05-19-2024 Harford Magazine - Flipbook - Page 22
A chicken belonging to Chrisie DiCarlo. DiCarlo has nearly 30
chickens on her family’s 3-acre homestead in Joppa.
BY MIKE KLINGAMAN Harford Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARL MERTON FERRON
very Tuesday, two middle-aged women meet in
Joppa to record a weekly podcast in which they
discuss the loves of their lives. Their passions are
always the same: They chat about chickens.
For an hour, Chrisie DiCarlo and Holly CallahanKasmala expound on the pleasures of raising poultry as
pets. The show, called “Coffee with the Chicken Ladies,” is
a casual celebration of backyard biddies and their place in
the world, from homestead egg-layers to cuddly cluckers.
“Hug your chickens every day, and kiss them, too,”
DiCarlo says in her sign-off each week. Both ladies mother
hens of their own: DiCarlo, 50, has nearly 30 chickens
on her family’s 3-acre homestead in Joppa; CallahanKasmala, also 50, cares for almost 40 of them on her farm
in Millers (northern Baltimore County). They pet them.
They squeeze them.
“Chickens follow you around, all the time,” DiCarlo
said. “They want to be with you; they want to be on you.
Some like to land on my head.”
Their podcast, which began in 2020, has produced
nearly 200 episodes, each highlighting a different breed
of chicken — some with feathered feet, others with extra
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toes. The hosts tackle an eclectic mix of subjects. Here, one
learns ways to foil chicken predators and how to care for
sick chicks. Listeners discover how to make savory omelets
and where to buy chicken-print underwear. Discussions
range from using chickens as therapy animals to dealing
with “bully” hens (answer: separate them from the flock
until a new pecking order takes hold).
For those 60 minutes, the bird is the word.
“If it’s a topic tied to chickens, then it’s on our plate,”
Callahan-Kasmala said. “When we started the show four
years ago, people said, ‘You can’t talk about chickens every
week.’ We said, ‘Just watch.’ “
Above: DiCarlo, left
and Holly CallahanKasmala host a
weekly podcast,
“Coffee with the
Chicken Ladies,” in
which they chat
about all things
chicken for folks
worldwide who raise
poultry as pets.
