The chickens are named Tofu, Broccoli and Tomato, but don’t start thinking “stir-fry.”

The birds that Jun and Brian Pane‘e are raising in the side yard of their Wahiawa home are pets and a daily source of eggs.

Same as the chickens that Kevin and Michele Aucello raise in their large, terraced property off of Sierra Drive.

“If you name them I don’t think you can eat them,” said Maxie Asagi, manager of Asagi Hatchery. “They become part of the family.”

People tend to start with a desire for chickens fresh eggs then find they actually make good, low-maintenance pets. “Chickens are very social,” Asagi said. “They get used to what they know. They get used to their surroundings. They get attached to you.”

Some enjoy being picked up, she said. Some will hop into your lap.

Also, they eat bugs and can clear a yard of cockroaches and centipedes. And they relieve stress. It’s probably the soft clucking and the calming sight of soft, feathered creatures pecking around the yard.

“The person in the family who didn’t want the chickens ends up loving them,” Asagi said. She recalled one husband who wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea. “The wife said one day she found him in the backyard hugging the chickens.”

Before you begin

Don’t adopt a chicken without thinking it through. As with any pet, be sure you have the space and that you understand the commitment. A chicken will live about five years, and will only be a cute little fuzz ball for a few weeks.

So buying a chick as an Easter gift for a child is not a good idea. It’s likely to be treated as a toy, possibly in a noisy party atmosphere. “That can stress out any baby animal,” Asagi said.

If you have other pets, you might need to segregate them. Some chickens get along well with dogs or cats, but this is not a given.

City ordinances restrict households to two chickens in most areas, with more allowed in farming or commercial areas (the Pane‘es, for example, live in an area where they can also operate their Happy Koi Nursery). But it’s a poorly kept secret among backyard growers that many families keep more than two birds, as long as they have the space and their neighbors don’t know or don’t care.

Bringing baby home

Asagi Hatchery in Kalihi has a monthly hatch of several hundred chicks that sell for $4.75 apiece, with different breeds available at various times of year. Chickens come in many colors and personalities. You’ll need to do some research, then put in an order. Most people take home two, as chickens like company.

The next Asagi hatch will be in late April, a breed called production brown.

Other sources: The Pane‘es got their chicks off Craigslist, where many private breeders advertise; the Aucellos have gotten chicks from Kaneohe Farm Supply, which brings in several breeds of live chicks monthly from the mainland. They sell for about $5.95 each. Other local feed stores perform the same service.

The chicks start out in the house, in a large box or plastic bin, and they’ll need to be kept warm — a 60-watt lamp will do the trick.

They’ll also need a dish for food and another for water, plus some starter feed. Asagi estimates it would cost at most $40 to outfit a pair of chicks.

Chicks grow quickly. After a few weeks they’ll need to move to an outdoor pen, cage or coop. It needs to be enclosed, a place they’ll be safe from predators such as neighborhood cats or wild mongooses.

Hens start laying at about 5 months of age. At this point they should be in a permanent coop where they can roost off the ground at night. They’ll also need a laying box (several can usually share one) and an outdoor run of at least 10 square feet per chicken.

Coops can be purchased, but many owners make their own. Brian Pane‘e used scrap lumber to build a doll house-size coop that his wife calls “a chicken palace.” They have a fenced-in run of about 100 square feet along the side of their house, the ground covered in hay that they say merges with the chicken manure and becomes compost; then they add more.

A neighbor of the Aucello family built them a coop that looks like a child’s playhouse. In the daytime their chickens have the run of a section in their backyard.

The eggs

Chickens typically produce an egg a day in their laying box. Some figure this out on their own; others have to be given the right idea through the placement of a wooden egg or even a golf ball in the box.

“We did a taste test of our first egg next to a Costco egg,” said Kevin Aucello. “They tasted really good, richer. … It was pretty noticeable. … Somehow it’s just eggier, or chickenier, in a good way.”

Regular laying continues for 18 months to two years, when most hens will molt, or shed and regrow their feathers. After this, laying might become less consistent.

In the hard, cruel world, a chicken at this point would become dinner, but pet chickens normally get a pass.

Maintaining the flock

Chickens spend their days “pooping, pecking and the occasional dirt bath,” Kevin Aucello said.

He cleans out the coop every few weeks, spreading the manure around the garden as fertilizer. Michele Aucello also uses eggshells as compost around new plants.

They also provide chicken feed and food scraps, but the chickens supplement with what they peck out of the ground, which includes bugs and slugs. And they kill centipedes, a service to the family.

The chickens exit the coop on their own in the morning and return in the evening, so as long as they’re given sufficient food and water, they can be left alone for a few days, Michele said.

She does have to keep them away from her garden, though, as they love many vegetables and once demolished her kale crop. She clips their wings, too, so they can’t fly up to the vegetable plot.

One regular expense is chicken feed. A 50-pound bag will last two chickens up to two months. Regular brands can be purchased for under $25 per bag, but higher-end organic, GMO-free feeds get pricier.

Chickens can get sick, often from something they eat when pecking around, said Glenn Yogi, owner of Kaneohe Farm Supply, who has raised chickens all his life and often finds himself diagnosing and treating other people’s pets.

But as a whole they are hardy animals, Asagi said, and that could be an evolutionary trait. “When you think about it, they’ve been around since the dinosaurs.”

Resources

>> Hatchery: Asagi Hatchery, 1830 Kanakanui St. (845-4522) is the only Oahu source for chicks hatched here. The Kalihi shop also sells feed and supplies.

>> Feed stores: Many of these bring in chicks from the mainland, along with chicken feed and other supplies. At Kaneohe Farm Supply, 45-1048 Kamehameha Highway (247-2792), owner Glenn Yogi also offers advice on treating chicken ailments.

>> Craigslist: Search “chickens for sale” for listings of many breeds.

>> Online: Find all kinds of advice and forums for backyard growers at backyardchickens.com.