![]() “When I first started, I reached out to some of the vets and said, 'Hey, if people are bringing in sick birds, maybe you would like to offer them a chicken diaper to go home with,' and they just laughed at me. ![]() “Over the last couple of years, it has changed to people actually calling their chickens pets,” Baker said. For centuries, chickens were seen as dirty, replaceable livestock - they were rarely named, and if they got sick, they would usually just be culled. To Baker, the growth of the luxury chicken industry tracks with shifting attitudes toward the bird. Some chickens can be housebroken, but such is not an easy task, leaving poultry parents in densely populated areas to have to find ways to take care of the inevitable. We thought we’d feed them leftovers, but our chickens end up eating grilled salmon, steak, fresh lettuce and organic watermelon,” one chicken owner, Amina Azhar-Graham, told the Post.Īnd where indoor chickens go, diapers follow. These nouveau livestock enthusiasts have also been known to invest in personal chefs for their birds, and some have even installed smartphone-enabled, motion-detecting coops that control ventilation, temperature, lighting, and security from afar (ballpark cost: $20,000). As The Washington Post reported in March, certain chicken owners have hired “chicken whisperers” to consult on their pets’ comfort (to the tune of $225 per hour). In wealthy cities like San Francisco, chickens have even become an unlikely status symbol, with poultry owners going to unimaginable lengths to care for their pets. Not because she thought anyone would visit, but because she thought it would be an informative experience. Baker, who was homeschooling her daughter at the time, decided to turn the task into an assignment - she and her daughter would launch an online store. So she began sewing Abigail diapers out of cotton fabric, and soon other poultry owners asked if Baker could make diapers for their chickens, too. Baker’s daughter liked to bring her favorite chicken, an Old English hen named Abigail, inside their house, and because chickens poop close to a dozen times per day, Baker needed a better system for managing Abigail’s excrement. “I'm like, ‘Oh my goodness, I so need to do that,’” Baker said. Their urine is technically in their excrement). The diaper, so to speak, was used to catch chicken poop so the birds wouldn’t leave droppings everywhere (chickens do not urinate separately from defecation. Before she launched her brand Pampered Poultry in 2010, she had never even heard of chicken diapers.Īround 10 years ago, Baker was raising chickens with her daughter on their small farm in Claremont, New Hampshire when she first saw a YouTube video of a chicken wearing what looked to be an upside-down apron that stretched across its backside. Julie Baker never intended to become a figurehead of the luxury chicken-diaper industry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |