Egg prices, having soared for the past few months, are finally starting to show signs of decreasing. Their shelf prices shot up dramatically due to a variety of factors, but mostly from the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu. Since the outbreak began in 2022, egg supply in the U.S. has been seesawing aggressively, inspiring both farmers and other rural property owners to embrace a new side hustle, backyard chickens, as a way to ensure a steady supply of eggs straight from the source.
Backyard chickens are not something new, of course; in fact, it used to be the norm for American families. Yet with the expansion of the modern day supermarket, eggs became a staple at the store and the desire to keep backyard chickens waned.
Today, the HPAI epidemic has revealed how unstable the egg production supply can be, and many people are looking to take control back into their own hands by raising their own egg-laying hens — albeit on a far smaller scale than typical poultry operations.
For many of these people though, the learning curve of how to raise chickens can be steep. With dozens and dozens of available breeds, seemingly endless designs for chicken coops, and so many other factors, it can be overwhelming for the beginner backyard chicken owner to get started.
Still, chickens are fairly easy keepers, and there are a variety of tools and products that can further streamline their care. One such product that has boomed in the past two years is The Chicken Fountain, an autonomous chicken waterer. The company, based out in Cornelius, North Carolina, was started in 2012 by Laura and Frank Cardaropoli, who kept backyard chickens themselves and ran into the issue of constantly having to change out the water fountains for their chickens.
The Cardaropolis had bought a small farm back in 2008 and kept a small herd of livestock that included chickens and goats. When they wanted to go on vacation in 2011, Laura Cardaropoli asked her mother to house-sit and watch over the animals.
“My mother said, ‘Listen, I’ll deal with your dogs, I’ll deal with the farm cats, the goats are easy, but the waterers for the chickens … I’m not doing it. It’s so gross, it’s all the time, all day.’… So, we had to get a separate chicken sitter,” said Cardaropoli.
After recognizing what a nuisance that chore was, her husband decided to work on a solution for it. Over the next eight months, he designed and developed an automatic watering system that could be connected to their hose line, and winterized it to keep it going during the chillier months.
The Chicken Fountain uses PVC piping and multiple drippers that can hydrate a small flock of birds. It attaches to the side of a chicken coop and functions with water pressures between 1 PSI and 120 PSI.
“Where we lived was a street of 7- to 10-acre small farms. My next door neighbor wanted one, then our other neighbors saw it and wanted it too. … It just organically grew,” said Cardaropoli.
Business was good, but in 2018 the two of them decided to focus on their family and put their business on pause. It wasn’t until late 2023 that the business underwent a revamp, through a connection with First Turn Innovations, a business incubator in the area.
“Somebody came to me and wanted to revive [the business],” said Cardaropoli. “Now we’ve got investors and we’re taking it to the next step.”
The next step entails a major scale up of the product, and while Cardaropoli is still currently making the product herself, she has contracted with a manufacturing facility that, starting this summer, will be able to assemble and distribute in 2,000-order increments.
The company has also hired its first employee, Lyndsey Baker, who started in summer 2024 as their social media director.
The Chicken Fountain has a patent pending on the design of a unique valve, which will be implemented in the new model launching this summer.
The company currently offers three versions of their product: a mini, original, and mega size which are adjusted to serve different numbers of birds. The design of the fountain is tailored specifically for chickens, with the length of the arms and the height of the column conducive to a drip rate (112 to 130 drips per minute) that a chicken can swallow without wasting water.
The shape of the arm and the angle of the dripper are also designed with the chicken in mind, preventing blocking off the line of sight of the chickens to alleviate any stress on them.
The patent-pending valve can operate under high or low pressure water lines, ensuring a smooth installation for all customers despite their water source. The kit comes with the fountain itself, two arms, lids, wall brackets, J hooks, water line, and a cap to limit extra openings if not needed — everything needed to set up the system (except for PVC cement).
Cardaropoli says that her customers love the easy installation, how quickly chickens learn to use the product (she says it’s typically in about an hour), and the long-lasting life of the product.
“All [the chickens] have to do is one time, see what it’s there for, and it’s done,” she said. “We had one [order] where we were setting it up and before we had finished setting it up the chickens were drinking from it.”
While The Chicken Fountain’s target audience is still the small backyard owner, Cardaropoli has seen an increase in her product being used by production operations as well. Citing one order, which was for 15 mega waterers (which can be used by up to 750 birds), she knew that operation had to be more akin to a production operation and not a conventional backyard owner.
Still, Cardaropoli says that their main audience is the smaller backyard chicken owner, and she is working to build resources and educational materials to assist that demographic.
Cardaropoli says she’s seen an overall shift in the kinds of customers she’s been getting, with more questions related to first-time chicken growers and technical assistance in how to get started.
“[I see] a need to almost get back into gardening, and knowing where your food comes from,” said Cardaropoli.
Being able to serve this renewed interest and making it easier than ever with their product puts The Chicken Fountain in a good position to provide the technical and educational tools necessary to ensure successful backyard chicken raising.
The company is also partnering with The Farmer Veteran Coalition, offering a 25 percent discount to members. While not a veteran herself, Cardaropoli said that this organization was their first choice for a partnership, as they have lots of veterans in their family and wanted to give back to farmers.
“We want to support farmers however we can,” she said.
Liza Thuy Nguyen served as the 2023 American Farmland Trust Agriculture Communications Intern at AGDAILY. Liza is originally from Anaheim, California, and attended the University of California, Davis, as a first-generation college student. She received a bachelor’s degree in genetics and genomics and went on to earn a master’s in horticulture from Penn State.
