Teenage Poultry Prodigy: Kyle's Journey in Chicken Farming

Join Carey of Show Pro Farm Supply and Jennifer of Bryant's Roost as we delve into chickens and quail (mostly)  to help you enjoy your birds more and worry less. Backyard chicken keeping shouldnt be stressfull, let's get back to the simple days

Valley Hatchery is a proud sponsor of Poultry Nerds, find more at ValleyHatchery.com

Transcript

Carey 0:39

Hi, and welcome to the Poultry Nerds Podcast. I'm Carey Blackmon, and I'm here with my co host for the show, Jennifer Bryant. And we're here to help you figure out how to raise the healthiest, happiest, and highest quality birds possible.

Jennifer 1:03

Well poultry nerds. We're back again this week and We are here for the kids again with kyle from the chicken inn, right?

Kyle 1:13

It's the chick in farmer. It's kind of hard to it's kind of difficult to figure it out because when I talk to a lot of people a lot of people say like Chicken farmer, which is like, you know, without the I N N in the middle, you know, it's a lot of people thinking it's chicken farmer, which, you know, then I have to explain it's chick and then I N N like a hotel or whatever and then farmer. Okay.

Jennifer 1:41

So how did you, how did you settle on that name then?

Kyle 1:44

Well, I started before YouTube and stuff when I started with chickens. I got an old camper from my grandparents house. They used it for hunting and stuff. Okay. And I redid it, and I fixed it up, and I turned it into this super cool chicken coop, which, honestly, probably one of the best chicken coops I've ever had, ever. It's really good. And yeah, I basically started with the camper, and then I was trying to find a name, and there's a lot of, like, names out there. Surprisingly, there's a lot of chicken YouTubers. So I was trying to find one that wasn't already used. And then I saw a lot of people talk about like, this is the chick in, and I was like, you know, that matches with my camper and everything. So I am the chick in farmer.

Jennifer 2:30

That sounds pretty cool. I mean,

Carey 2:31

that, that does work. That works pretty well. I like it.

Jennifer 2:36

Well, you're in good company because a lot of people have to explain the name of their farms. It's not just you. I get called Bryant all the time. People thinking that, that I'm a him and my first name is Bryant. So, you know,

Carey 2:52

Yeah, but see, I get it. Like I went totally off kilter with the name of mine. People are like, your last name's not even an R like. I'm like, y'all have to check out my site and read the story.

Kyle 3:07

Mm hmm.

Jennifer 3:08

Yep.

Kyle 3:09

They've always got good backstories.

Jennifer 3:11

Yep. Exactly.

Kyle 3:13

There's always a reason. It might not make sense, like, in the front, like, chicken farmer, you're like, okay, I guess it kind of makes sense. But then, like, when the story backs it up, you're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. Yeah. So are you still using the

Jennifer 3:27

Camper?

Kyle 3:28

Yes, I am.

Jennifer 3:30

Wow. And did you do all that work by yourself?

Kyle 3:33

It was mainly me and my dad, because my dad is like the builder in our family, so he's very helpful on that end of stuff, because I'm not, I'm still learning. Because you know, I'm only 17 or whatever. I'm still, I'm not a professional yet.

Jennifer 3:47

Right?

Kyle 3:48

But yeah, he helped me get that built in together. We started putting metal on the sides and stuff. But honestly, throwing it out there, go on Facebook Marketplace and find a free camper. That is literally the best chicken coop I've ever had. And I've built massive ones. I have one called the Chicken Mansion. And it still does not hold up compared to my camper. It's already like insulated, all that stuff. It's literally everything you need for a chicken coop.

Jennifer 4:18

So is the whole thing a chicken coop? Or do you have like a section for storage and stuff?

Kyle 4:24

Well, mine was a little pop up, so I didn't have much space for like an extra storage room, but if you got one of the bigger campers that were like already like a full box, like we had to put plywood up because pop up campers usually have like the cloth fold out situation, whatever all that is, so we had to do plywood and all that. But it wasn't very big, but, so we don't have an extra room in it.

Jennifer 4:50

Gotcha. Well, so for our listeners, Kyle is only 17. So how long have you been doing Chickens?

Kyle 5:00

So, I've been doing Chickens about three years now. And it, it's been a roller coaster of a bunch of different changes and stuff. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of learning, that's for sure. You definitely learn as you go with Chickens.

Jennifer 5:17

Well, you never should have stopped learning.

Kyle 5:19

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, I'm still definitely learning stuff. It's, it's very fun.

Carey 5:27

Alright, so Jennifer, I gotta say this. I actually found the chick in on his Facebook page and it's like a, it's like a chicken Airbnb. It's got its own porch. Yes, it does. Is it

Jennifer 5:43

making us look bad?

Carey 5:46

I mean, I'm not going to show it to any of my chickens because they might want to move. But the only thing, I don't see an air conditioner on top of it. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. It's solid. Like this thing is, this is cool. It makes me want to try to find like some 1970s Retro camper that looks like it's one good bump away from falling apart.

Kyle 6:10

And

Carey 6:12

babying it over to my place. And, I mean, you could put a lot of roosting poles in there and You absolutely can. That's awesome. It's great.

Jennifer 6:24

Mm

Kyle 6:24

hmm.

Jennifer 6:27

Well, kudos for imagination on that one. So did your, were your parents into chickens and then that's how you got into chickens or tell us how you got into

Kyle 6:37

them. So it's kind of a long story with that. So my parents had chickens when I was like eight or nine, around that time. And I absolutely despised chickens and everything that had to do with them, which is crazy to think now. But I, I used to say I am never having chickens when I get older and stuff like that. It was. It was kind of funny thinking back all the stuff I used to say about I really don't like chickens and stuff, and then the route I took, but they basically got me into them, I guess, because they started, and then I was homeschooled around like 7th, 8th grade that time, and I decided, hey, I want to do chickens, and I wanted to take care of them all by myself, and I wanted it to be like my, my thing, mainly. So, yeah. Which they still helped out a ton, but I really wanted it to be my chicken farm.

Carey 7:42

That makes

Jennifer 7:42

sense. So what breeds did you choose?

Kyle 7:46

Okay, well that's, that's tough because when I started, I had completely different ideas of what I wanted to do than where I am now. So I started with like just egg layers, you know, like you go to tractor supply and I'm just like, I want one of whatever the females are, you know, pullets or You know, I was still learning at the time, so I didn't know what a pull lid and all that was. So I was like, whatever's a female, I just want some. So I started with like 20, which is a lot. I definitely started out with too many, but then it ended up transferring to I want to breed chickens, but I don't want to pay like show chicken prices. So I bought like six or so of like a certain breed from a hatchery and had it shipped in and then I had all these different breeding pens. And then after that, I went to Show Chickens, which now I'll talk about breeds, which I have Light Brahmas, the large fowl, Bantam Stamming Favrels, I have Ermine Americanas, and then I have a big flock of Rainbow Egg Layers, which, which, which, You know, they have like the dark brown eggs, and the blues, and the greens, and all that stuff.

Jennifer 9:53

Wow, so you have three breeds you're working with, plus just your egg layers.

Kyle 10:00

Yep.

Jennifer 10:02

So, how many pens do you have?

Kyle 10:07

Overall? Right

Jennifer 10:08

now, today. We know it changes, but today, how many

Kyle 10:11

pens do you have? Today, I have like seven or eight.

Carey 10:18

Oh, that's not bad.

Kyle 10:19

Yeah. That's

Carey 10:20

not bad.

Kyle 10:21

Which, I'm in the beginning, like, parts of my show chicken journey. Like, I really, I just, like, stepped into the show chicken world and stuff. So, like, I only have a few of each of my breeds. But, I feel like after a while it's gonna get out of hand, cause I, I definitely like breeding chickens.

Jennifer 10:42

Did you still have the hatchery stock, or have you found standard

Kyle 10:47

breeds? No, it's not hatchery anymore. I used to, and then I sold them all off. I'm really good at like getting into something like impulse buying and then I'm like, you know, this one didn't really work out So I sell off the flock and then I started buying again. That's how I started and then now I'm like I want to be settled down in these few breeds and then my egg laying flock That is what I want to stick with for years and years and years or whatever and improve it and keep the breed Healthy and all that stuff.

Jennifer 11:20

So where did you source your your stock from? And Al, how did you find him?

Kyle 11:25

Okay, so, a big shout out to Brian Knox, which he's on the show Chicken People, I don't know if you've seen it. It's really, it's a good show. And it talks about like the show Chicken World and all the people in there. He is my mentor right now. So he found people who had all these different birds. Which if you want, I can go into names of everybody who I've gotten my show chickens from, which you would,

Jennifer 11:53

you, you can just tell us that you sourced them from breeders.

Kyle 11:57

Yeah. Yeah. It,

Carey 11:59

some of those breeders might want, might want to keep their secrets.

Kyle 12:02

That's true. They might. But I got the salmon favres from just one so far because I just started with them like at, oh, not Ohio Nationals is when I first. Picked them up and stuff. So that was only a few weeks ago, but the Brahmas I have like four to six different breeders that I got hens and stuff from so they're a little bit more Settled in.

Jennifer 12:33

So have you mixed them up? Are you keeping them separate by breeder?

Kyle 12:37

I've There's some of them are still young like growing out type age and stuff. So I haven't Mixed any for like I like this male to go with this female or anything Because, like, the hens aren't laying and there's kind of no point in having them beat up or anything. Right. So, I haven't had anybody separated, but I'm planning to. And I want them all to be, like, mixed together. Because Brian talks a lot about keeping, like, the genes, like, diverse and stuff. Because inbreeding, after a while, you can hit a wall and stuff, which has to do with linebreeding. I'm not against it. I do think you need to linebreed in some ways to fix Certain issues in birds, but at some point you always hit a wall and you have to bring in new blood. I don't want to have to bring in new blood every couple of years or whatever.

Jennifer 13:37

Yep. Well, first of all, kudos to you for having a mentor because that's super important.

Kyle 13:43

That is very important.

Jennifer 13:45

We both have mentors. They, they move a program along so much quicker. It's

Kyle 13:53

definitely way nicer to have a mentor than going in like completely blind. At first I basically just jumped in and I was like, I want to show chicken. I went to Ohio nationals last year and I just picked up, I spent like 400, which I shouldn't have, but I bought a bunch of different stuff and I didn't know what I was doing. I just thought, Oh, pretty chicken. That's going to sell well or something like that. And I then realized that I needed to focus on a breed or just a few breeds and really get them dialed in to what I want.

Jennifer 14:31

So have you been to very many shows?

Kyle 14:34

I've been to, I think, four or five so far. I've went to, like, Dayton, Fancy Feather Show, Ohio Nationals. And a few others that I can't remember.

Jennifer 14:48

So the showbug has bit you then?

Kyle 14:51

Yeah, definitely has. You

Jennifer 14:54

enjoyed it?

Kyle 14:55

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Carey 14:58

It's easy to happen.

Kyle 14:59

Mm hmm. Chickens are very addicting. And then you get into show chickens and they're even more.

Jennifer 15:07

Yes, yes, so let's see So Nick, so now I understand on your Facebook page that you've gone NPIP and you're gonna start selling eggs Eggs or chicks too?

Kyle 15:24

Eggs, chicks, kind of whatever.

Jennifer 15:28

So just a logistical Curiosity here. Do you have to, can you get NPIP at your age or did your parents have to get it?

Kyle 15:36

I think, there's certain things that I can have in my name, but like, on my MPIP card and stuff, it has to be like, my mother's name on there too, it's like, Christy slash Kyle. It can't be just Kyle this, until I'm

Jennifer 15:52

18.

Kyle 15:55

But yeah.

Jennifer 15:55

Okay. Didn't I didn't know my MPI P tester didn't ask how old I was. So I didn't know if that was a thing.

Kyle 16:03

Yeah.

Jennifer 16:04

So, Carey, did your NPIP tester ask her, ask you how old you were

Carey 16:12

based on the fact that I probably was twice her age. No, she didn't because when the, when I got my first NPIP test, it was literally the first solo test group that she had done graduated college a few months previous and like got this job working for the USDA. Straight out of college, landed her a federal job and got her a company car to ride around in and work from home.

Jennifer 16:50

Well, there you go.

Carey 16:51

Yeah.

Jennifer 16:53

So you're in Ohio, right?

Kyle 16:56

Yep.

Jennifer 16:57

Was the NPIP testing in Ohio, was it stressful? Was it hard? Was it easy? What was it?

Kyle 17:03

I thought it was pretty easy. All I had to do was just grab a chicken and bring it to the person. And they just like pricked the like vein in its wing and got samples and stuff. And it was really easy. I basically just had to bring a chicken to the person back and forth.

Carey 17:21

And you may tell you a secret about what, what you can work on for next year. What you can actually get certified to do it yourself, Ohio, Oklahoma, and several other States will allow you to go through the training course and do your own NPIP testing, which seems fishy. Yes. Straight up says that they want their money, but it is, it is what it is.

Kyle 17:53

Huh? Yeah.

Jennifer 17:54

Michigan has private testers too. I think there's just a handful of them. So there's a source of income for you on the side.

Kyle 18:03

Yeah, that's stuff I'm trying to figure out for sure. Definitely income. Are you going

Jennifer 18:09

to chicken

Kyle 18:10

college? I don't know if I'm going to college. But I do think it'd be cool to like judge shows or be like an NPIP member or something like that that has to do with poultry. Because I know that this is what I want to do for like the rest of my life.

Jennifer 18:30

Well, when you know,

Kyle 18:31

you know,

Jennifer 18:33

right?

Kyle 18:33

Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Jennifer 18:37

So have you done showmanship at the shows

Kyle 18:41

or no? I haven't my nerves actually like I'm kind of a anxious person and I Cannot do I'm good on camera But face to face talking with people is very tough for me. Really? Yes. Surprisingly, if like right now, it's pretty easy to talk because, you know, I feel like I'm in my home and stuff. I feel a lot safer, but like when I have to go out, I definitely curl up into my shell a little bit. See,

Carey 19:15

like when we're here, it's just like, we're just sitting around the campfire talking about chickens and it's cool, but. Getting in front of a group of people is,

Kyle 19:26

yeah, which one thing I will say though is chickens have absolutely brought me out of my shell because I used to just like I could not call anybody. I could not do anything because I was so nervous about that kind of stuff. But if it has to do with chickens, I can talk for hours about just anything because I really enjoy talking about chickens. And it's my passion and stuff. So I really feel like I can come out of my shell way easier because I feel like I know what I'm talking about.

Jennifer 19:57

Well, good for you. You know, good for you.

Carey 20:00

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Jennifer 20:02

Yeah. So you're almost aged out. So you can't do showmanship. So that kind of gives you an out on that one since you weren't interested in it. And you're going to continue showing.

Kyle 20:16

Yes, for sure.

Jennifer 20:18

Gotcha, and something poultry related after high school for a job.

Kyle 20:23

Mm hmm.

Jennifer 20:24

Because chickens eat, and you gotta buy food for them, right? So, do you have a website, or are you just working off your Facebook page now?

Kyle 20:32

It's mainly on my Facebook.

Jennifer 20:35

I do have

Kyle 20:35

a YouTube channel, which I'm trying to have that as a little extra income, which YouTube isn't super fast at that. It takes years to build a following and stuff, but I definitely think Facebook's gonna be my main source of like, hey, I have Eggs to ship and then selling stuff on there and all that.

Jennifer 20:57

I would caution you just a little bit on that because the first one got shut down because it can be finicky about that kind of stuff. But when they shut my first one down, that's why I got upset. My website down, so that's what started there.

Carey 21:22

Yeah, maybe start a

Jennifer 21:24

blog and start sharing your experiences. Yeah, I got,

Carey 21:26

I had to start a new Facebook page a couple, two years ago, I think, because I got permanently banned.

Kyle 21:37

Whoa.

Carey 21:38

Yeah. And you're like, Oh my God, what did this guy do to get permanently banned? I was selling eggs on Marketplace and there was no stop doing this or we're going to ban you. It was straight ban. And I was like, what did, what did I do? Like. And I, and I filed an appeal and ask, what did I do? And if I log into my old Facebook account and tap on marketplace, it, it, it won't even let me see what's in there, which was really handy from my wife for a while, because I would send her to go pick up random stuff. Like, Hey, while you're out, I bought such and such off marketplace. Can you go by and pick it up for me? So it kind of curved that for a little bit, but yeah, be, be very careful when you sell that type of stuff on Facebook, cause they will shut you down with a quickness.

Kyle 22:43

I see a lot of people talk about certain stuff like that, and there's certain words you can say to like, get around it, that you have to be also careful about if they do end up finding out about it. But like it's It's kind of crazy that Facebook would ban stuff like that, but they're leaving a lot of other stuff on doesn't need to be there.

Carey 23:09

Yeah. Yeah. You can, you can you can't sell chickens on there, but you can not have any clothes and they're okay with that. I don't understand. I don't understand. Well, I

Jennifer 23:22

just think at York. At your age don't put all your eggs in one basket per se

Kyle 23:28

Yeah, i'm definitely trying to broaden Everything I would like a website. I'm, not super tech savvy on that kind of stuff, but I would like one, but I don't know how to start it or anything like that. So, I'm still figuring out certain things.

Jennifer 23:48

Okay. Well, there are some platforms, I think, where you can just do blogs. And it might be kind of cool just to follow your story with a blog.

Kyle 23:58

Oh, okay. Where you wouldn't

Jennifer 23:59

lose everything that Facebook blow up or whatever.

Kyle 24:03

Yeah. Okay. So,

Jennifer 24:05

I'm not by any stretch trying to deter you from Facebook. I just, there's other stuff out there that That might be more beneficial

Carey 24:15

coming from two people that have had Facebook accounts permanently banned for chicken stuff.

Kyle 24:20

Yeah,

Carey 24:21

And looking on your Facebook page, you do have some really nice eggs in the basket. So, you know, the pun kind of is intended, but don't don't put them all in one spot. Yeah.

Jennifer 24:35

Yeah. Yep. All right. Well. So we brought you on today because we wanted to hopefully inspire some other kids so that they know that, that there's a lot of stuff they can do by themselves and

Kyle 24:50

mm-hmm And,

Jennifer 24:51

Activities to get involved, chicken or other birds. So I mean, you can handle a big Turkey maybe.

Kyle 24:59

Yep. I actually have two Turkey big

Jennifer 25:01

birds. You have two turkeys.

Kyle 25:05

I have two turkeys.

Jennifer 25:07

We're turkey people too.

Kyle 25:09

Yeah,

Jennifer 25:09

what kind?

Kyle 25:11

I have a blue slate and a bourbon red.

Carey 25:15

Bourbon red.

Kyle 25:18

They're both parms, but you know, they're just around because they're fun. I don't like breed them or anything, they're just there.

Carey 25:28

Yeah, he finds another bourbon red, a hen or two, and that'll change. You'll, you'll dive into raising poults and yeah, you think chicken, you think baby chicks are fun? Baby poults are crazy.

Jennifer 25:44

Yep. I do have one more question for you before we go. It's winter. I saw you had some snow on the ground yesterday.

Kyle 25:53

Yeah.

Jennifer 25:54

So what did you do to your chicken coops for the winter? Did you change anything?

Kyle 25:59

Certain ones were fine. Like I said, like my camper coop, perfect. It's already. Pretty much insulated on the bottom half and everything. The chickens always do great in winter in there. Same with my big chicken mansion. That one does okay. It's not insulated or anything, but it holds heat pretty well. We have one coop that has a big open front and we put plastic up. And a lot of, like, wind blocking is very important in winter for, you know, so they don't get too cold. And keeping them out of wet conditions is definitely important, too. Gotta make sure they're not wet in winter. Cause even, like, winter hardy breeds, like a Brahma and stuff that, like, I can raise them and stuff, but if they get wet and stuff, they still cannot handle the weather very well. Even though they're meant for winter.

Jennifer 26:57

Did you leave plenty of space for ventilation? Did you seal it up tight? Yes.

Kyle 27:02

So, you want ventilation, but you don't want draft. Like, you want air flow, but you don't want it, like, getting through little cracks and, like, just kind of seeping in there a little bit. So, like, some of my, I have a few shed coop situations, and they have, like, an exhaust, like, blowing fan thing in the top. And the rest is pretty well closed off and like wind resistant. And even in winter, even though it seems a little like contradictory of like, you want to keep them as warm as possible. You don't want to like close them in an insulated box because that can also be bad for them. With like respiratory issues and stuff.

Jennifer 27:48

You have done your homework.

Carey 27:50

I was fixing to say he gets a, a he's, he's been in class. He he's done his homework.

Kyle 27:58

Oh yeah. I did chicken research for like a year or two before I actually got my first. batch of chicks. So I really wanted to know what I was doing when I got them.

Jennifer 28:12

Well, I am thoroughly impressed with you, Kyle, and I hope that you continue on your path.

Carey 28:19

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Jennifer 28:21

So, well, if there's anything that we can do for you in the future, you let us know, or any topics you would like us to talk about that would, might help you on your journey, by all means, let us know.

Kyle 28:35

I absolutely will. I've been looking through your guys podcasts and stuff, and I've, I found a few that are actually very helpful and it's just

Jennifer 28:44

a few you're supposed to say like all

Kyle 28:47

of it. They're the best. I've watched every single one and they every single one is perfect.

Jennifer 28:54

Now let's not go to the other

Carey 28:56

say that might be that's definitely a stretch. But look, Kyle, in all honesty, when she and I first started doing this. We just, we're looking for an excuse to get together and talk about chickens and you know, the hearing things like that from people where they've been able to get something or learn something or get a tidbit from one of our podcasts that that's what keeps us going.

Jennifer 29:22

Yes. Yep. Alrighty, so tell everybody where they can find you on Facebook, exactly.

Kyle 29:30

So basically, with all of my stuff on YouTube and Facebook, it's just Chick, and then INN, and then Farmer, and you just search that and you should find a picture of me. Yep.

Carey 29:42

Perfect.

Jennifer 29:43

There I am. There you are. So everybody find Kyle, follow his page, give him some kudos, and we will talk to you again soon, Kyle. Yep.

Kyle 29:55

It

Jennifer 29:55

was a lot of fun.