All About Pets 2021

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 | All About Pets

Join the chicken revolution

Why backyard poultry are all the rage — and how to get in on the fun BY KIMBERLY KIRCHNER The Berkshire Eagle

2020 had all the right conditions for a chicken-raising explosion. Empty shelves at the supermarket had us confronting the possibility of an interrupted food supply, and the sudden shutdown of bars, restaurants and entertainment venues left many of us with more free time than we knew what to do with. And so, the chickens came. Coops and pens popped up in suburban backyards. Commercial hatcheries

across the country braced for disaster as the hospitality industry’s need for eggs and poultry dried up, only to be inundated with small orders for a sixchick starter flock. Here in the Berkshires, the chicken craze caught on quickly. “Last year was phenomenal, because people were home with kids,” said Claudia Randall, store manager at Carr Hardware in North Adams. “We went through chicks very fast.” This year, she’s ordered even more chicks to meet the continuing demand. As it turns out, long after we lost inter-

est in sourdough and tiger-related true crime, we’re still all-in on chickens.

Easy to love Hobby chickens were rising in popularity even before the pandemic hit, fueled in part by the farm-to-table movement and a shift toward more sustainable agriculture. In a 2017 headline, the Los Angeles Times confidently proclaimed, “Chickens will become a beloved pet — just like the family dog.” Like the family dog, chickens seem destined to charm their way into our affections with plenty of character and a surprising interest in people. Eagle photographer Stephanie Zollshan has been raising her own chickens for nearly half a decade. For her, as for many hobby chicken owners, the flock is far more than a source of fresh eggs. “People don't really believe me, but chickens really do have their own individual personalities. Some of them are super sweet and want to cuddle. Others want absolutely nothing to do with you,” she explained. “We keep our chickens as pets, so we really do love them like family.” Randall, who keeps her own flock of chickens, said that the birds easily adapt to human interaction, especially if they’re given plenty of attention early on. “They’re very social,” she said. “The more they’re handled as baby chicks, the better they are when they’re in the pen.”

The Berkshire Eagle | BerkshireEagle.com

Bringing home baby

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

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Nigel, the reigning rooster in Eagle photographer Stephanie Zollshan’s flock, is pictured here as a chick ...

At Carr Hardware, spring arrives in a wave of fluffy yellow chicks, shipped from Hoover’s Hatchery in Iowa. Randall keeps the chicks under observation for a full 24 hours before they’re released to customers, just to make sure none are sick or injured. In her experience, the chicks are overwhelmingly healthy, but she takes great care to separate any signs of illness right away. Many of the chicks are spoken for before they even reach the store. “Anybody can call in and preorder, which we encourage people to do,” Randall said. “The more preorders we do, the better it is for the chicks when they get here, because we know how many of them are going out right away.” Carr sells their chicks in minimum orders of six — a common requirement in many states meant to discourage parents from buying individual chicks for their child’s Easter basket. Chickens are flock animals,

anyway, and will be at their happiest and most entertaining in a group. Chicks will need a temperaturecontrolled brooding area in which to mature. Hoover’s Hatchery recommends an enclosed space of at least .5 square feet per chick, with rounded corners to discourage the chicks from piling up on top of (and potentially smothering) each other. A heat lamp is used to keep the chicks at the right temperature, gradually lowering the heat until the chicks are grown. The initial cost for a chick-raising setup is fairly low: around $60, by Randall’s estimation. Carr even sells a starter home kit to simplify the process. In about three months, the chickens will be fully feathered and ready to move outside, provided the weather is right. “Typically, you want to put them out when the temperature is 70 to 80 degrees,” Randall said. She times her order to match up with the changing seasons. “By the time May rolls around they’ll be ready to go out into an outside pen, and then they should start producing eggs around August or September.”

Getting down to business Once she’s begun laying, a hen’s productive years depend greatly on genetics and husbandry choices. Egg production is triggered by changes in the number of daylight hours throughout the year. In the summer months, when the sun stays out well into the evening, hens will lay at their most often. In winter, when it gets dark earlier, laying will slow down and might even stop, depending on individual hardiness. It’s possible to “trick” a hen into laying year round with the use of artificial lights. This will increase your egg yield through the winter, but not the total number of eggs a hen lays during her lifetime. “What most people don’t know is that a hen is born with x-number of egg cells inside it,” Randall said. A hen that lays eggs at the same rate all year, then, will stop laying sooner than a hen who only lays in the warmer months. For the average hobbyist, who isn’t looking to fill any sort of egg production quota, allowing hens to take the winter off is an easy way to keep them laying later into their life. But if you’re hoping to sell eggs for a little extra cash, artifical light can help en-