The call to the IT department was strange. A Cochin rooster accidentally changed the cash register password and someone had to come and unlock it.
“We had to explain the situation. The chicken changed the password, we don't know what it is, but the chicken hasn't given it up,” says the owner of the fluffy bird. said Sue Cristante. She brought her pet chicken to work and dressed it up as a bumblebee to promote the fact that shoppers at Peabee Mart, a hardware store in Ontario, Canada, could now purchase beehives. “It took a while for them to respond.”
At the store, Cristante, 56, lends her expertise to customers who are building their own herds. Before the pandemic, the company was probably selling one chicken coop a year. “Now we can’t keep it in stock,” she said. “Chickens have really taken off.”
In the United States, $30 billion retailer Tractor Supply Co. is hoping to capitalize on the growing number of people who value chickens. They come to raise chickens as a way to live a more sustainable lifestyle and ensure they get fresh eggs for breakfast, but people are obsessed with them.
“Chickens are truly the new third pet,” said Hal Lawton, CEO of Tractor Supply. CNBC “The vast majority of our customer base is in this category, and they think of their pets as pets, and they name them and care for them as such. And that's been the case for the past five years. It has been a source of significant new growth for our company for several years or so. ”
One in five of the company's 34 million customers in its loyalty program own chickens, he added.
The chicks themselves cost $3 or $4 each, but once a customer starts building a flock, they need a coop, heater, feeder, and waterer. The average flock size of a customer is 14 chickens, but almost 30% of the company's customers who raise chickens have more than 20 chickens.
“The new companion animal in America is the chicken,” CFO Kurt Barton said in a statement. luck.
Last year, the company sold 11 million chicks, more than double the number it sold 10 years ago. In 2022, the company launched Impeckables, a brand catering to poultry enthusiasts. Branded products include chicken toys such as xylophones and tambourines, and fruity treats laced with mealworms, which are “all the rage this year,” said Tractor Supply's senior vice president of general merchandising. Nicole Logan says.
The company also expanded its “Chick Day” events. What was previously a six-week project in which families displayed live birds in the store during Saturday outings is now a flock of fluffy chicks displayed with food and water under a heat lamp in the store. This is a month-long event. The company aims to be a one-stop shop for people who want to take chickens home and start a flock in their backyard.
A 2024 study on chicken attitudes found that 13% of U.S. households currently own 85 million backyard chickens, with an average of five chickens per owner. A survey of 2,000 chicken farmers as part of the study found that nearly 90% were women. Of the 20% who reported caring for chickens with issues such as health, special needs or disabilities, chicken owners used chicken wheelchairs, walkers, or hammocks to support their hunched birds. He said he used it. Approximately 82% of owners said they arranged for a chicken sitter when they went away on weekends, and 12% said their chickens were always available at home.
However, this brings about one of the chickens' only drawbacks: their toilet habits. “If you're sitting on the couch watching TV with your chickens, you're definitely going to poop,” Cristante says. She runs her Etsy shop, Chickenwear by Sue, where she sells colorful hand-sewn chicken diapers and also takes custom orders. She said she has shipped fashionable chicken apparel to customers in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and nearly every state in the United States. For her British client, who included a pet chicken in her wedding party, Cristante dressed her in a white satin harness, a small veil, a small pearl, and a wine bottle on her back to match her groomsmen. I made a dress with a red ribbon. “It was a very interesting project,” she said. In New York City, a client asked for a Halloween costume, and Cristante sent a vampire costume with a removable cloak and bat wings.
“The chickens you don't know because you've never been around them have their own personalities, and some are very affectionate and intelligent,” Cristante says. She described the popular breed of fluffy chickens known as Silkies as “like giant cotton balls.” They are very docile and easy to care for and honestly make very good house pets. ”
Film director Trish See, 53, who lives in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, started her business with six chicks and a coop at Williams Sonoma. She said the flock has grown because the chickens have “exceeded all expectations of how fun they are to have as pets.” “They all have different temperaments and personalities. They'll remember their name and give you a name.” pitch perfect 3 and playeralso creates video content using chickens, including dance and music videos.
“I really bond with dogs. They really are like man's best friend, because they love humans,” Shea said. “But with chickens, you have to earn their trust because they're big creatures that can eat chickens.”Currently, her family says she has 11 chickens and a rooster named Brian. .
At first, Shi thought it was her imagination when she noticed that the chickens all made the same sound when they saw her. However, after doing some research, she discovered that chickens have names for many things in their lives. After being away for three months on a movie set, she returned home late at night after the chickens were already asleep. Shortly before midnight, she crept into the chicken coop and, seeing them roosting, she whispered, “Hello, chickens.” The three woke up and sleepily made the sound that was Shi's “chicken name.”
Sie's favorite Ruby sadly passed away last summer. The bird lived a long life with Shi. Once, after suffering a cloacal prolapse common in her hens, Ruby let Shee hold her for several hours while her husband gently “reset” her organs with his hands. Ruby then lived another three years. “That's what they let you do if they trust you,” she said. Her jeweler friend has recreated her feet in rubies in sterling silver inlaid with onyx stones. Mr. Shi plans to wear this piece around his neck to honor Ruby.
Tractor Supply's Lawton said part of the driver of the chicken boom is the overall lack of affordable products for urban millennials and Gen Z. One of the only areas where these demographic groups can purchase homes is in the country's suburban, suburban, and rural areas. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, migration to rural areas increased 45 times from 2020 to 2022 compared to before the pandemic.
“With the sense of community we see in our market, and perhaps more importantly, the availability of affordable real estate, we believe the trend towards rural migration is here to stay for the foreseeable future. '' Lawton said during the company's earnings call last week.
Once there, Logan says, Millennials and Gen Z will seek cleaner living, growing fruits and vegetables and raising chickens. The poultry category is a gateway to a more sustainable lifestyle, she said. Additionally, that demographic is willing to spend more on organic ingredients. Ten years ago, organic chicken feed accounted for 1% of the company's sales in the poultry feed sector. Now it's over 10%, she added.
“I wake up every day and think, 'How can I get more people interested in this?'” Logan said.
