Lola Daddino lives on a 5-acre farm in Clovis with her family. They sell chicken eggs and poultry meat and hens. She says she first saw an increase in chicken sales after the state went into a shelter-in-place. Now she’s selling up to 250 chickens a day. “I’d say 50 percent of what we’re seeing are customers who already raised poultry or chicken and are comfortable with it and the other 50 percent are newbies,” Daddino said.
While many small businesses struggle to stay afloat, local chicken farms like Daddino’s are seeing a high spike in sales due to COVID-19.
Daddino says some first time chicken owners are realizing how dependent they’ve been on grocery stores to supply them with basic needs. But parents like Gonzalo Ramirez, say they’re purchasing chickens for educational purposes.
“I also bought it for my son so he can learn what it's like to feed and take care of a farm animal,” Ramirez said. His son is a year old.
Ramirez works as dispatcher for a trucking company in Helm. He purchased a chicken and rooster from the small farm he sees every day on his way to work.
