“ We still have friends to this day who bought chickens from us who will refer to me as the Fancy Chicken Man , because at the time we had a little BMW SUV , so I ’ d deliver 25 or 50 chickens , driving this little BMW ,” Heath said .
Heath and Shannon were no strangers to small-scale and hobby farming at the time of their Great Chicken Adventure , and over the years they have “ pretty much run the gamut from hobby farm , to advanced hobby farm ,” Heath said . And yet “ hobby farm ” doesn ’ t seem quite the right term for this labor of love that certainly isn ’ t less than a hobby , but is so much more than one . Heath , habitually self-employed , currently working as a realtor and formerly owning various car and motorcycle dealerships in Texas , as well as a gun range , and Shannon , working as an IT cybersecurity director with 20-plus years of experience , have functioned well in this modern age we live in , but both have both been drawn inexplicably to what might be generally termed a “ rural lifestyle .”
Shannon has a lifelong love of animals , and her pursuit of a more rural way really began with horses . “ With my background in the automotive industry , I really never got over playing with cars ,” Heath said , “ but it also means I never got over auctions . Shannon was bright enough to figure out that although she couldn ’ t necessarily get me to go look at a horse with her , she had no problem getting me to go to a horse auction with her . And I can ’ t go to an auction and sit on my hands , so we started going to some high-end auctions .” Two horses morphed into five , which morphed into seven , which morphed into breeding some high-end cutting horses and hobnobbing in some pretty elevated cutting horse circles in Texas .
However , it was the small animal farming that tugged at Shannon ’ s mind , and she and Heath were eventually ready to be done with the challenges of larger livestock on smaller parcels of land ( they also dabbled in cattle over the years ). “ I had wanted to raise small livestock for a while ,” Shannon said , and after researching sheep and goats , she settled on sheep , particularly the hair breeds .
“ I researched a bunch of different hair breeds to find the most resilient breed I could , and that ’ s how I found the Royal White breed ,” and Shannon described how well the flock has acclimated to South Dakota winters . “ To get them from the heat in Texas to the cold up here , they are a pretty flexible breed . They put on that furry coat and huddle together and go out in a snow storm !... I found a lady [ in Texas ] who had a little [ Royal White ] ewe . She was literally a day old . Her brother had died and her mother couldn ’ t nurse her , so I got my little bottle baby ewe . I named her Clarice , and I still have her today . She started my whole flock .”
“ Shannon never quits looking for animals online , just like I never quit looking at cars and motorcycles ; it ’ s in our DNA ,” Heath said .
Friendly faces of the Royal White flock
14 Down Country Roads November / December 2024