On Tuesday morning, Pitzer Student Garden co-managers Elias Gradinger PZ ’26 and Mia Teicher PZ ’27 were bombarded with messages reporting a disturbance at the chicken coup. Two chickens were presumably stolen; one remains missing.
“I was in class doing a group project and I got a text, and it was a photo of our chicken Cat with her claws stuck in the piano at the Grove House,” Teicher said. “I started spamming the [Student Garden] group chat. I was like, ‘What? What is going on?’”
According to Gradinger, a confused dad discovered Cat during a Pitzer campus tour that morning. With the chicken’s toes wedged in between the keys and her feces scattered around, “it wasn’t the most clean scene,” he said. Gradinger assumed the chicken was trapped there overnight and suspected foul play.
“A lot of our chickens have some mobility issues, and so she had gotten stuck there, and it’s likely that she couldn’t have put herself up there, although, who knows,” he said.
Teicher echoed Gradinger’s suspicion, explaining how the garden’s sizable team of student volunteers habitually updates the managers and would have immediately reported any problems.
“I knew that right away it didn’t have anything to do with something predictable, like sometimes things seem out of the ordinary in the garden, but they aren’t, because we have such a large amount of people involved,” Teicher said.
Since her traumatic night away from home, Gradinger and Teicher noticed changes in Cat’s behavior, expressing concerns for its effect on the greater coop community.
“Yesterday [Tuesday], she was attacking all of our other chickens just because she was really stressed out and she’s also been limping a lot, a lot worse than she normally does,” Gradinger said. “We don’t want to have that stress be present in our coop.”
It was after safely returning Cat to the coop on Tuesday morning that Gradinger realized only four out of the usual five chickens were accounted for. Stripey, the garden’s “most cuddly” and frequently photographed “leader of the chicken crew,” was nowhere to be found.
Beyond her lovable nature, Stripey’s health complications made her disappearance especially concerning, Teicher and Gradinger said.
“Both Cat and Stripey have a degenerative disease that impairs their movement,” Teicher said. “I like to compare it to arthritis for chickens. They’re just not very dexterous on their feet — they limp.”
These chickens require special care and attention, and routine medication — as well as apple cider vinegar in Stripey’s case.
“Knowing a chicken isn’t getting that care, it’s not a great situation for them in particular,” Teicher said.
Gradinger added that Stripey’s limp makes her especially susceptible to predator attacks. “She’s just an easy target,” he said.
On Tuesday, Pitzer College Student Senate President Ella Hale PZ ’26 sent out an email promising “no repercussions” for the responsible party if the chicken is returned.
“We simply want our chicken brought back so that our small flock can be reunited,” she wrote.
The ongoing search for the missing chicken has stirred up the 5C community, with Campus Safety and concerned students alike taking interest in the case. A photo of Stripey blew up on Fizz, her story has been floating through dining hall conversation and Teicher said her freshman friends have responded diligently with a “we ride at dawn” mentality.
“Sharing a goal is a really awesome way to feel connected to your community,” Teicher said. “I wish that goal wasn’t to find a missing chicken, but it is.”
Teicher also highlighted the Pitzer Student Garden’s important role in the Claremont Colleges as a place where community members can “come together over shared values of stewardship.” She explained how even something seemingly insignificant, like a chicken, is essential to the garden’s function and the community in general.
“The chickens are an integral part of this closed-loop, hyperlocal food system we’ve created on campus,” Teicher said. “They produce eggs that go to the Grove House Student Run Cafe and then we take the compost back from them — including the eggshells — and we compost that. The chickens go and they scratch up that compost, and then it’s sprinkled into the garden beds and fertilizes the soil that then grows the next round of greens that goes to the Grove House along with the eggs. Every part of the system is dependent on one another.”
“ The chickens are an integral part of this closed-loop, hyperlocal food system we’ve created on campus,” Teicher said. “They produce eggs that go to the Grove House Student Run Cafe and then we take the compost back from them — including the eggshells — and we compost that … Every part of the system is dependent on one another ”
For now, Stripey is still missing with no conclusive leads on her whereabouts. Moving forward, the Pitzer Student Garden plans to ensure their chicken coop is locked at night, but wants to reiterate that the garden will forever prioritize its community accessibility.
“The security change will be just in padlocks on the coop itself, but the garden will still be open 24 hours a day to anybody who wants to come through,” Teicher said. “What’s super important to us is that the garden is open to everybody at all times. And that means everybody; nobody is not allowed to be in the garden. You just won’t be able to get into the chicken coop when it’s dark out, which, you know, might be a good thing.”
To the 5C student body, Teicher and Gradinger wanted to emphasize how Claremont’s community is made up of living creatures big and small.
“Don’t cause harm, because you will be harming everybody else inadvertently,” Teicher said. “Like, that’s what happens when you’re in such a tight-knit community.”
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