When I started Chicks & Wicks Candle Co., I knew I wanted it to be more than candles.
I wanted it to represent something that had become incredibly important in my own life: finding little pockets of peace in the middle of everyday chaos.
That’s where our motto, find your calm in the chaos, comes from.
And lately, one of the places I’ve been finding that calm is somewhere I never expected—surrounded by fluffy Silkies, incubators, brooders, chicken runs, and more feathers than I know what to do with.
The Beginning of My Silkie Journey
What started as simply loving chickens has slowly grown into something much bigger.
I fell completely in love with Silkies—their personalities, their ridiculous fluffy feet, their sweet temperaments, and, of course, all of the beautiful colors and varieties.
Before I knew it, I wasn’t just keeping Silkies.
I was learning about genetics.
I was studying color varieties.
I was thinking about breeding pens, conformation, Standard of Perfection traits, incubation, chick development, and which birds could help me build the lines I hope to have one day.
My goal is to continue learning, improving my flock, and eventually develop beautiful, healthy Silkie lines that I am truly proud of.
But I’m learning very quickly that breeding chickens isn’t just fluffy chicks and cute pictures.
There Is So Much Joy—and So Much Heartache
There are few things quite as exciting as watching a tiny chick pip through an eggshell.
You wait for weeks. You candle the eggs. You stare into the incubator more times than you would ever admit. Then suddenly you hear that first tiny peep.
It feels like magic.
But raising and breeding animals also comes with hard days.
Sometimes eggs don’t develop.
Sometimes a chick doesn’t make it.
Sometimes a bird gets sick.
Sometimes the breeding plans you’ve spent hours thinking about simply don’t work the way you imagined.
And sometimes you become incredibly attached to an animal and have to make a decision that is best for your flock, even when it hurts.
I’m realizing that this journey is going to require patience, resilience, humility, and a willingness to keep learning.
There are going to be mistakes.
There are going to be losses.
But there are also going to be those mornings when I walk outside with my coffee and see a flock of fluffy little chickens running toward me—and suddenly everything feels a little lighter.
Chickens Have Become My Therapy
Life can be loud.
Motherhood can be loud.
Running a business can be loud.
My own thoughts can sometimes be loud, too.
But there is something about walking outside and taking care of my chickens that quiets everything down for a little while.
Filling feeders. Refreshing water. Sitting inside the run and watching everyone scratch around. Checking on chicks. Building or rearranging pens. Planning future pairings.
These are simple things, but they give my mind somewhere peaceful to land.
Caring for my flock gives me something tangible to focus on when I’m feeling stressed or anxious. It gets me outside. It gets my hands dirty. It forces me to slow down and pay attention to what’s happening right in front of me.
And sometimes that’s exactly what I need.
It doesn’t make the hard things in life disappear.
It just gives me a place to breathe between them.
Creativity Looks Different These Days
One of my favorite things about this journey is how much it has opened up another side of my creativity.
Creativity used to mean making something beautiful.
Now it might mean designing a candle label one minute and figuring out how to turn a pile of lumber and pallets into a chicken coop the next.
It means dreaming up new candle collections inspired by my flock.
It means learning about genetics and imagining what future generations of my Silkies could look like.
It means creating spaces for my birds, photographing chicks, choosing names, planning breeding pens, and finding ways to bring this entire little homestead world into Chicks & Wicks.
Somehow candles and chickens make perfect sense together now.
Both require patience.
Both require experimentation.
Both require accepting that sometimes things don’t turn out exactly as planned.
And both have taught me how satisfying it is to create something slowly and intentionally.
Growing More Than a Flock
I thought I was building a flock.
I didn’t realize how much this journey would build me.
I’m learning patience.
I’m learning that I can’t control every outcome.
I’m learning to research before making decisions—and to change my mind when I learn something new.
I’m learning that mistakes don’t have to mean failure. Sometimes they’re simply information for the next attempt.
I’m learning to trust myself more.
And maybe most importantly, I’m learning that it’s okay to have things in my life that exist simply because they bring me joy.
I don’t know exactly what my Silkie breeding program will look like several years from now.
That’s part of what makes this chapter so exciting.
I have goals. I have colors and lines I’m excited about. I want to continue learning about breeding toward the Standard of Perfection, improving my birds with each generation, and eventually showing some of the Silkies I’ve raised.
But I’m also trying not to rush through the beginning.
Because someday I might look around at established breeding pens and generations of birds carrying genetics I’ve worked years to develop—and remember when all of this was just an idea.
Chicks & Wicks Is Growing With Me
As my flock grows, I can already see Chicks & Wicks evolving alongside it.
The chickens inspire the candles.
The candles help support the dream.
And together, they’re becoming this wonderfully strange little world that feels completely like me.
Chicks & Wicks was never supposed to represent a perfectly peaceful life.
Because honestly, life isn’t always peaceful.
Sometimes there are kids running through the house, candles curing on the counter, chicks peeping in the brooder, chickens escaping from somewhere they’re definitely supposed to be contained, and approximately seventeen projects I’ve decided need to happen immediately.
The calm isn’t the absence of chaos.
It’s finding something that grounds you inside of it.
For me, sometimes that’s lighting a candle after a long day.
And sometimes it’s sitting outside with a Silkie in my lap.
Either way, I’m learning to appreciate the small moments a little more.
So here’s to the beginning of my Silkie breeding journey—the beautiful birds, the lessons, the inevitable mistakes, the tiny victories, the heartbreaks, the creativity, and all the fluffy chicks still to come.
I have no idea exactly where this journey will take me.
But I’m really glad I started.
Find your calm in the chaos. 🤍
— Chicks & Wicks Candle Co.