A few good hens

All About Pets

Wednesday, March 17, 2021 |

The Berkshire Eagle | BerkshireEagle.com

18

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 fl ock.

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-

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

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

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 confi dently 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 fl ock 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 fl ock 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.”

Bringing home baby

At Carr Hardware, spring arrives in a wave of fl uffy 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 fl ock 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 artifi cial 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 fi ll 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, artifi cal light can help en-

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

... and here, one year later, as a fully fl edged adult. “He’s defi nitely our sweetest, most friendly chicken that we have right now,” Zollshan says.

sure you always have product to sell.

Chicken brains don’t perceive red light as daylight, so heat lamps with red bulbs will not change your hens’ egg laying. This makes them an ideal way to keep the coop warm when temperatures dip down into the 30s regardless of your production goals.

Concerning roosters

First, the basics: hens will lay eggs whether there is a rooster present or not. Unless you intend to hatch your own chicks, the fl ock will get along just fi ne without any masculine infl uence.

Many towns actually forbid hobby farmers from bringing a rooster into their residential neighborhood, presumably because the invention of alarm clocks has taken most of the appeal out of a rooster’s sunrise crowing. Some towns will allow roosters with a permit, or on properties over a certain size, but not many welcome them without restriction.

Carr Hardware’s chicks are all pullets (young hens). Sex-sorted chicks generally cost a bit more than a “straight run,” or mixed-sex group, but there’s much less chance of an intended egg layer growing into an especially loud local ordinance violation.

If town regulations allow it, a rooster can be useful as a guardian for the fl ock. “I have a rooster because it protects the hens,” Randall said. “When they’re out, he is constantly watching over things.”

Roosters are often thought of as aggressive, hostile creatures, but they aren’t actually untameable.

“The rooster is no different than the hens — if they’re raised and handled, they are very docile,” Randall said.

Zollshan’s rooster, Nigel, is the poster chicken for benevolent guardroosters: “He's defi nitely our sweetest, most friendly chicken that we have right now — which is fairly uncommon for a rooster — and he's a great, ever-watchful guardian for the hens,” she said.

That said, there’s no guarantee of getting a Nigel, so if you’re considering a rooster, it’s best to have a contingency plan in place should your chicken prove too aggressive for the quiet backyard life.

A learning experience

As with any animal, chickens have their own unique care requirements, which you should research thoroughly before bringing home a half dozen living, highly-dependent creatures. Fortunately, as more people start their own backyard fl ocks, this kind of information will only become more plentiful. If you can’t fi nd the answer to your question online, there’s a good chance you have someone in your life with enough experience to help you out.

For families with children, raising a fl ock can offer all sorts of educational opportunites, from a hands-on look at basic bird biology to life lessons about personal responsibility, self-suffi ciency and the realities of life and death.

Oh, and good hand-washing habits.

“It is very important that parents teach their children to wash their hands,” Randall insisted, “because chickens can carry salmonella. Holding chickens is encouraged, because it makes for a better chicken, but you want to teach them that, when you’re done with the chickens, you have to wash your hands.”

Flock thoughts

We asked Eagle photographer and chicken enthusiast Stephanie Zollshan what guidance she would off er a new bird owner. Here was some of her advice.

1. “Do your breed research before purchasing chicks.

There are some varieties of chickens that are bred to be raised for food, and they really aren’t able to survive past a certain age. We accidentally bought two ‘meat bird’ chicks a few years ago, and after a few months we realized that they were growing so big they were actually suff ering. 2. “Keep in mind that we live in a region that is rich in predators. Chickens are prey animals, so be sure that you are able to supply them with signifi cant protection from the multitude of wild animals that live in the area. Over the years we’ve lost chickens to foxes, hawks, bobcats and fi sher cats. Domesticated dogs have a prey drive too, so be sure that dogs are suffi ciently trained or physically separated from the chickens. 3. “On the same note as number two, I always tell people that keeping backyard chickens is a real lesson in love and loss. We choose to free-range our chickens, which means that while they can enjoy the freedom of exploration and the joy of the wild, they are more exposed to predators.

When you love your chickens like pets it’s hard to lose them, but it’s important to be prepared for the possibility, since they really are quite vulnerable.”

Additional resources:

Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts chapter:

nofamass.org/urban-chickens.

Massachusetts chicken farming regulations:

mass.gov/info-details/ massachusetts-law-aboutbackyard-chickens

MSPCA-Angell guide to chicken care and adoption:

mspca.org/pet_resources/ chicken-ownership-and-adoption

All About Pets

| Wednesday, March 17, 2021

The Berkshire Eagle | BerkshireEagle.com

19