, squeezable birds.

Martha, Lynn, and Judy holding their finished flock of knit hens — Judy, Martha, and Lynn, with their flock.

If you have not met the Emotional Support Chicken before, it is Annette Corsino's design, and it is every bit as endearing as it sounds. This flock was knit in West Yorkshire Spinners Retreat, a chunky yarn that works up quickly into something soft and satisfyingly round, which is very much the point. These are not shelf ornaments. They are made to be grabbed, hugged, hauled around, and clutched on a difficult morning, the kind of companion most of us could do with now and then.

For Martha, the making mattered as much as the finished flock. "Working together has been a great experience," she reflected, "and reminds me of how rewarding volunteering one's time, energy and skills can be." Three sets of hands, one shared kindness, and the result is something none of them could have brought about alone.

The flock is boxed up now and on its way north, carrying fourteen small reminders that these friends are thought of and cared for. It has been a moving thing to watch come together, and a fine example of what a few pairs of willing hands can do.

Fancy stitching up a little comfort of your own? The Emotional Support Chicken sets in West Yorkshire Spinners Retreat Chunky are in the shop now. (The sets are the yarn; Annette Corsino's pattern comes separately, and is available in both knit and crochet versions!)