Sr. Pat shares a story that she calls her “Ah! Ha! “moment. 

“Shortly after I began Cuvilly, I went to the Topsfield Fair and observed a mother hen caring for her chicks. I was reminded of the reference in Matthew 23 ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…’ and decided that we should have chickens at Cuvilly to provide a firsthand experience for our students. We organized a big yard sale to raise money to put up a shed and went about outfitting it with everything chickens would need. Once our state-of-the art coop was finished we went to a local hatchery to purchase some hens and a rooster. In talking with the owner, I told him that I could hardly wait for my hens to hatch out new chicks. He looked at me and said: ‘Oh, that will never happen.  We breed that instinct out of them.’ What a shock! How is it possible to breed the basic instinct of survival out of a species?! 

I bought the chickens anyway determined to prove the chicken farmer wrong. However, as predicted, the hens laid many eggs but never hatched them out. They also decided that the coop we built was not what they wanted and began to explore the campus, finding for themselves the most suitable habitat – often times in trees. Ten years and many chickens later (none of which were born here) an amazing event took place.  While working around the farm I heard a sound I never heard before – a very distinctive “peep. Peep” - and out from underneath the chicken coop emerged a mother hen and her chicks! It was at that moment that I realized the instinct to bring new life into the world was not bred out of the chickens but was merely latent.  Given the proper environment the latent instincts are awakened.  And that is the mission of Cuvilly!  Every human being is an integral part of the earth community and knows, instinctively, how to live in harmony with it.  However, we have developed a culture that has forced these instincts to become latent.  Given the proper environment our instincts will be reawakened.  Cuvilly seeks to create this environment.