Tractor Supply expert advises on building backyard chicken flock
About 11 million U.S. households now keep backyard chickens, a 28% increase since 2023, according to the American Pet Products Association’s 2025 State of the Industry report, and a Tractor Supply Co. team lead is urging would-be owners to prepare before bringing home chicks.
Caroline Komar-Steiner, a team lead at the Tractor Supply store in Antioch, Illinois, said she and her husband have raised poultry since 2018 and that “raising those chicks and getting your first eggs is an ‘eggsperience’ unlike any other.” She regularly hosts Chickens 101 sessions at the store to guide new owners.
Komar-Steiner said the first step is to check local ordinances and neighborhood rules because some places restrict backyard fowl. She advises prospective owners to decide whether they want chickens for eggs, meat or ornamentation, noting, “That steers me toward what they’re looking for.”
She recommends preparing a temperature-controlled brooder for the first six weeks, a coop ready for when birds outgrow the brooder, and a winter heat source to keep water from freezing. Buy supplies before bringing chicks home: a brooder, shavings, heat lamp or brooder plate, perch, feeder, waterer, chick grit, feed and a thermometer. Komar-Steiner also suggests adding electrolytes to chicks’ water.
Komar-Steiner warned that chickens are living animals that need routine care and disease monitoring and that owners should arrange care during long absences. She said, “It is imperative that you do not put baby chicks in with adult birds,” and that young birds should generally wait until about three months old before joining an adult flock; new adults require a careful integration process. She raises 30 chickens and five turkeys and said Tractor Supply sells baby birds and supplies during its Chick Days event through Sept. 13, with products and advice available year-round at Tractor Supply and TractorSupply.com. Before building a backyard flock, she said, get the equipment and know-how for successful chicken ownership.
