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Backyard chickens – one of the names given to the practice of city, suburban or town dwellers keeping a few chickens in their backyards – have been in the news for a few years now. But beginning this summer, they have found their way to a very upscale address: the Indiana Governor’s Residence.

First Lady Janet Holcomb now tends a small flock of chickens, and she said she’s amazed at how satisfying this is.

“A friend was headed to a farm supply store to buy baby chicks. When she asked if I wanted some, I gave it zero thought and said yes,” Holcomb wrote in an essay about her new hobby. “As the state, the nation and the world struggled with the first weeks of the pandemic, five tiny puffballs provided an incredible amount of peace and joy to the governor and myself.

“Why wouldn’t I want baby chickens?” she added in a separate interview.

Originally the chicks lived in the basement. When they outgrew that, they were moved to the garage. They are now in a coop built by Holcomb with help from family and friends.

“Having a summer project was a great diversion, and not only for me,” she wrote. “In total, almost two dozen friends helped in some way.”

Holcomb explained that her “little farm in the city” is located right behind the Governor’s Residence and includes the chicken coop as well as a vegetable garden, beehive and cutting garden.

The flock now numbers four hens: two ISA Browns, one Rhode Island Red and one Sapphire Splash. A fifth, a Wyandotte, was taken by a neighborhood hawk – which was sad but was, after all, part of the “circle of life,” she said.

When asked who actually cares for a first lady’s chickens, Holcomb was matter-of-fact.

“I do. I feed them every day and collect the eggs,” she said. As of early December, “the girls” were still laying 3-4 eggs per day.

Holcomb grew up on a small horse farm in the Muncie area and was a 10-year 4-H’er, so keeping animals wasn’t new to her.

“I had a lot of different animals when I was a kid: horses, sheep, goats, cattle, rabbits, hamsters – just a wide array,” she said. “I don’t think my parents said no to anything except a baby pig.”

As for what they do with the eggs, the Holcombs have given some away, including as a present to former First Lady Maggie Kernan, but they also enjoy eating them. Between the garden, the beehive and the hunting that Janet Holcomb still participates in from time to time, the Holcombs eat their own produce fairly often. And she is pondering the idea of perhaps getting a few more chickens.

“If I get any more, I’m thinking about some Easter Eggers or Marans,” which are both breeds that produce colored eggs. “There’s quite a range of colors.”