Dylan R. is the dignified leader of a small army of loyal chickens. She spends her afternoons collecting eggs, cleaning the chicken coop, refilling water jugs, and feeding chickens.
The way her family decided to raise chickens isn’t the typical “kids beg and parents give in” method. It all started with Dylan’s stepmother and little sister. The two were browsing the internet and decided that they wanted to raise chickens. Dylan’s little sister eventually convinced Dylan to help convince their parents to let them raise chickens. The two sisters made a slide show and presented it to their parents, who agreed. They later welcomed Zobe, Ginger, Beaker, Sunny, Minnie, and Sassy to their family.

Raising chickens came with benefits. According to The Old Farmers Almanac, the eggs from raising chickens taste much better than store-bought ones; and Dylan can confirm that. Her chickens lay six fresh eggs every day. What’s better than fresh eggs in the morning? She also mentioned how some chickens lay bigger eggs than others.
“Four of them are Red Star hens, which lay very large eggs. But we have two others, Sunny and Minnie (I don’t know the breed), who produce very small eggs, so that’s kind of interesting.”
Another benefit is that the tick population in her backyard has gone down thanks to the chickens. Ticks make a good meal for chickens. But of course, that’s not all they eat. Chickens need fresh food and water daily, and apparently, they need a lot.
“They drink so much water!” Dylan exclaimed. “They have this gallon-sized bowl that I need to refill every day.”
Dylan says that her after-school routine has not changed drastically after getting chickens, but the chickens still figure in daily.
“Normally, I would be doing homework, and now I do the chores after school,” Dylan explained. Normally I would just be walking the dogs out with my sister, but now I go outside, and I play with the chickens and feed them, and I also go get the eggs.”
Each chicken has its own unique personality. “Beaker is my personal favorite,” said Dylan proudly. “She is very sweet. She’s not the smartest of the flock; she’ll do really dumb things. Like she will get stuck in things because she doesn’t realize she can back out. She just goes straight forward and does not know how to go back.”
Her sister’s favorite chicken is named Sassy, which is apparently a good name for her. “She is one of the meaner chickens because she hates being picked up and bullies the other chickens.”
Ginger is Dylan’s smartest chicken. She will solve a problem and then communicate her solution to the other chickens, like realizing that they can all fit through a particular door. And then there’s Zobe, described by Dylan as the sweetest one of all.
“She’s really short, and we don’t know why, but she’s so cute because she still looks like a teenage chicken, and it’s really cute,” Dylan described.
The youngest chickens are Sunny and Moony. “They are really attached,” said Dylan. “If they are not together, they’ll scream. And they scream really loud.”
Sunny is very introverted, so she just sits on Dylan’s lap. But Minnie is more outgoing.
Dylan has found raising chickens to be very rewarding and has developed strong bonds with the birds. “It’s really rewarding because the chickens have developed strong bonds,” Dylan says. The bonds she has formed with her chickens are irreplaceable, and she looks forward to spending time with them every day after school.