THIS MODEL IS A REAL EGGHEAD
Travels far & wide with pet hen
They’re two birds of a feather. Williamsburg model Summer Rayne Oakes isn’t much for poodles or pomeranians. Instead, the 34-yearold environmental activist totes a pet hen everywhere she goes — and eats her eggs for breakfast. “I’ll usually make them into a veggie omelette,” said Oakes of Kippee’s eggs. “You can’t get any fresher.”
Oakes met the Rhode Island Red chick at the Wild Bird Fund, where last May she brought in a wounded songbird she found stuck in a rat trap. It was love at first peck.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,’ ” Oakes gushed. “She jumped up onto my lap and just started preening herself. She was so comfortable there.”
Kippee had been an Easter gift but was abandoned shortly after the holiday and brought to the Manhattan shelter.
“She definitely chose me,” said Oakes. “She imprinted on me right away, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.”
The lucky chicken now lives a life of cluck-xury — sipping on San Pellegrino from the cap, nibbling on prosciutto at parties and posing in fashion shoots.
“I’ve become a bit of a stage mom,” Oakes admitted, saying her baby chick has appeared in commercials for Celestial Seasonings tea, Lululemon and more. “I really do feel like a mom with a child.”
Since the two became family 11 months ago, Oakes has left Kippee alone only for two hours.
“If I leave, her she screams and gets really depressed,” said Oakes, who grew up on five acres in Clarks Summit, Pa. “Instead of her being my emotional-support pet, I’m like her emotional-support human.”
The model tows Kippee around in a bird-carrier purse and usually opens the lid so she can perch on the side.
“Only in New York!” one woman exclaimed as she snapped a selfie with Oakes on the Bedford Avenue subway platform Wednesday.
“Look! Look! It’s a rooster!” a 5-year-old boy screamed on the street. The mix-up is quite common, Oakes explained, since Kippee has an unusually large ruffled comb on her head. Pet hens are legal in the Big Apple, but roosters are not.
“We’re so disconnected from farm and forest life here in New York City,” Oakes said. “So she’s an especially great tool for me to educate the public.”
Back at Oakes’ plant-filled apartment, the silky soft hen likes to coo at herself in the mirror and perch on the arm of her mom’s chair as she works. Kippee eats fly larvae, mealworms, seeds and her own crushed-up eggshells and poops about 30 times a day.
At night, the hen snuggles in bed with Oakes before going to roost at 8 p.m. on her wooden plank above the model’s bedroom door.
“She’s very fond of her routine,” said Oakes, who is writing a book titled “How to Make a Plant Love You: Cultivating Your Personal Green Space.”
But she worries Kippee isn’t getting enough of her “chicken life,” so she raised $3,500 to rebuild a coop at a nearby community center for her to meet other hens.
“It’ll be good for her,” said Oakes but adds she can’t imagine parting for good. “I’m tied to this hen for life.”