For some, a loyal dog or a purring cat is patiently waiting just behind the front door. But for others, it is the soft clucking of their chicken coop that greets their daily arrival home.
From chickens to goats to bees, students own and take care of a range of domesticated farm animals at home.
Junior Jordan Jacobs, who takes care of chickens, horses, goats, rabbits, and miniature burros on her family’s ranch, said that while her family mostly keeps the animals for enjoyment, they also are able to harvest fresh eggs from the chickens and have sheared wool from their previously-owned sheep.
“You can actually use the animals,” Jacobs said. “It’s a whole different kind of experience owning these kinds of animals. It’s a cool way of living when you can just take the eggs and eat them.”
Freshman Berklee Bechard owns chickens, dogs and cats. He said his family initially got chickens in order to use their daily fresh eggs.
“My mom was going through a green phase and she wanted to get organic food,” Bechard said. “It was really expensive getting organic eggs, so she just thought ‘Well, we should get chickens.’”
Similarly, senior Gideon Elson raises both chickens and bees at his home, and his mother, a chef, cooks with the eggs and honey his family collects. Elson said that at first, owning chickens felt very strange.
“One of the first times I picked one up and held it in my hands, I thought it was really funny that I was just holding a chicken,” Elson said. “It was a weird animal that I was holding in my hands.”
But the benefits of owning such animals come at a price. Jacobs, who only is able to visit her animals on the ranch once a week, said that she has many responsibilities in taking care of them. She typically feeds the horses and chickens, but also spends a lot of time with her goats.
“We have to socialize with [the baby goats] a lot or else they won’t be very social, and they won’t let us near them,” Jacobs said. “They’re not naturally born super social, so it’s good to actually interact with them, because that way they’re used to your presence and people coming around.”
Jacobs also mentioned her experience in helping some goats give birth.
“We had a lot of goats giving birth, so I had to be responsible for that,” Jacobs said. “When certain complications arose I had to get my hands dirty a little bit. It was a lot of work.”
Elson also plays a part in taking care of his animals. He said that although the work of rounding up his chickens each night and cleaning out their coop is not particularly enjoyable, it pays off in the long run, and that he has begun to feel a special connection with the chickens.
“Sometimes when there’s no one to talk to – your friends are busy, parents are at work – you’ve just gotta tell some secrets to the chickens,” Elson said. “They listen and they never interrupt. They always welcome what I have to say with open arms.”
Jacobs said that the hardest part about her ranch has been getting used to the deaths of generations of animals. She said she has become so attached to the animals at her ranch that she has refused to eat certain types of meat for many years.
“When I was little I was a vegetarian because I had a lot of trouble eating animals,” Jacobs said. “Now I’ve accepted that it’s more of a way of life, but I’m still careful. I like to pretend that I don’t know where it’s coming from.”
Noticing the different personalities of her goats has been a highlight, according to Jacobs.
“You start playing favorites because they all have different personalities,” Jacobs said. “They come up to you and you start forming a good bond. I get to see them all with their different personalities – I’ve started to favor a couple.”
For Elson, owning bees has made him more aware of how pleasant they can be.
“At first I didn’t like them because I got stung three times in the first couple months we had them,” Elson said. “You can walk by the beehives and the bees don’t sting unless you mess with them. They’re pretty nice unless you steal their honey from them, which we do.”
