Recently there has been much discussion about the avian influenza, also known as the bird flu. With bird flu rates increasing worldwide, having pet chickens can be both scary and beneficial. Lower School Spanish teacher Sra. Anton talks about the challenges and joys of raising chickens in Miami, particularly during this time.
Sra. Anton has been a chicken owner for six years and currently owns twelve chickens.
The decision to have chickens began during COVID when Sra. Anton’s husband, an engineer, thought about having them. “He built a coop with one of his employees, and it’s like an American barn, red and white,” she said.
When her husband initially brought up the idea of having chickens in their backyard, Sra. Anton was worried about the amount of work and cleaning it would require. “I was scared,” she admitted, “because [the backyard] was going to be dirty, and it was going to be a mess.”
However, to her surprise, raising chickens proved to be less work than she had first thought. “It is very easy [to take care of the chickens] because they are like a family, and they take care of each other,” she said.
The chickens can even feed themselves when they run out of food in the feeder. “If [the chickens] don’t have food in the coop, they eat everywhere. They eat all the grass, all the insects, and everything they find [because] it is protein for them,” Sra. Anton said.
The chickens roam free in Sra. Anton’s backyard, producing delicious and colorful eggs. “When we got [the chickens] the first time during COVID, we decided to get different breeds to get different colors of eggs,” she said. “We have pink, white, blue, and green.” Because Sra. Anton’s chickens produce eggs, she does not have to buy them, which has been extremely beneficial during this time where the bird flu is increasing egg prices. “We don’t buy eggs. We just have our chickens’ eggs,” she said.
Although Sra. Anton enjoys owning chickens, she has experienced some scares and difficulties while taking care of them. Before Christmas, Sra. Anton had eleven chickens; however, while she was in Spain with her husband, two raccoons opened the wiring in the coop and managed to kill five of them.
For Sra. Anton, “losing…chickens” has been the most difficult part of raising them. Over the years, she has grown attached. When she and her family purchased their first chickens, they named them. “My daughters were younger, and [the chickens] were like pets,” she said.
To assure the health of her chickens, Sra. Anton pays close attention to any changes in their behavior that may indicate they are ill. If a chicken is more quiet and alone, it may mean the chicken is sick. “When you see [a chicken] that is mellow and slow, something is usually going on with them,” she said.
To protect against illness, especially bird flu, the new chicks from Missouri have been tested for any variants of the flu. “[The baby chicks] have been tested. And we [got] them from a place that has a reputation for having no problems with the avian flu,” she said.
Looking at the current bird flu outbreak, Sra. Anton urges the poultry industry, local chicken farmers, and bird owners to test all chickens for the virus. “It is very dangerous for the chickens and for us, so they should test them and protect other animals and birds from the sick chickens.”
Despite these dangers, Sra. Anton insists that raising chickens in Miami even during this time has been worth it.
