By Wendy Kilmer | Photography by Hannah Vickers
The latest trend in backyard pets has feathers, a beak and is considerably harder to take on walks than its canine counterparts. Yet a growing number of families in Abilene and beyond are embracing, both literally and figuratively, two-legged, winged farm fowls.
Whether for companionship, a regular supply of fresh eggs or the nostalgia of farm life, chickens are an increasingly popular choice for backyards, even in the city. After all, as Cheryl Holmes puts it, “What other pet gives you a gift every day?”
Holmes should know, as the proud owner of five chickens who happily roam the backyard of her home in the Elmwood area. The chicks were a gift about a year and a half ago from her son who raises chickens at his restaurant in Austin.
“I fell in love with his chickens,” Holmes says. “So he surprised me and came walking in Christmas morning with a chicken coop and five chicks.”
In addition to the family connection, Holmes involved her friends as well, by naming her feathered chicks after another group of chicks — her five best friends for the past 40 years. Holmes reports that her fowl friends – Becky, Linda, Leslie, Mary Ann and Martha – have even taken on the personalities of their human namesakes, and her long-time friends have a special connection with each of the corresponding chickens.
Although Holmes’ husband, Jim, initially had a lesser degree of enthusiasm for the new additions to the family, she says he’s come around thanks to his affinity for the fresh eggs provided for breakfast each day. The “ladies” or “girls,” as Holmes calls them, lay 4-5 eggs each day. When not scrambled for breakfast or used for baking, the extra eggs are donated to the United Methodist Food Pantry or neatly packed for gift giving in half-dozen size cartons with a custom label reading “Happy Bottoms Hen House.”
“I’m just silly over them,” Holmes says of her pets. “Seeing them around the backyard, happily looking for worms and peeking in the window – they’re very entertaining and very smart and give so much joy. We have three grandchildren, and they just love them, and we love watching the kids with them when they visit.”
Hannah Vickers also had her kids in mind when she began to consider backyard chickens, but also was attracted to the egg laying benefits.
“I thought it would be neat that I could have organic eggs coming from my backyard everyday, and I also thought it would be cool for the kids, seeing them grow and the work that goes into it,” she said.
So about a year and a half ago she told her husband, Eric, she wanted him to build a chicken coop for her birthday present. He obliged, because, as Hannah said,“You can’t say no to a birthday!” and they purchased four chicks shortly after. Five months later, while Hannah was out of town, Eric texted her a photo of their first egg.
“I couldn’t believe we finally had an egg!” Hannah recalls.
Now the chickens provide 3-4 eggs each day, which has been an important part of the family’s clean eating plan. Another benefit has been the chickens’ droppings as fertilizer for their garden.
The agricultural learning experience for her twin 7-year-olds, Mason and Sawyer, is another reason the Vickers added the birds to their backyard, although the twins and 2-year-old Logan don’t always fully embrace them as family pets.
“The kids really liked them as baby chicks,” she said. “We kept them in the garage until their feathers came in.”
As the chickens grew, however, they became more prone to pecking at the children, so the kids lost some interest in interacting with them. Still, the chickens roam the yard at various times of the day, and the space is large enough for all four chickens and three active children to share without too much concern for pecking order.
“I like to run from them while they chase me,” Sawyer said.
Mike and Julie Breckenridge’s two daughters, Ava, 7, and Kate, 5, and son, Jake, 9, on the other hand, have developed more hands-on relationships with their two chickens, named Lola and Pudge.
“Pudge will just come right up to us when we are out here,” Julie said. “Ava is really the chicken whisperer. When they were chicks, they would sleep on her lap.”
The chickens patiently allow Ava and Kate to carry them around, play with them on the (enclosed) trampoline and at times even submit to being pushed around the yard in doll buggies – albeit briefly. Snacks like dry cereal and macaroni and cheese leftovers are accepted right out of their young owners’ hands.
The Breckenridge family has also had their chickens for about a year and a half. Although they started with a group of five, and later added two guineas, nearby raccoons have scavenged in their backyard, leaving them with only two chickens currently. Additional wiring around the coop and a trap to catch the masked intruders have been put in place, and they plan to add new chicks to their flock after completing construction of a larger coop.
“I’ve always wanted chickens,” Julie said. “My dad grew up on a farm, and we’ve always been around stuff like that. I wanted the kids to have the responsibility of taking care of pets, and I thought chickens would be a good place to start. The kids are involved in taking care of them, and that gets them outside and active. Jake collects the eggs and the girls help with feeding them.”
At ACCO Farm and Ranch, day-old chicks from certified hatcheries are available for less than $3 each, and they have become an increasingly popular purchase in Abilene.
“It’s pretty remarkable growth we have seen,” says Kevin Jackson, manager of ACCO Farm and Ranch. “I’ve been here since 1991, and we’ve always carried chicks and tried to keep them available but in the last few years, the desire to have them and be educated and learn about growing a family flock has increased dramatically.”
The same reasons that inspired the Holmes, Breckenridge and Vickers families to adopt the traditionally farm-oriented animals as city pets are common for many who come to the store interested in chicks, Jackson said.
“It’s a great opportunity for children to see that eggs and chickens don’t come from a restaurant or a grocery store but from agricultural production,” he noted. “It’s a great opportunity to teach responsibility and ethics. Nothing will help teach empathy like saying, ‘If you don’t feed and water the chickens, they won’t have anything to eat or drink. They depend on you.’ Instead of the kids being dependent on adults and society, they are in the role of serving others. Another is people’s desire to be responsible for their food instead of just taking what’s available and not knowing the history. Now they can play a role in it.”
Jackson also described a new way of housing and feeding chickens, called chicken tractoring, that is taking ahold among backyard chicken enthusiasts. The method involves a portable pen with no bottom. The pen and chickens are regularly rotated from one area of the yard to another, providing fresh grass for the chickens to graze (in addition to some traditional feed); their droppings don’t require as much clean up this way and can be a boon for the yard.
“The chickens can get 30 percent of their calories by grazing grass,” Jackson said. “So if you have a 4 foot by 8 foot pen with no bottom, you can move it to fresh feed and cut down on food that you have to buy and provide a clean living environment, and they’re fertilizing the yard for you and keeping the grass trimmed.”
Tips and Tricks
Tempted to try your hand at raising chickens? In addition to your own preparation and research, consider these suggestions from experts and current chicken owners.
- As with all animals, practice safe hygiene. These are livestock animals and though they can be pets, you can’t bring them in the house and bathe them like a dog. It’s important for anyone age 5 and younger or with a weakened immune system to be careful about contact with poultry because of salmonella. Bottom line, when you take care of animals, wash your hands and practice safe hygiene. — Kevin Jackson
- Get educated. We (ACCO Farm and Ranch) can help, or there’s a wealth of information available online. But really, if you can raise a puppy, you can raise chickens. — Kevin Jackson
- Use wood shavings for litter in your coop, and swap it out as it gets soiled. It makes great compost after you’re done using it. — Kevin Jackson
- Start out with three or four chickens in a variety of breeds. Each breed has its own personality, and even their eggs are different, both color and taste. — Julie Breckenridge
- Build your own coop. It will be less expensive and studier than store-bought.
- — Julie Breckenridge
- Chickens don’t require a lot of work, but you do need to devote some time every day and have someone to tend to them when you’re out of town. — Hannah Vickers
- Start holding and socializing them as babies. — Cheryl Holmes
- Realize that chickens are defenseless and rely on their owners for safety. — Cheryl Holmes
- Read the book “A Chicken in Every Yard” by Robert and Hannah Litt. — Cheryl Holmes
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