7 minute read
Kimberly Davis starts her own poultry operation from scratch
by Eric Tietze
meet yourneighbors
An Unlikely Endeavor
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By Michael Kinney Davis Freedom Farm came to be in the wake of COVID-19
Kimberley Davis wasn’t particularly fond of chickens. A more apt de- lover now when I did not have the intention of actually ever loving a chicken.” scription would be to say she didn’t think too much about them at all before 2020. It didn’t take long for Kimberley to turn from being an apathetic caregiver to no-
The next thing Kimberley knew, a global pandemic had hit and she soon found ticing she was learning more and more about her new tenants. her entire world revolving around raising and caring for an animal she rarely gave “After a few weeks of sitting and making sure they are eating the right foods, a single thought to just months before. because I didn’t know what I was doing, I just needed to learn from the chickens
“I’m so surprised with how quickly you can fall in love with something you just to make sure they liked the food that I got and they’re OK with the water set up,” think you are making a buck off of,” Kimberley said. “I’m very passionate about it. Kimberley said. “After a couple of hours each day for a few weeks of sitting outside Everything in my life, other than my husband and my children, actually revolves and actually watching them, I realized that chickens have characteristics and attiaround the love and care I have for the chickens.” tudes and different mind sets from each other. They are very unique; they are not
Kimberley is the owner and opera- just chickens.” tor of Davis Freedom Farm (davis- Kimberley was first spurred on freedomfarm.com) in Tahlequah, to become an entrepreneur by the Okla. It’s slogan is “Make Hatch- idea of being what economists are ing Great Again.” now calling a disruptor. That is ba-
She, with the help of her three sically someone who isn’t happy children, raises free-range chickens with the current system and tries to and specializes in selling organic change it for the better. eggs. What Kimberley had noticed was
Kimberley chose an interest to the price of eggs at grocery stores start a business she had no history was skyrocketing, which was causing or experience in. In May 2020, the problems for those in her communiCOVID-19 pandemic was ramping ty. The average price for one dozen up and she was learning the ropes eggs was $1.82 in October 2021 acof being a chicken farmer. cording to U.S. Labor Department’s
“It took a lot of failures,” Kimber- Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2019, ley said. “A lot of heartbreak. But the price was around $1.40. through all of it, we are definitely “It became like a hobby at first. making progress.” Then I just decided everyone is
However, Kimberley admits, it struggling during this time, so why wasn’t exactly her idea to take on don’t I start a little tiny business such a venture. and give people affordable hatching
“It was actually my mother’s eggs,” Kimberley said. “That way we idea,” Kimberley said. “She is el- won’t have to rely on outside sourcderly and she wanted something to es during COVID when we have to do to pass the time while she was stay home.” living with me while she was ill. Kimberley said it began by her Then she got too ill to physically checking out community pages on take care of them and I ended up social media. There, she saw there being the caregiver of her chickens. was a need. I was not happy about it at first.” “I started seeing a lot of people in the community asking if any-
Kimberley was a stay-at-home mother in the pre-pandemic one had any eggs for sale, but they couldn’t a whole bunch. So years. Raising three children with her husband and running a household was enough to fill up her days. Tahlequah, Okla. they had like $5 to work with and asked how many eggs they can get with that?” Kimberley said. “I saw enough of the com-
Then all of a sudden, Kimberley had to take on the responsibility of caring munity posts on Facebook that I thought why don’t we just go for the six chickens her mother brought home. ahead and give these guys 30 eggs for $5? Just helping people
“It was chaotic to me,” Kimberley said. “I didn’t have the time for it. I who could not afford the basic necessities.” wasn’t really interested in chickens at all. Over time, I just actually fell in From there, the Davis Freedom Farm was born. The six origlove with them and I realized how great they were. I’m definitely a chicken inal chickens grew to 150 by September 2021.
Kimberley Davis did not like chickens, but she now breeds poultry. Submitted Photo
meet yourneighbors
Submitted Photo
After selling 70 of her chickens, the Davis Freedom Farm is currently down to 80 and plans to keep it at that size and focus just on producing quality products.
“I like to focus on the science part of breeding,” Kimberley said. “Making sure that the community does somewhat get disease-resistant animals. Because we have a lot of very common diseases that can take out entire flocks. If I see one chicken has an illness, I separate that chicken. And if it does survive, we breed it for the resistance for that disease. “
The chickens include Joe and Spitz, which produce pure Spitzhauben eggs. Kimberley also has a white rooster that carries the laced gene and seven Polish girls of different colors.
This allows them to produce a variety of different colored eggs.
“We cross a lot of different ones for productivity on their eggs,” Kimberley said. “Or we have certain chickens we can cross to make certain color eggs. We’ve got blue, we’ve got green, dark brown, white.”
Kimberley pointed out the price for such exotic eggs would normally be something those in her community could never afford.
However, she has chosen to follow the same path as one of the most successful big-box retailers in the world when it comes to pricing.
“It’s really high in the market. People will pay up to $200 for a dozen blue (hatching) eggs or green eggs. So people really want that and it’s expensive,” Kimberley said. “So I’m doing the Walmart version of it. I am not charging more than $80 for that. So we take your designer chickens, but with the Walmart price.”
While the Davis Freedom Farm has expanded its services and products, Kimberley hasn’t seen the market share growth that she has hoped for yet. Despite using social media, the word hasn’t filtered beyond her community.
“I’m still building up traction because we do live in the country. Plenty of people do sell their eggs, so it’s very competitive,” Kimberley said. “So I don’t have a lot of feedback on what the community thinks other than the select few people who actually know what I’m trying to do. Not everyone has Facebook here where I live. So, it’s just whoever can spread the word.”
It’s only been a year and a half since Kimberley first began her chicken farm, but she said she is ready for even more. But she said it’s not something she wants for herself.
“I just want people to see that I am not the typical chicken breeder that oversells eggs. We take very good care of our chickens,” Kimberley said. “There is a lot of love that goes into breeding them, raising them and getting their eggs sold to the people who can actually afford them. Get them the type of chicken they want, the most beautiful chicken that they feel that they need, the color egg they want. I’m not charging an arm and a leg. I just want to be able to share with people that you can have everything you see at a decent price.”
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