The call to IT was strange. A Cochin rooster had accidentally changed the password of a cash register and someone had to come and unlock the cash register.
“We had to explain the situation – a chicken changed the password and we don’t know what it is and he won’t give it out,” said Sue Cristante, the fluffy bird’s owner. She had brought her pet chickens to work and dressed them up as bumblebees to promote the availability of beehives to shoppers at the Peavey Mart hardware store in Ontario, Canada. “It took a while for them to respond.”
In the store, 56-year-old Cristante offers her expertise to customers who are building their own herds. Before the pandemic, the company probably sold one chicken coop per year. “Now we can’t keep them in stock,” she said. “Chickens have really caught on.”
In the US the $30 billion retailer Tractor supply hopes to capitalize on how much people have valued their chickens. While they often use chicken farming to live a more sustainable lifestyle and have a guaranteed source of fresh eggs for breakfast, people have fallen in love with them.
“Chickens are truly the new third pet out there.” Tractor supply CEO Hal Lawton told CNBC on April 25th. “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 it has been a great new source of growth for us over the last five years or so.”
Among the company’s 34 million customers who participate in its loyalty program, one in five own chickens, he added.
The chicks themselves cost $3 to $4 each – but once a customer starts building a flock, they will need chicken coops, heaters, feeders and waterers. The average flock size for customers is 14 birds, although nearly 30% of the company’s customers who raise chickens have 20 birds or more.
“In America, the new pet is the chicken,” Chief Financial Officer Kurt Barton said in a statement Assets.
Last year the company sold 11 million chicks, more than twice as many as ten years ago. In 2022, the company launched the Impeckables brand to appeal to poultry lovers. The branded items include chicken toys such as: 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 has its “Chick days” Events. What was once a six-week project with live birds in the store for families to take on a Saturday outing is now a project eight-month event with fluffy tufts Chicks on display in stores under heat lamps with food and water. The company’s goal is to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking to bring home chickens and start a backyard flock.
A 2024 study on attitudes toward chickens found that 13% of U.S. households now own a total of 85 million backyard chickens, with an average of five per owner. A survey of 2,000 chicken keepers as part of the study found that almost 90% were women. Of the 20% who said they cared for chickens with health or other issues such as special needs or disabilities, flock owners said they used chicken wheelchairs, walkers or a hammock to support birds with broken backs. About 82% of owners said they arrange a chicken sitter when they go away for the weekend, and 12% said they let their chickens into the house whenever they want.
However, this brings with it one of the only downsides to chickens – their toilet habits. “If you sit on the couch with your chickens and watch TV, you’re bound to get pooped on,” Cristante said. She runs one Etsy Business, Chickenwear by Sue, where she sells colorful hand-sewn chicken diapers and takes special orders. She has shipped fashionable chicken clothing to customers in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and almost every state in the U.S., she said. For a client in England who had a pet chicken at her wedding reception, Cristante made a dress with a white satin harness, a small veil and tiny pearls, with a burgundy bow at the back to match the groomsmen. “It was a very interesting project,” she said. In New York City, a customer asked for a Halloween costume and Cristante sent vampire outfits with removable capes and bat wings.
“Chickens – if you’ve never been around them and don’t know – they have their own personalities, and some of them are very affectionate and smart,” Cristante said. She described a popular breed of fluffy chickens known as Silkies, “like giant balls of cotton.” They are very docile and easy to care for and, frankly, make very good pets.”
Trish Sie, 53, a film director in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, started with a half-dozen chicks and a chicken coop Williams Sonoma. The flock grew after the chickens “exceeded all expectations as to how fun it would be to keep them as pets,” she said. “They all have different temperaments and personalities. You will learn their names and will give you a name.” She, who directed films like Pitch Perfect 3 And playerdoes too Video content with her chickensincluding dances and music videos.
“I have such a strong bond with our dogs and they are like man’s best friend for a reason because they love people,” she said. “But with chickens you have to earn their trust because you’re a big thing for them to eat.” Currently, her family has 11 chickens and a rooster named Brian.
She thought it was just her imagination at first, when she realized that the chickens all made the same noise when they saw her. But after looking into it, she learned that chickens have names for a number of things in their lives. After being on a film set for three months, she came home late at night after the chickens had already gone to bed. Just before midnight she crept to the chicken coop to see them roosting and whispered, “Hello chickens.” Three woke up and clicked sleepily with the sound that is their “chicken name” to you.
Her favorite Ruby sadly passed away last summer. The bird had a long life with you. Once, when Ruby was suffering from a cloacal prolapse, a common problem in female birds, she allowed Ruby to be held 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 allow you to do if they just trust you,” she said. A jeweler friend recreates Ruby’s foot in sterling silver with inlaid onyx stones; She plans to wear the piece around her neck in honor of Ruby.
Tractor Supply’s Lawton says the chicken boom is partly due to urban areas being unaffordable for Millennials and Gen Zers as a whole. One of the few areas These demographic cohorts can afford to purchase homes in suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas of the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service found that migration to rural areas increased by a factor of 45 between 2020 and 2022 compared to the period before the pandemic.
“We believe that the sense of community that exists in our markets, and perhaps more importantly, the ability to secure a property at a reasonable price, has ensured that the rural migration trend will continue for the time being,” said Lawton during the company’s conference call last week.
Once there, the Millennial and Gen Z generations are striving for cleaner lives by 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. A decade ago, organic chicken feed accounted for 1% of the company’s poultry feed sales; Now it’s over 10%, she added.
“I wake up every day and think, ‘How can I get more people excited about this?'” Logan said.