The call to IT was strange. A Cochin rooster had accidentally changed the password to a cash register and someone had to come and unlock it.
“We had to explain the situation: a chicken changed the password, we don’t know what it is and he won’t give it up,” said Sue Cristante, the owner of the fluffy bird. She had brought her pet chickens to work and dressed them up as bumblebees to help advertise that shoppers at the Peavey Mart hardware store in Ontario, Canada, could now buy beehives. “It took them a while to react.”
At the store, Cristante, 56, puts his know-how at the service of customers who build their own herds. Before the pandemic, the company probably sold one chicken coop per year. “Now we can’t keep them in stock,” she says. “The chickens have really taken off. »
In the United States, the $30 billion retailer Supply of tractors hopes to capitalize on the fact that people have learned to cherish their chickens. Although they often choose to raise chickens to live a more sustainable lifestyle and get a guaranteed source of fresh eggs for breakfast, people have fallen in love with them.
“Chickens really are the new third pet” Supply of tractors CEO Hal Lawton said CNBC on April 25. “The vast majority of our customer base participates in this category and views them as pets: they name them, care for them that way, and that has been a tremendous new source of growth for us over the last five years. years. about years. »
Of the company’s 34 million customers involved in its loyalty program, one in five own chickens, he added.
The chicks themselves cost $3 or $4 apiece, but once a customer starts building a flock, they need coops, heaters, feeders and waterers. The average customer flock size is 14 birds, although nearly 30 percent of the company’s chicken-raising customers have 20 or more birds.
“In America, the new pet is the chicken,” Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barton said in a statement to Fortune.
Last year, the company sold 11 million chicks, more than double the number sold 10 years ago. In 2022, the company launched a brand, Impeckables, to meet the needs of poultry lovers. Branded items include chicken toys like a xylophone, tambourineAnd fruity treats mixed with mealworms — and they were “all the rage this year,” said Nicole Logan, senior vice president of general merchandising at Tractor Supply.
The company also expanded its “chick days” events. What was once a six-week project with live birds in the store for families to admire on a Saturday outing is now a project eight month event with clusters of soft chicks exposed in stores under heat lamps with food and water. The company aims to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking to bring home chickens and start a flock in their backyard.
A 2024 study on attitudes towards chickens found that 13% of American households now collectively own 85 million backyard chickens, with an average of five per owner. A survey of 2,000 chicken farmers as part of the study found that almost 90% were women. Among the 20% who reported caring for chickens with health or other problems, such as special needs or disabilities, flock owners reported using chicken wheelchairs, walkers or a hammock to support birds with broken backs. About 82% of homeowners said they hire a chicken sitter when they go away for the weekend, and 12% said they let their chickens into the house whenever they want.
This, however, introduces one of the only drawbacks of chickens: their bathroom habits. “If you’re sitting on the couch watching TV with your chickens, you’re definitely going to poop yourself,” Cristante said. She runs a Etsy shop, Chicken Clothing by Sue, where she sells colorful, hand-stitched chicken diapers and takes custom orders. She shipped fashionable chicken clothes to customers in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and almost every state in the United States, she said. For a client in England who included a pet chicken in her wedding party, Cristante made a dress with a white satin harness, a small veil and tiny pearls, with a burgundy bow in the back to match the groomsmen. honor. “It was a very interesting project,” she said. In New York, a customer requested a Halloween costume and Cristante sent vampire outfits with removable capes and bat wings.
“Chickens, if you’ve never been around one and don’t know it, have their own personalities, and some of them are very affectionate and intelligent,” Cristante said. She described a popular breed of fluffy chickens known as silkies “like huge cotton balls.” They are very docile and easy to care for and, honestly, they make great pets.
Trish Sie, 53, a director from the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, started with a half-dozen chicks and a chicken coop of Williams-Sonoma. The flock grew after the chickens “exceeded all expectations of how much fun they would be to keep as pets,” she said. “They all have different temperaments and personalities. They learn their names and they will name you. Sie, who directed films such as Perfect location 3 And Playersalso done video content with his chickensincluding dances and music videos.
“I’m so attached to our dogs, and they really are like man’s best friend for one reason: They love people,” Sie said. “But with chickens, you have to earn their trust because you’re a big thing that can eat them.” Currently, his family has 11 chickens and a rooster named Brian.
She first thought she was imagining things when she realized that the chickens all made the same noise when they saw her. But after thinking about it, she learned that chickens have names for a number of things in their lives. After being away for three months on a film set, she returned late at night when the chickens were already in bed. Just before midnight, she crept over to the chicken coop to see them in the roost and whispered, “Hey chickens.” Three of them woke up and clucked sleepily, the sound that is their “chicken name” to Sie.
Sie’s favorite Ruby sadly passed away last summer. The bird had a long life with Sie. One day, after suffering cloaca prolapse, a common problem among females, Ruby let Sie hold her for several hours while her husband gently “reset” the organ with his hands. Ruby lived for another three years after that. “That’s what they’ll let you do if they just trust you,” she said. A jeweler friend recreates Ruby’s foot in sterling silver encrusted with onyx stones; Sie plans to wear the coin around her neck to honor Ruby.
According to Tractor Supply’s Lawton, part of what’s driving the chicken boom is the general lack of affordability for Millennials and Gen Z in urban areas. One of the only areas The demographic cohorts that can afford to purchase a home are in exurban, suburban, and rural areas. from the country. The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture found that migration to rural areas has accelerated by a factor of 45 between 2020 and 2022, compared to before the pandemic.
“We believe that the sense of community found in our markets, and perhaps more importantly, the ability to acquire property at a reasonable price, has helped ensure that the trend of rural exodus is here to stay for now,’” Lawton said during the company’s earnings call last week.
Once there, Millennials and Gen Z generations are looking to live cleaner lives, growing fruits and vegetables and raising chickens, Logan said. The poultry category is a gateway to a more sustainable lifestyle, she said. Additionally, this demographic is willing to spend more on organic ingredients. Ten years ago, organic chicken feed accounted for 1% of the company’s poultry feed sales; now it’s more than 10 percent, she added.
“I wake up every day wondering, ‘How can I get more people interested in this?’ “,” Logan said.
