Wilma The Wonder Hen Podcast

EP 21 Heath of CityChick: A Chicken Keeper's Dream Come True!

September 06, 2021 Heath Of CityChick Season 2 Episode 2
Wilma The Wonder Hen Podcast
EP 21 Heath of CityChick: A Chicken Keeper's Dream Come True!
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Show Notes Transcript


Today’s guest is Heath Co-owner of CityChickatl.com. An online store geared towards chicken keepers. 
Listen in as Heath  tells us how he left his job to live his dream!

We discuss:

  • How he started his business and why. 
  • Tips on keeping a healthy flock.
  • How he managed past failures and what he did to keep pushing forward.
  • City ordinances on keeping chickens.
  • His dreams of the future.
  • Sustainable chicken products.

Follow Heath
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/citychickatl/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heath_with_citychick?lang=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CityChickAtl

Grubby Farms products mentioned in today's episode: https://bit.ly/3yIglyI
We're an affiliate for Grubby Farms and purchasing through our link does help support our show.
Don't forget to follow Wilma over on the gram: https://www.instagram.com/wilmathewonderhen/

Support the show

“Where education fuels compassion.”

Mel 0:00  

I killed the mood or what? No, no, no, I just I'm excited to be here. It's funny I, it's when you're actually on tik tok, and you see somebody that you just really, I've enjoyed your videos, and you guys are awesome pumpkin as hell chicken is my absolute favorite who doesn't make enough appearances but then you told like the backstory of why she's named helps thicken them, like oh my god. So you know, she's very popular conversation yesterday, I posted a little snippet of her on our stories on Instagram. And like people just like Oh, I love Hell Chicken


Mel 0:38  

oh, are killed all her baby.


Heath  0:43  

Oh, yep. And somebody called their chicken murder chicken. I was like, Oh, I like that name. But then find out the backstory like, oh, maybe I should not like


Heath 0:53  

oh my gosh. But no.


Mel 1:01  

Hey, y'all, I'm Mel and you're listening to Wilma? The Wonderhen are you a chicken math loving mama daddy. Together, we'll dive into the latest poetry keeping adventures where the generous mix of some hilarious stories, bringing you fascinating interviews with poultry owners from all over. You'll find tips and basic advice from your local veterinarian, along with new chicken keeping gadgets and reviews. I'm gonna see what Mr. jangles and Wilma has to say about that. We're going to encourage and help you build a stronger, healthier flat. Let's go see Mr. J knows a room is up. Let's go let these heifers out. Hey, Hey friends. Welcome back. We're so excited to have you with us today and to listen into our today's guest he is funny and witty. And he is kind and he is very smart. He is the chicken daddy to countless chickens and the dad to two amazing dogs. When he's not out working with the chickens and cleaning the poultry drinkers for the 1,000th time he's working on his business that he co founded called city chick city chick atlanta.com is an online store that serves backyard chicken owners. He's a huge proponent of educational green spaces and has donated over three tons of organic chicken feed to nonprofits that teach communities how to grow their own food. He has worked with numerous schools on developing chicken programs to help teach kids all about those chickens. He's been on live television a few times including a broadcast to a morning show in Argentina. He enjoys making silly tic tocs and spreading the joy of raising backyard chicken. I know that you're going to love him as much as we do. Y'all help me welcome heat of city chick atlanta.com Okay, y'all welcome he's from city chick. Hello. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. Thanks for having me on. We are so excited. You're here. I cannot even tell you how excited we are. I'm not here last year. Well we've not met in person but I really wish to one day


Unknown Speaker  3:11  

through tik tok. Okay, when COVID hit I think everyone in their mama della COVID COVID everyone downloaded tic Tock and everyone bought a chicken. So there are millions of chicken people. And I found Heath on Tick Tock. He is a hero. He is like, he's so hilarious. You just have to hear him and you have to hear your story. So we would love to hear a backstory all about he. Oh, well. First of all, let me just say thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm excited. There is a podcast about chickens first and foremost. And I'm so impressed. And but yeah, no, I was I grew up in I was born in Alabama. And I've lived all over the country. But I used to visit my grandfather's farm in Phoenix city, Alabama. And he had a bunch of chickens and they're always my favorite to visit. They used to sell the little fun fact is they used to sell their produce at farmer's markets. And they used to sell their eggs and they actually bought their very first black and white television set. If there's any like teenagers listen to this TV used to be in black and white.


Unknown Speaker  4:24  

Right hallelujah. Yes.


Unknown Speaker  4:28  

And but from selling your eggs so from all the money they saved all their money from selling eggs and bought their very first like box TV set on you know, with three channels and it was black and white. But yeah, I just think that was is kind of a cool thing.


Unknown Speaker  4:44  

But yeah, so that is so grew up and then moved to the city actually moved to Atlanta way back in like just around 2000 and I was living in


Unknown Speaker  4:56  

Midtown Atlanta, and I'm not sure if you're listening


Unknown Speaker  5:00  

centers are familiar with area but there's an area kind of close to Buckhead. And the ordinance is in the laws we could have up to 25 chickens including a rooster inside the city of Atlanta. Wow. So unheard of in that crazy. Yeah. So I wouldn't like I'm not sure what the laws are where you're at in Tennessee. But did you have any problem with ordinances where you're out with chickens? I don't have any I live in that actual I live in a city. Like if you drive 10 miles from where I actually live, it's a humungous, like the it's the oldest town in Tennessee. Okay, but I live in the county so I can have as many as I can feed. So a lot of our past guests bringing that up about the city ordinance where you can have 25 and a rooster. A lot of our guests are in the city. I mean, like in the city, and they are limited to five or eight and no roosters. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was crazy, because Atlanta is divided into Fulton and DeKalb. County. And if you would drive over probably less than 10 minutes, you'd be into cab County, and you could not have a rooster and you would be limited to. I think it was like 12. But you're still in the city of Atlanta. And you can still but what's worse is you could drive out to Cobb County and you would have to have two acres to have any chickens. So which those are probably like old ordinances. You think like way, way back? They will they, they they've been fighting to get those ordinances changed. And then a lot of the Cobb County ones just got changed. Um, but yeah, so but living in the city we get, I actually received a chicken coop from my father in law. And I blamed him for my kind of my chicken.


Unknown Speaker  6:46  

So he


Unknown Speaker  6:48  

It was a Christmas gift. And we received two chickens to two hens, Thelma and Louise. And they showed up and it was a Christmas gift. And it was he built the chicken coop. And he's no longer with us. But it was kind of neat. Oh, yeah, it was kind of a neat gift. And but he so yeah, and then all sudden, of course what happens, right? You get two chickens and you're like,


Unknown Speaker  7:13  

two's not enough. I need to have more. And we got 25 chickens. And we're living in the city of Atlanta. And it was two is 25.


Unknown Speaker  7:25  

Which, you know, and chicken math was only four. So there was going to need to be. So then we decided it was we needed to start a business to fund the chicken habit. And it was going to Yeah, yeah. And


Unknown Speaker  7:40  

then we were living to see Lana and then we decided in order to grow our business, we were going to need to have more chickens. And so we actually found a place out in the country just south of Atlanta. We can we found 10 acres and house.


Unknown Speaker  7:56  

And we've moved out here to where we're at now and get to Atlanta, we're only 30 minutes away from the city of Atlanta.


Unknown Speaker  8:04  

But yeah, so we we can have resumed agriculture so we can have unlimited chickens. Oh, that's my favorite number. Exactly. Unlimited infinity chickens. Yeah, add me on.


Mel  8:17  

And so we, but yeah, so that's kind of a little bit on how we got started. But yeah. So you moved from where you were to where you are now, so that you can have more chickens? Yep. without really what happened.


Heath  8:37  

To explain the story we use to rent chickens. Like it was part of our business concept is we trying to think of the there's no short version of this. So it's going to be when we live in the city. We actually had some friends that showed up to our house. And they were like, wow, we love chickens. If we only knew how easy it was to keep chickens, we we just would love to try it without the commitment. And answer Well, alright, I know about this. I know about this. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm listening this Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Yep. So we were like, wait a minute. So you mean you would actually be interested in having chickens if there was not a commitment? Well, how can we do that? And so we did some research. We actually went and got


Heath  9:22  

we looked at I became like a licensed poultry dealer. And yeah, so we went through that route. We we kind of did all of our legwork. We found out that a lot of the coops that were out there on the market the little small dinky coops from like, are they fall apart by online or like cheap and flimsy so we decided we were going to if we were going to do it, we're going to do it right. My dog could fart in one of those places.


Unknown Speaker  9:54  

Yeah, well, and the problem is they need to be cheap to ship and the wood is so alive.


Unknown Speaker  10:00  

Right to make shipping cheaper. So we decided we were going to design our own. And


Unknown Speaker  10:08  

I just went full on crazy. And I called up my boss and I told her my boss, Amy who lived in Texas at the time, and I loved her. And I told her that I was like, Amy, I'm quitting my job. I'm putting in a two month notice. And she was like, What? What are you doing? I was like, Amy, I'm quitting my job to rent chickens. And she like had a heart attack. And


Unknown Speaker  10:29  

so it was my midlife crisis.


Unknown Speaker  10:32  

I feel you they're the see. And so but she, she was great.


Unknown Speaker  10:38  

And yeah, but so we we started off and rent, we actually worked with the school who we still work with, like five years later to this day. And it's been amazing because all of our clients are in the city of Atlanta. And one of the schools that we work with, I spoke at a school. And we had a bunch of kids that are around, they're all excited about the chickens. And I asked them if they knew where their food comes from, where were eggs come from, I'm sorry. And I was just like, Hey, everybody, raise your hand if you know where eggs come from. And then I'll never forget it. This little girl raised her hand and said, the grocery store. Ah, I couldn't really argue whether she was not wrong. I was like, you're right. They come from the grocery store. But what's the step before that? And she couldn't answer me. And yeah, so yeah, so it was and then they we actually built, they bought a coop from us. But we go and we clean it every weekend during the school year. And I get to visit those chickens. But yeah, and so they we've worked with that school and several other schools, too, since then. But yeah, it's amazing, because we get to help city kids learn about where their food comes from, because they just they don't have that experience of being able to visit to a farm. And sometimes you and I forget that living out in the country that some people just have never lived outside. And yeah, that's very true, we get a lot of messages, like I was saying in some of them are just like, I'm not downing anyway, because, you know, there's advance learning stuff. And then there's so simple things that you think everyone should know that, but they don't. So you know, that's where I think


Unknown Speaker  12:17  

we need to be kind, you know, and, and help educate them. So that they, you know, when someone feels insulted, they're not going to ask any more questions, and then you know, you risk, you know, having animals that you can't care for, because you don't have any idea, and then yada yada, yada. But I do want to ask, do you go back to the schools on a regular basis, like teach classes, you know, throughout the year, you know, the schools that we worked with on the rental program, I always go and I speak when we drop off the chickens, and then they have like the classes out there. And I do a whole kind of introduction to the chickens. And the kids can ask questions.


Unknown Speaker  12:55  

And I always teach them to wash their hands, we have the whole like talk about, you know, hand well, everybody's been washing their hands much more lately. But you know, we have we have the whole conversation about germs with chickens and handling them. But the kids get to learn, you know about collecting eggs, about the responsibility of doing the feeders and the waters.


Heath  13:16  

So yep, I spoke to I've been invited to one school to speak about kind of like about the the lifecycle of baby chick, you know, it takes 21 days and how they grow. So the those are always fun to teach kids about that. Because their eyes are just, you see all the kids that are like really into it. And then you see the other ones that are just kind of glazed over. But to see the the kids that are excited about animals and learning about it. That's always such a an amazing thing to see those coming up. Do you think some of those kids that you have taught have went back and maybe their families have for the first time started keeping chickens, we've actually had some customers that come up and say that our kids saw your chickens at the school that we go to. So it's been fun to see that and then and now since we've been doing this now for five or six years, you know, some of the kids have gotten older and I've got to see the kids grow up a little bit. So it's really kind of neat to see them still into it. Because you know, with some of our when we were no longer doing the rental program now, but when we had the rentals the number one reason why the rentals would come back is because mom and dad, they always envisioned their kids as being like taking care of the chickens. But then


Heath 14:27  

right and then so Johnny or Susie would get tired of the chickens and mom and dad would have to start caring for the chickens and then the chickens would come back. Come back to our farm and then so yeah, that was always the number one reasons because most the time mom and dad didn't realize, Oh, this is this is quite a lot of work. But how did you handle the chickens coming back? Like with biosecurity did they mix back in with the other chickens on quarantine? I assume you would quarantine them. We had a quarantine for 30 days and that's the primary reason why we stopped doing the rental program is because


Heath  15:00  

Well, a couple of reasons with COVID when COVID hit, but we had a waitlist at Blue, our backyard chicken rental program blew up, we I had about 100 people that were on a waitlist. And then I had almost a nervous breakdown because I was going to need 300 chickens.


Unknown Speaker  15:19  

Those Chickens  we're going to have to Yeah, and then it was going to be and we're comfortably set up to have, you know, 100 here, but then it was going to, we're going to have to feed those chickens. We're going to if those chickens came back, we're going to have to like our quarantine procedure, we're going to have to figure out that on a scale of you know, yeah. 20.


Heath 15:41  

So we just we we serviced all of our rental clients, and then we're no longer doing that, because it was an impulse we were going to have to Yeah, get 300 more chickens and I think time invested was going to be about a $60,000 investment and yeah,


Unknown Speaker  15:57  

okay.


Mel  15:59  

Not today. Not today. Not today not bring your ghetto here.


Unknown Speaker  16:06  

But yeah, but yeah, that was it. That was sweet. We we were


Unknown Speaker  16:13  

chicken readers for a while now We service the Atlanta area. And we have a whole line of chicken products of everything from soy free organic feed down to our, our own chicken treats. And we're going to be doing some electrolytes here pretty soon. So yeah, that's that's kind of what we've done. So how do you go about picking your products? What's some of the most important things to you? I love products that are sustainably sourced and things that are like the duga grubs that we have. They are made from compost from a farm out in Los Angeles. And we are starting our own kind of we have all of our products are now in compostable packaging. So that way instead of plastic like most stuff comes in, you can actually write that's why we like grumbly farms to you.


Unknown Speaker  17:07  

Obviously the love tub comes in a tub but no hate there. Okay, we recycle it we exactly and it's perfect. You can grow you can start tomatoes in the love tub, you can do a lot of stuff.


Unknown Speaker  17:17  

Um, so But yeah, so we're we're we're trying to focus on sustainability and just trying to cut back on the amount of plastics that's out there. The pine shavings that we carry are sustainably source that from a forest initiative and then we've got to thank him bedding and our online store which him bedding is how much do you know about him bedding? I know very little. I'm gonna be honest, because a lot of people push him betting and I know that we've been contacted by a few companies to see if we'd like to try him betting. But honestly, I don't know enough about it. And I've not had enough research on it. You know, my concern is, so I'll see if you can answer those questions. Sure. Sure. Yep. It's amazing. The the hemp betting product like pine trees takes seven years to grow a tree in order to produce pine shavings, right. And then for hemp betting, it only takes about six or seven months from the plant to grow from seed to plant and then processed and harvested. So it's, it's a little bit better for the environment, in my opinion. And so yeah, we carry that. And yeah, so we, I look for products that are sustainably sourced


Unknown Speaker  18:33  

and trying to go that way with the packaging too. So cut back on the amount of waste. Can people come to your farm and see your animals or No, do you have like a little store there? Is it strictly online? It's everything is strictly online. And it's it? Because I have so many chickens, right. We're really strict about our biosecurity. So I can't have people that have chickens onto the property and we have people that call and ask us if they can come visit us and I have to say Unfortunately, no, that's why we deliver it like we deliver to Atlanta Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, and then I have a local pickup option on Tuesdays and Thursdays and some Saturdays for people. I just had a lady that has horses and she just bought I think it was like 50 bales of the hemp bedding I just went and dropped it off to her earlier today. I was just gonna inquire a little bit more on the hemp bedding. How does it compare to pine shavings in your experience? If you've used pine shavings in the past? Sure. I was using pine shavings in all my coops and then probably about four years ago.


Unknown Speaker  19:33  

About four years ago I did some research and found him betting and then I tried it and then I was like it, it changed everything. And the hemp is super absorbent so it sucks out of the moisture of the chicken poop. And then so it dries out the chicken poop so you don't have as much and then Where? Here we are talking about chicken poop. I love it.


Unknown Speaker  20:00  

As the name of the game, yep. And when you're so when you're, and everybody's listening to this news when the chicken poop is gonna fall on top of the pine shavings, and it just sits there and then my chickens step on it and then go and lay an egg and then some poops, get on my eggs. And it's kind of frustrating. Yeah, with a hit bedding it, it helps suck out, that sucks out the moisture of the chicken poop. And then so it dries it out. And it's not. My coop doesn't get as stinky. But then I also put some lime underneath the hidden bedding to help with that. So just from my experience, the embedding has been Yeah, it's been a game changer for me. So But yeah, I have five coops. So how many? How many bags would I have to start with?


Unknown Speaker  20:48  

So how do I yeah,


Unknown Speaker  20:53  

it's bad because it's significantly more expensive than pine shavings are because it's actually due to some laws. It's shipped internationally right now.


Unknown Speaker  21:05  

So five coops it would Yeah, you you would need at least five veils. And that's probably That's a lot. What


Unknown Speaker  21:15  

a fabulous answer I love.


Unknown Speaker  21:20  

I love these things I asked. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, that is fabulous. To me. It should cost what it cost, okay. But when I look realistically, I have 75 chickens, okay. And I have five different coops because depending on, you know, my phantoms and, you know, maternity ward we have, and then the big barn coop and yada yada. So for me to say, Okay, well, I'm going to replace and participate in this. But, you know, is it realistic for me, you know, when you have that much area to cover? That's, that's all I'm saying. It's up to you and what you feel comfortable in doing? And I'm not going to say it's for everybody, right? I consider myself like I don't have I've got two dogs and a lot of chickens that I don't have to feed so I can spend some of my extra income on on my chickens, right. So if somebody it if they've only got one coop and it's enough, like one of the 30 pound bags will cover like a four by eights square foot space, probably with at least a couple inches.


Unknown Speaker  22:36  

It's great. But if you got five coops, it gets a little cost prohibitive. So I think that's great. That's a great offer, you know, or an opportunity for those in that situation. So yeah, I'm glad that there is a better option. So now going back to your business, I want to hear Did you jack up some things? Did you miss it? Were there things that you would have done differently? Things that lessons learned that you could share with somebody else? Absolutely.


Unknown Speaker  23:11  

Don't let you being afraid


Unknown Speaker  23:15  

of starting something? Like happen, right? I was so afraid of getting out there and starting my own business at first. Like it kept me from starting because I thought I was going to fail. And yeah, so but and I have failed and I failed a lot. And I have learned from those lessons, I can tell you that one of the very first set of rental chickens that we dropped off, they contacted me the woman contacted me and I'll never forget she said my chickens have stopped laying. And that was after like a week. And I was like oh my God, this you our chickens broke, you know, and that common though? You know when they're going to somewhere new status applying for a little while it was and then so I was just like and I had to work with her. And then it was just but yeah, it was I learned my lessons on not like with the e commerce. I chose like the wrong websites in the beginning. I just I did a lot of stuff that I was so afraid of making mistakes and failing that it almost kept me from starting my own job and starting my own business. And if you have like if one of your listeners is on the fence about if they're in a dead end job and they're worried about like I just I can't do this because I'm worried I'm going to fail. I'm going to make mistakes. Yes, you are going to fail and you're going to fall on your face a lot has happened to me. But you know what you get back up, you dust yourself off and and you keep going and then but yeah, so don't don't. Everybody's gonna make mistakes. And I can tell you I've made more than my fair share of mine.


Unknown Speaker  24:54  

And Oh, geez, you're gonna end up with a lot more chickens too. Like I know that happen.


Unknown Speaker  25:00  

meet you. But, but yeah, yeah, I really underestimated exactly how many chickens I was gonna end up with. But, and I'm so grateful that you never asked like when you ask people on your podcast like with the tiny Raptors, when you asked how many chickens they have, like a lot. That's and you said the same thing you're like, yeah, I've got a lot.


Unknown Speaker  25:21  

Yeah, she had the greatest response, I laughed until I thought I was gonna cry. I was like, Oh, I think she's gonna give us a number. And then I was like, Oh, no, I


Unknown Speaker  25:32  

that's why


Unknown Speaker  25:34  

I love your message, though. I think that is, you know, like Hannah Montana said, Everyone makes mistakes. So


Unknown Speaker  25:41  

that is very inspiring. And I think just from knowing you for the period that i've you know, watched you online and stuff, you can just see how happy you are and see that you encourage a lot of people so yeah, well, I can and I can tell you is that if you go back and look at earlier tic tocs is I did not like being on camera at first. And like if you look at


Unknown Speaker  26:12  

a lot of my old ones if you go back and look, it was just a lot of like stuff. I think I even had a rubber chicken that I put in front like a camera. I had some chicken like this, that and I hadn't put any like the captions in there. And then I was like, Oh, wait a minute. I people actually respond to other people. And then like I realized, right so getting in front of a camera and talking that people were


Unknown Speaker  26:35  

and if you have some listeners that I know that people follow you on tik tok on on Instagram, you know, start sharing a little bit more of yourself and your stories because that's who people are connecting with. Yeah, and I started seeing a lot more like kind of the growth in there because I think people were connected the fact that there was an actual person there. I agree with that. Yeah, I think that is so true. Because sometimes we are afraid to be seen, not just like look wise, but I mean be seen of who we are and stuff and to feel judged. And there's a lot of judgey judgey people in this world.


Unknown Speaker  27:14  

That's why I hate I literally legit hate Facebook. I'm sorry if Facebook is listening.


Unknown Speaker  27:20  

Not that that would ever happen. But there are some judgy hateful people over there. So the people that are on tik tok yet that came over from Facebook need to go back to Facebook and leave Tick tock, no Tick Tock is change. Ah, oh my goodness, we still post on there because we love our you know, the people that do follow us and stuff and they respond. But


Unknown Speaker  27:41  

yeah.


Unknown Speaker  27:44  

Funny story. I had a guy I went into my little Facebook group that I was a member of, and I was like, Hey, guys, I'm starting a tick tock channel about chickens. Let's follow each other. And then I had the guy actually post a picture of a gun and said You're a grown man on tik tok. You need to do this and he was insinuating something very badly. Oh my Lord. And yet this is when and I swear to God and and that was back before tik tok was huge. And yeah, and I actually took screenshots of it and I was just like, Man, this guy's a jerk. But yeah, so and that was,


Unknown Speaker  28:24  

but now there's 1000s and, you know, hundreds of 1000s of grown men on tik tok doing this. And there's a lot of people on tik tok with chickens. It is overwhelming the amount of people and I will say there's an overwhelming amount of false information that gets spread. But


Unknown Speaker  28:42  

yeah, yeah. So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with that heat? When you go through your feed, and let's see, you, I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Sure. You go through your feed, and you see someone posting something and they're like, yada, yada, yada. And you're like, Oh, that is so wrong. Do you make a comment? Or this is on chickens. Now let's say you make a comment or do you scroll past it? I hate to say this because I I will scroll past


Unknown Speaker  29:12  

I those people that are kind of putting out that information.


Unknown Speaker  29:18  

I will if I'm following him if I started following them. And I hate to say this but if they're given out that all unfollow them, and I just kind of like okay, well, I'm just gonna go ahead and unfollow and then move along. Because then it turns into a tic Tock fight back and forth. Right? I know better, you know, better I know better, you know better. And then it turns into a conflict of it. And then I was just like, I just I want to put positive energy into the world and not have something that goes into negative territory. Yeah, so know that the thing there's a fine line, you know, like, and then you maybe see other people comment. What bothers me is like when you see other people comment


Unknown Speaker  30:00  

Like, yeah, I'm gonna do that too, or Yeah, thanks for the idea. And I was like,


Unknown Speaker  30:04  

No, but you're right. I have unfollowed a few people that were just blatantly disregarding any type of safety or anything like that. So but yeah, okay, moving right along. On Try not to fill too much space here because I got some questions for you.


Unknown Speaker  30:24  

But you can jump in at any time because sometimes I ramble on. So I just want to know so how is pumpkin doing? Oh, my goodness, pumpkin. You know, pumpkin is a house chicken and chickens do not belong in the house.


Unknown Speaker  30:39  

This should be against the law, according to some be Oh.


Unknown Speaker  30:43  

And there we go with the see. Yeah. And those. Everybody's got receives a lot of hate it. I don't show it and I don't post it because I don't really care. But yeah. And I know that. And do people accuse you of exploiting your chickens? Yes, I'm exploiting pumpkin for views and money. I don't know where the money is. Because


Unknown Speaker  31:04  

she's in debt to me.


Unknown Speaker  31:07  

She owes me. Yeah, I paid her bills. I know. And that's Yes. And that's how I feel about a lot. Yeah, yeah. So it's amazing to see the, the the comments that come through about exploiting chickens. And I'm just like, you know what, my chickens are fed the best food and have got a great house and I have been called every name in the book. And you are listening that and one of Wilmers followers on Tiktok, please don't worry about the haters, because they will show up, but just block them, get rid of them. And move along. It's always it's there. They're the 2%. And usually 98% of the people that are following you are really great and really supportive. But then those 2% will get under your skin. And that's a very good tip. That's a good tip in general just in life, because, you know, not everybody is going to like you and that you're not, you know, everybody's peach or whatever. So, yeah, good advice.


Unknown Speaker  32:11  

But I'd like to talk to you a little bit about what would your advice be for somebody who is maybe who does live in the city? Where would you direct them to go to get you know, help or information about, you know, keeping chickens or their Sydney ordinances? You know, is there something that worked for you and your area you know, because your area has more than you know, someone typically would and you had mentioned that, you know, they were changing the ordinances and stuff so you know, the wood


Unknown Speaker  32:42  

WilmaThe Wonderhen has great information on her Instagram page, you need to go check her out on Instagram.


Unknown Speaker  32:50  

First up, if you click on her bio link She's got some really helpful information in free PDF downloads. Not pay him to say this is not paid he's


Unknown Speaker  33:01  

if you but however, if you do live in the city, and you're looking for local ordinances, you look up Melissa code.com and you can find a lot of your local chicken keeping ordinances there. You know, as well as I do if you live in an HOA, check with your Hoa because nine are bylaws first 90% of HOA dues are the enemies of any timekeeper.


Unknown Speaker  33:27  

Yeah, yeah, and I know people that have successfully overturned their Hoa rules so it can be done. But But yeah, I would say first if you live in an HOA check those rules and laws but if not, if you live in a city go to minister code comm check things out there. That is a very good tip. So always make sure you can hat because you don't want to get hit with I know far too many people that have gotten hit with violations ordinance has been charged money like gotten bills for having I actually went to a Sydney city ordinance hearing in Cobb County because I would you believe that somebody reported their neighbor had six hinze and he was only allowed to have four hinze on his property. Who in the world how petty and then he got like a notification and like so he went to get and I went and sat in on the thing I was just like, this is what like our tax dollars are doing they're being wasted on this kind of garbage on allowing somebody to have chickens that he's Yeah, so he he was raising for eggs for food for his family. So but yeah, so that was just frustrating. Everyone should be able if they want to have chickens to help with sustainability and feed their family, maybe feed their neighbors who knows but everyone should have be able to have if, you know if they choose they should be able to have a few at least laying hands on me on a sand roosters because you know, they loud all day 24 hours a day missing.


Unknown Speaker  35:00  

dangles well crow at 4am for no reason.


Unknown Speaker  35:04  

Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah. And I mean after World War Two, you know or during World War Two when food they were doing food rationing they actually encouraged everybody to help. Right? So it is National chicken month two. Ah, you know, I did not know that. And I'm such a bad chicken person or shame on you.


Unknown Speaker  35:24  

I quit. I'm just game I'm gonna have to get off tic Tock now because


Unknown Speaker  35:29  

I want you to have a great life and Benny can actually hang out with Mr. jangles. And Danny is so cute though. He's the coolest rooster that I mean, the most laid back rooster chill that you've ever seen. So I got really lucky with him. And if anything ever happens to him, I'm going to do that. He's like a little person. He has his own people say oh chickens or just chicken you know, or whatever. But chickens have such vibrant personalities. I mean, look at Mr. jangles like a pumpkin. I mean, look at hell chicken. I mean, all all the cast over there absolutely.


Unknown Speaker  36:12  

is crazy in the holler. But


Unknown Speaker  36:16  

do you want to see what you do you have any goals for the future? What your flock or your business or their you know, personal goals that you have? You know, um, we are expanding beyond because right now city chick, right? We are expanding beyond Atlanta, and we're trying to grow it's a little bit challenging. We're looking at possibly doing a retail space, just for backyard chicken owners right there. There hasn't been a lot of stores just for chicken owner. I was thinking about that. Right? Um, so we're kind of looking at that. And it's, you know, right now my garage is full of like bales of him bedding and like, you know, and it's just it's turned into its own warehouse. And I'd like to have a garage back again. So you know, we're looking at doing some


Unknown Speaker  37:07  

a warehouse space. But yeah, I would love, love, love love to have a retail space dedicated just to backyard chicken owners.


Heath  37:15  

And just sell chicken products and sell products like the hen saddles from tiny Raptor studios. Right?


Mel 37:23  

Oh, I love that. Use it like a vendor, you know, bring in other vendors and sell them there. Is that what you mean? Yep, yep. and sell eggs from local farms. So if anybody listening to this podcast starts their own little chicken store. You can credit me on that if you do that. I will do that if we set.


Heath 37:43  

And But no, yeah, that would kind of be like my ultimate goal is having a little there was a store in, I think it was called. In Wisconsin or Michigan. It was a store dedicated just to backyard chicken owners. And they're no longer open. But it was open for about a year or two. And I found out about it from one of my customers but but I think Atlanta could support one. But yeah, so that would be kind of like my ultimate goal is to have a little retail store just for chicken owners. Okay, that is super cool. I see you doing that? I really do. I think that that's gonna happen for you. Thank you. I really appreciate that. That's awesome. Do you have any tips that you could share with your average backyard chicken keeper, you know, on how to keep your flock healthy and strong? Great question. Um, you know, there's a few things I think every chicken owner should kind of research a little bit about chicken nutrition. And not to get too far into


Heath  38:49  

that chicken nutrition. But you know, we we love giving our chickens treats, right? And I'm guilty of this too. There, there are conditions that our chickens can get like fatty liver, you know and stuff.


Heath 39:01  

So, and some of that is kind of brought on by what we feed them. My tips would be just do your research on stuff like fatty liver tissue disease, also research America disease. America is out there and it's really bad. And I see a lot of chicken owners that lose their flocks because of mercs. What do you think about these people taking their chickens into Tractor Supply and other stores? It's a shock to me, it's a horror. If I do see that on a video, I would probably comment and say because


Heath 39:36  

I, you're you're spreading bad stuff when you're bringing your chicken in there, right? And no, that's just that's a big No, no. And that's even doing like the chicken swaps where there's a lot of people that go to chicken swaps that Tractor Supply and you get a whole bunch of chickens around and you know, you can potentially be swapping diseases around. So just Just be careful. Don't Don't


Unknown Speaker  40:00  

Bring your chicken into Tractor Supply because you could potentially be spreading disease around. So yeah, but no, that's a really good point then. Oh, just know that. I think my biggest biggest mistake that I made