Hatching Connections with Nikki of Purely Chickens!

Nikki hatched her first chicken egg in 2006 and has been obsessed with chickens ever since! She has her masters in education and loves teaching others. She left a career teaching kindergarten to stay home with her kids and now teaches others about chicken keeping through her social media channels and her book, Chicken Keeping Pure and Simple. She also just released a children’s book about her rescue goose. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube as @purelychickens

From a kindergarten classroom to the coop, Nikki from Purely Chickens shares her heartwarming transformation into a chicken maven and published author. Her narrative is a plume of inspiration, revealing how a single hatched egg evolved into a bustling hub for poultry enthusiasts. As we chat with Nikki, her devotion to animal care and education is palpable, reinforcing the essence of pursuing one's true calling. Join us as we celebrate the threads of social media that weave chicken keepers together during these unparalleled times, highlighting the importance of community and connectivity.

This episode is a treasure trove for budding chicken keepers and seasoned fowl friends alike. Nikki guides us through the essentials of starting your own flock, from thoughtful planning to selecting quality materials, and the candid work involved. While the chatter of TikTok's uncertain future clucks in the background, we emphasize the wisdom of spreading your wings across multiple social platforms. And as our conversation comes to a close, Nikki unveils her journey to authorship, sparked by a viral coop clip, reminding us that social media can be more than a showcase—it's a place to hatch connections and spread knowledge among like-hearted animal lovers. Don't miss this episode; it's sure to ruffle some feathers in the best way possible.

Transcript

Melissa: 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Willma the Wonderhands podcast. I'm Mel and today's guest is Nikki of Purely Chickens. Nikki hatched her very first chicken egg in 2006 and has been obsessed with chickens ever since. She has her master's degree in education and loves teaching others. She left a career teaching kindergarten to stay home with her kids and now teaches others about chicken keeping through her social media channels and her book Chicken Keeping, pure and Simple. She also just released a children's book about her rescue goose. It is very, very cute. You have got to check it out. You can find her on TikTokok, instagram, facebook and youtube as purely chickens.

Melissa: 1:01

Hey y'all, I'm mel and you are listening to Wilma the Wonder Hen. Are you a chicken-mouth-loving mama or daddy? Together we'll dive into the latest poultry-keeping adventures, chat about everyday life with a generous mix of some hilarious stories, bringing you fascinating interviews with poultry owners from all over. You'll find tips and basic advice from your local veterinarian, along with new chicken keeping gadgets and reviews. I'm gonna see what mr jangles and wilma has to say about that. We're going to encourage and help you build a stronger, healthier flock. Let's go see what mr jangles and wilma is up to. Let's go let these heifers out. Hi, welcome back. This is Mel of Wilma the Wonderhand, and today we have finally, finally get the opportunity to sit down with Nikki of Purely Chickens. It is definitely an honor to have her on our show, so we just want to say thank you, nikki, for taking out time out of your day.

Nikki : 2:05

I know you're very busy, so welcome Welcome to Wilma the Wonderhand's podcast, thank you, and it's an honor to be asked to be here, because you know we're all friends on social media. But, yeah, I've never got to sit down and talk with you, so I'm excited, I'm very excited too.

Melissa: 2:25

I know our listeners. In case they didn't know who you are, which is probably not very true, I'm sure everyone in the chicken community knows who you are but could you give us a little idea of who you are, kind of your background? Just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Nikki : 2:39

Sure, I'm a mom. I've got two young boys in elementary school and I taught kindergarten for 10 years decided to stay home with my second son when he was born and then just kind of got bored and started posting random videos on. Tiktok is where I started and one of my chicken coop videos went viral and I said, oh, people want to learn about chickens, okay, and just kind of went with it. So, um, now I stay home, I do this full time, I educate others, I'm an author, um, and I just spend a lot of time making sure that you know I'm getting the correct information out there and sharing my experience and creating a community of open-minded chicken keepers where everybody can feel welcome. So that's pretty much what I do.

Melissa: 3:30

Oh, that's pretty awesome, Was that something? Let's kind of step back a little bit. Did you have chickens and animals when you were little?

Nikki : 3:39

I did. Yeah, I talk about that in my book. I've always been like obsessed obsessed with animals, I don't know what it is. I was always bringing home something I remember in high school I bottle fed baby mice in my locker during during the breaks of you know, when you, um, I, my neighbor, started their grill, a nest of mice fell out. The mom didn't make it and I was like I have to rescue these pink little mice. Um. So ever since I was younger I mean my first pet, I think that I was personally, given I was about three or four years old yeah, I just always have loved animals. And then I started hatching chickens with my kindergarten class back in 2006. And I became just enamored with chickens in general. So that's where I got my start.

Melissa: 4:29

So do you live in a place?

Nikki : 4:31

now where you can have as many chickens as you want. Are you limited? Yeah, so, um, we live, um in a town that doesn't have any restrictions, other than, you know, the coop has to be so far away from the property line, so you're not, you know, close to your neighbor's house, but we're allowed to have roosters where there's no limit on hens, which is good, because I have a lot. Um, the only thing that I find restricting is we do live like in an allotment, like a neighborhood, and so I don't want to be intrusive to everybody. Uh, so we do have goats and geese, and they are the loudest.

Melissa: 5:02

Um, I concur. My geese are definitely the loudest in the whole neighborhood.

Nikki : 5:08

Yeah, and then they're fine, unless they see you coming. Then they're like hey, we need treats.

Melissa: 5:14

Yeah, what are your geese favorite treats? I'm just as a sidebar here.

Nikki : 5:20

Grubs. They love grubs, dried grubs and peas, of course, and mostly they. They just want to scream for food, I think, cause I come out and feed them twice a day and I have to feed them separately from my goats, and my goats don't eat their feed, so they know if they see me it's most likely time to to just eat.

Melissa: 5:37

In general, I know that, uh, you have, like you said, you, started posting um your board. I think a lot of us, you know maybe it was during the COVID era, I'm not sure, but a lot of us that had chickens for many, many years we just kind of like stepped on to the TikTok thing and maybe that was just something we really resonated with. We really, like you know, so that's kind of what we started posting about. We really, like you know, so that's kind of what we started posting about. But prior to that, or well, in accordance, with that?

Nikki : 6:14

where did you find your information to learn about chicken keeping Books? There's. You know there's tons of great chicken books out there. Social media groups are kind of hit or miss because you get people with completely different opinions than you. I feel like there's some places online that you know. You find the crowd of people who are like it's just a chicken, it doesn't matter, their life doesn't matter. So you know, those kind of things are hard to find, like in a community where people, people have the same viewpoints on animals that I do. The Chicken Health Handbook that book is like a Bible over here for health issues. I love Poultry DVM's website. They've got so many good resources and information about different illnesses and you know how to find a poultry vet, all that kind of thing. Sorry, my dog just sneezed. Hey, come here. Are you going to be bad? Come here, that's okay, we like, we like bad, we like bad dogs bad chickens, that's okay.

Melissa: 7:23

We like bad. We like bad dogs. Bad chickens, it's fine.

Nikki : 7:27

I've been helping too long. I need to pester my sister dog.

Melissa: 7:31

What kind of dog do you have?

Nikki : 7:34

He is an English setter. He's a bird dog, which was a mistake.

Melissa: 7:42

Yeah, they're very rambunctiousious and they definitely have a very high drive, and yeah, with birds for sure.

Nikki : 7:48

Right, he's bringing the house. He's super lazy. We go outside and he has tons of energy and then he just points at my chickens. He's super obsessed with my chicken. So that was a probably not in hindsight it wasn't the best decision, but we love him and he's. They have a fence so they're safe. But yeah, he just he'll stare out the way to cover our window that faces the coop so he can't see, so he'll just obsess over them. But he's pretty dog. He's just kind of crazy.

Melissa: 8:14

Yeah, how did you get started? Did you think that was going to be what you have? Now? We can go back, take a few steps back. When it first happened, were you prepared? Was it something that you wanted anything to do with, really?

Nikki : 8:29

No, I wasn't trying to go viral, I wasn't trying to gain followers. Actually, before I started this, I was kind of quiet on social media. Actually, before I started this, I was kind of quiet on social media, even like on my personal Facebook page. I didn't post my kids a lot, I just kind of stayed, you know, kind of quiet. This video went viral. I remember we were leaving for vacation. I posted it. I didn't even think about it after that.

Nikki : 8:52

We were sitting by the pool on vacation and my sister-in-law said have you seen your video that you posted on TikTok? And I go no, she's like it is going viral. And just like overnight I had 10,000 followers and back then I was like 10,000 people like what in the world? And the whole vacation she was like super excited. She kept like opening it up, going oh my gosh, look how many you have now. Oh my gosh. And then I just kind of started answering people's questions from that video, just making another video answering a question about chickens, and it just kind of took off.

Nikki : 9:26

And I had no plans to write a book to. You know, grow my social media to what it is now. I just didn't. That wasn't like in the plans, but once I figured out that, like I didn't have to go back to teaching this could be a career oh yeah, right, absolutely, and you can make use of it then that's kind of what I did. But yeah, my TikTok went from that zero to 10,000. And now I think it's at 350,000. And I grew on Instagram and I'm on YouTube and everywhere else, so it's a lot of fun.

Melissa: 9:59

Yeah, it is a lot of fun and yeah, that's a lot to handle in that time span. Do you see anything like negative that came out of that?

Nikki : 10:08

I didn't. I know I didn't find any negativity and I don't know if I just got lucky, but I feel like the people who have decided to follow me and the people who comment on my stuff are, you know, really decent good people. Um, I've had, you know, occasionally some negative comments here and there, but nothing that my followers don't all, just, you know, comment on it and say that you're wrong, like it's. It's a chicken.

Melissa: 10:35

It matters you know that kind of thing.

Nikki : 10:37

Um no, but I haven't found any negativity and um yeah, just it's been positive so far.

Melissa: 10:43

What do you think about the TikTok ban? I know this is completely unrelated, but I just thought it.

Nikki : 10:48

Yeah, I don't know what to think about it. I still hope that something's going to come of it. I feel like somebody out there with a lot of money is going to buy it and take it over. I don't know. I'm just I'm hopeful that it all works out, and I've been listening to other people talk about it, how it may be six months, it may be five years, you know, you really don't know what's going to happen with it and how it's going to go. So, trying not to think about it too much, I think my followers that I resonate with the most are on Instagram. Um, my following there is, like I don't know, 270, some thousand or something, and so it's not as big as my TikTok following, but I get more engagement there, I get more views there, I can communicate better in my stories there. I feel like I answer my messages there better, so I just I feel like that's my home base, even though I started on TikTok, so I'm trying not to worry about it too much. Yeah.

Melissa: 11:38

I mean that makes sense. I mean you can't really. I think the mistake is like kind of putting all of your dreams and hopes in one platform and then forgetting about. You know you can look at TikTok and IG and all them as like short form content, and then you have long form like blogs and obviously books and you know podcasts and things like that. That's where your long form um anyway, that's like we went complete left. But I was just curious your thoughts on that um. Do you have uh tips for someone who is just starting out, like the basic tips um to help them?

Nikki : 12:16

I think. I think it's probably the same as what every experienced chicken keeper would say is build bigger than what you anticipate. You're probably not going to stop at the three to six chickens you said you were going to. So aim for bigger unless you want to know in the back of your mind you might upgrade later. Don't start with cheap materials. Yes, you can definitely raise chickens with cheap materials, but I feel like that's just going to be a pain in the end. You're going to, you know, have to, and I don't mean like cheap as in price, quality wise. I mean I have a metal roof on my chicken run, but it was all free for me. Like I salvaged those. You know so, but it wasn't. You know they're not, it's not going to fall apart. It may not look the prettiest but it's not going to fall apart. So I just mean like, get quality stuff, whether you have to scrounge for it or, you know, pay for it, and just know that you're not going to get free eggs.

Nikki : 13:07

I know All the things People to know ahead of time that there will be trouble, there will be illnesses, there will be chickens who get hurt. You know you want to have a strong stomach and I always say start small I think five is a great number just to kind of get your feet wet and understand chickens and you know, know what they need and then see what you can handle. Personally too, I think people, you know, sometimes they jump in head first, get 27 chickens and realize I don't like cleaning chicken coops, or I, you know, don't have the time to collect eggs and my chickens are breaking them. Or you know all these things that come up that you realize this was too much for me, did you immediately once your following started growing.

Melissa: 13:49

Was that something that popped in your mind?

Nikki : 13:51

Hey, I'm going to write a book about this, that something that popped in your mind hey, I'm going to write a book about this. No, I never had any intention to write a chicken book. I have always because I'm a kindergarten teacher by trade like I wanted to write children's books. And there's even like an article in the newspaper about me back in like early 2000s when they were interviewing the teacher like the new teacher of the district, and I had said my dream is to write children's books. So it's always been in the back of my mind, just never something that took off and a publisher reached out to me because of my social media presence and said hey, do you want to sit down? We have some interest in publishing you and writing a chicken book.

Nikki : 14:27

My head went to oh my gosh, they are going to help me write my children's book. This is my chance. And when I sat down with them they were like oh no, no, that's not what we're talking about. We want you to write the how to chicken keeping book. And I'm like, okay, let me think about this. Um, and so I didn't say yes right away. I kind of just like molded over with my husband. You know, what do we have in, you know, the next year going on with our lives that? Can I take time to like sit and write this book and it just we decided I decided I was going to go with it and kind of wrote out a plan for what would the chapters look like and then back with the publisher and then it just kind of snowballed from there. So it was never in my plans but it was kind of a fun twist. My family and my kids think it's pretty cool that you know mommy has a book.

Melissa: 15:13

So yeah, I mean that is pretty cool. You know, hey, you're the cool mom, so you just let them know and remind them of that. I know a lot of our listeners like to know do you have a favorite breed of chicken?

Nikki : 15:27

And if you do, why I always say Orpington? They're the ones I got started with and I think they're the ones I have the most of right now. I love Orpington's for a few reasons. One you can't resist a big, fluffy chicken. They're booties, the big. The big fluffy thing is you can't get them they. They lay eggs pretty decently. They make wonderful mothers. They come in so many different colors, like I love that you. You know you could get all the same breed, but that you can. My dog in the back, oh my gosh.

Nikki : 16:04

So I like that you can get all the same breed but they can all look so different. I love when the flock is like mixed and it looks different, because I feel like you know that, you know their names and you know their personalities and you can tell who's who. Do you have any future?

Melissa: 16:18

plans for your brand, anything different, something you want to brand down into, or are you just happy where you are? Are you just going to let it?

Nikki : 16:26

Yeah, I'm happy where we are right now. I have a new product out with my face on the bag with, as a co-branded product with Eaton Pet and Pasture. We've got some other stuff in the works coming down the line, so I think continuing along that path of just coming out with stuff that makes chicken keeping easier for people and more enjoyable because that's where I get joy out of it I'm not the traditional chicken keeper that we know from the past, where you just have some chickens in the backyard, you throw them their scraps and they give you eggs. My chickens are my pets, like they are all named I. They all know me. I know every single one of them. So you know I like to spoil my chickens, but I want to make chicken keeping easier for people too.

Melissa: 17:06

So, um, things coming down, I can't talk too much about them, but things coming out, you know, eventually, yeah, I think that's pretty typical with most of the people that are in our little circle and definitely most of our guests, you know they don't think of chickens, like they did in the past, as just food, which I mean. Some people still, you know, think that way and we we was never to judge. So you know, to each their own. You have to do what's best for your family and your flock and we would never never, do that.

Melissa: 17:36

But yeah, I tell a lot of people and I definitely want you to speak into our vet. You know that chickens are the newest or newest in quotation mark companion pets. They are just, they are beyond. You know laying eggs and once they stop laying eggs they retire. You know that kind of they stop laying eggs, they retire. You know that kind of thing right, and and that's not always true in other places because you know you can't afford the resources to feed the animal continuously and you know not like get a benefit from it. But, like I said, that's not how we think. But if that's how you think, that's okay too.

Nikki : 18:09

You know we're not here to oh yeah, you know there's a place for that and that people. If you want to get five chickens in your backyard to provide your family eggs for a benefit and you're not like one to bond with chickens, that's totally cool. Like, as long as your chickens are treated well and you know you're keeping them healthy and not abusing them, I have no problem with that at all definitely 100, I agree.

Melissa: 18:30

um, okay, so can you tell us how our listeners can find your book and I believe it's books. Now you have a children's book coming out, so can you tell us a little bit about that them there.

Nikki : 18:42

It's the easiest place. Barnes and Noble has both of them and then you know you can go to the website where they're published and find them there too. But those are all linked on my website, purelychickenscom. My second book, my children's book, is called Benny and it's about my rescue goose, who I always said and my followers will. You'll see comments.

Nikki : 19:09

I thought you said you were never getting waterfowl and I said that from the beginning. I'm never getting waterfowl. Um, because I just didn't want them mixed with my chickens. I didn't want water with my chicken. You know, I just I just didn't want the mess. I didn't have a pond. I felt like it was going to be a bigger undertaking. But somebody on Facebook posted a goose like last chance, before we call this goose, who wants wants him. They called it a he. They said it was a he. They were like he's gone after this, nobody wants him. And I said, oh, my gosh, dang it, bring me the goose. So this really nice gentleman brings me this goose. He was really sweet. He was really grateful that the goose was given another chance His flock was bothering him was given another chance. His flock was bothering him pecking on him.

Nikki : 19:58

He had some scoliosis going on and angel wing, maybe he wasn't fed the right stuff. Five months after kind of rehabbing this goose, and after naming it Benny, he laid an egg. So she's a girl and she's really happy. Now we got her a sister and that's it for us until I scroll Facebook again. But no more waterfowl here. They live with our goats, though, because I didn't want my rooster pecking on Betty with her. You know issues, so yeah, so the children's book is all about her. My sister and I illustrated it. I think she did a beautiful job and we self published that one. So, um, that's a little different experience, but it was fun.

Melissa: 20:38

Awesome and we can and our listeners can. That book is already out, correct, and they can find it on your website as well.

Nikki : 20:44

Yep, or you can just search Benny by Nikki Houston or purely chickens, and it should pop up.

Melissa: 20:48

Can you tell all of our listeners where they can find you?

Nikki : 20:52

Yep, just Purely Chickens. I'm TikTok, instagram, youtube and Facebook under the name Purely Chickens and my website's purelychickenscom. If you want to go there anyway, instead, find me that way.

Melissa: 21:04

So we are so grateful that we got to spend some time with you and your dogs and we definitely like your insight. We can probably talk a lot more, but I know our time is limited on both sides. But yeah, we are very, very grateful and we've been following you for a long time and we appreciate everything that you share and do for our community.

Nikki : 21:23

Yeah, thank you so much. Same goes for you. Thank you for having me and just love and respect.

Melissa: 21:27

Thank you. Bye, nikki, bye, I'm Mel and you're listening to Wilma the Wonderhand.