Now, she has over 100 chickens, a small flock of ducks and four turkeys — and that’s only counting the poultry.
Adalyn, a 13-year-old from Brownstown, is a member of the Lebanon County 4-H Poultry Club. She shows her chickens at the Ephrata Fair, and is planning to show turkeys and chickens at the Lebanon Area Fair this year, too.
And in addition to breeding, raising and showing chickens, Adalyn — with the help of her mom, Elisa Reinford — has put together and published a chicken record-keeping book that is available for sale on Amazon.
It all began with the desire for a pet and an ad for two free Silkie chicks.
While Elisa was initially hesitant to get a pet for the family, she figured chickens would at least provide some eggs.
So Adalyn got the two Silkies, both of which had some special needs — one with a cross beak and the other with splayed legs.
Adalyn ended up creating her own homemade brace using a hair tie and other household items to fix the chick’s legs.
“I loved them very much,” Adalyn said. “So then we got two more.”
It kept growing from there, with Adalyn buying a variety of breeds from auctions and online ads.
“I lost track because we got a lot,” Adalyn said. “We probably have 150 or so.”
In addition to buying birds, Adalyn also breeds and hatches her own chicks.
She currently has a 12-egg incubator but is planning on buying one that can hold 96 eggs soon.
When breeding, she selects roosters and hens based on feather patterns and egg colors, looking to breed chickens that have certain unique features that she enjoys.
“I love their feathered feet,” Adalyn said. “Some are fluffy and just really pretty.”
Currently, her favorite breed is the Plymouth Barred Rock because they have soft feathers, friendly personalities and are good layers.
To keep track of all the chickens — and, more importantly, to figure out her breeding plans — Adalyn needed a record book. She initially ordered an option online, but she was disappointed with the lack of information it could track.
“I said, ‘You can do something about it,’” Elisa said. “If there’s a problem in the world, find a solution.”
With her mom’s encouragement, Adalyn started with a list of all the useful categories she wanted to track for her birds. Elisa helped type and format the book. All the photos on the cover were taken by Adalyn.
The book was published in February and is distributed through Amazon, having sold about 15 copies so far. Adalyn uses one, and a few of her friends from 4-H have their own copies.
Her book was created out of necessity, but proceeds from the sales are also helpful since Adalyn is responsible for funding the care of her birds.
She makes money through babysitting and other odd jobs in addition to selling chickens and eggs for hatching.
This year is her first year raising market turkeys to show, and she’s excited to be able to put the sale money back into her bird business.
“She’s done a really good job of earning money so that she can pay for everything she needs to,” Elisa said. “But this will be a nice boost if she is able to sell a turkey for a good chunk of change.”
Adalyn is raising four turkeys but can only enter one at the fair.
While turkey selection will be important, she’ll have more work cut out for her to pick which chickens to show at both Lebanon and Ephrata.
Last year was her first year showing at a fair, and she only had 15 chickens to pick from. Her selections won first place in multiple breeds, and she walked away with the reserve grand champion for her Silkie.
She hopes to continue her success.
“This year I’m going to do research for each breed of what is good,” Adalyn said.
Regardless of where her chickens fall in terms of breed standard, she said one of her favorite things is seeing all their personalities and making sure each one is thriving in its environment.
Adalyn’s dad has built multiple homemade coops, including transforming an old play set.
Adalyn puts a lot of time into determining which birds should live in which coop based on personality.
About 50 of her birds have names, and she knows the personality of every one.
“I love all my birds,” she said.