As she walks through her living room, sophomore Maya Wang sees four small, yellow and fluffy figures peeking out of a box. The chirping of the chicks fills the room and she leans over to pick one up. To her, the chicks are more than pets, they’re family.
Wang had never had a pet before, but in February, when her dad brought up the idea of adopting baby chickens in hopes of collecting their eggs, she was excited to take on the responsibility of caring for them. Wang has committed to waking up early before school to change their food and water and repeats the process after school. The chicks were ordered online and came in a box to her nearest USPS. Immediately after receiving them, Wang started bonding with the animals by constantly playing with them and bringing them out to her backyard to explore the outdoors.
“It’s nice to hang out with [the chicks] and have a pet. I feed them and give them water and I also hang out with them to get them used to people,” Wang said.
Along with being important to Wang sentimentally, the chicks are also functional to the family. Their feces are used to make fertilizer that is helpful in gardening and as they get older, their eggs will be eaten. Being around them also plays a role in relieving stress for Wang.
“My dad wanted to get pets, and then he figured chickens would be pretty good because they have eggs,” Wang said. “Hanging out with them also reduces my stress and makes me feel more happy.”
Since being adopted, the chicks have been kept in a large cardboard box located in Wang’s living room but as they get older, Wang’s family plans to move them outside where they will live in a chicken coop. The coop will allow the chicks to move around more freely and will allow Wang’s family to collect their eggs with ease.
“The chicks will be [moved] to a coop area. It’s a big fenced up area [and] there’s a box in the coop they [can] lay eggs in,” Wang said.
Wang captures the day to day lives of her pets by photographing them eating starter feed, running around outdoors and doing other activities throughout the day. Sophomore Julia Ay does not have any pets herself but is one of Wang’s friends who has been shown photos of the chicks. Wang enjoys seeing the photos as they have made her excited to spend time with the chicks.
“[Maya] likes taking pictures of the [chicks] when they’re peeping and playing with each other,” Ay said. “I don’t have pets so it’s pretty exciting [to see] when one of my friends gets to keep an animal.”
Wang’s friends have shown interest in meeting the chicks because of the photos that they’ve been shown. The love for the animals stretches beyond Wang’s family.
“[Maya] has gotten very attached to [the chicks]. She loves showing us pictures of them and it makes me want to meet them because I’ve never held a chick before,” sophomore Bella Martinez said.
