In Dr. Sandra Boysen Sluberski’s backyard, the cluck of chickens mixes with the hum of daily life, a rhythm that reflects her own harmony between music, mindfulness, and her hens. Boysen Sluberski’s chickens have become much more than farm animals; they are storytime stars and companions, delighting children and adults all around the Rochester area.
After moving from Florida to Rochester in 2007, Boysen Sluberski bought two Rhode Island Red hens, meaning to keep them as pets and for eggs. After getting involved with the Rochester City Chicken Club, she was asked to open her backyard for “Citywide Urban Coops Day,” where other chicken owners and the public could tour people’s backyards and their coops.
“People were really surprised you could even keep chickens in the city,” Boysen Sluberski says. “That was the time I first realized people want to know about these things.”
A year after that event, Boysen Sluberski brought her chickens out for the first time, to the Rundell Library in Rochester, for an event called “Life Hack.”
“I brought in one hen; it was a Barred Plymouth Rock named Hazelm in a chicken diaper, which no one had ever seen before. You didn’t have to sign up, it was the kind of thing where people just dropped in to listen to the speakers. A really sizable audience attended.”
From there, she took a four-year hiatus from touring with her chickens but still maintained the coop in her backyard.
After relocating to Rush, Boysen Sluberski was asked to restart the program.
“Our next-door neighbor here in Rush is the director of the Rush Public Library. She said ‘I see you with your Silkie little chickens all the time. Do you think it might be fun to do a chicken storytime and bring a few of your chickens for the kids to pet?’
“I had never done that before; I had only done presentations about teaching people how to maintain coops, but I thought why not? I brought three little Silkie hens that had three little diapers that fit them. I began to realize that a lot of people, even children who live in rural farm towns, have never held chickens before.”
In addition to the children’s storytimes, Boysen Sluberski also gives seminars to adults on how to maintain chicken coops.
“I put together the information from that town’s code. Some towns like Rush are a “Right to Farm Community,’ and there are no restriction whatsoever. However, certain towns such as Honeoye Falls and Brighton say you can keep up to two or three hens, but you can’t have rooster, or you can only have so many; some don’t allow any at all.”
In these seminars, she also gives people tips and suggestions about what types of products are best for keeping chickens in the type of area they are in.
“Because I have a moderately small yard, I use an Eglu, which is a modular plastic home. They’re rounded, about three by six feet and have a curved top wire that keeps out other creatures like dogs or hawks.
“They’re easy to clean because they’re plastic, and they are meant to be taken apart and scrubbed or hosed off. Also, because they are plastic, they don’t harbor poultry mites.”
Boysen Sluberski also gives people specific guidelines to help them raise chickens.
“In the Eglu, to clean the droppings tray I just pull it out, hose and scrub it out, and put it right back in. It’s really very easy to do, and the coops aren’t so heavy that they can’t be moved. This is really important. Ideally you want to move the Eglu around every few days so the chickens have fresh grass to nibble on, just like sheep, horses, and goats.”
Boysen Sluberski is a jack-of-all-trades. Originally from South Florida, she started her career as a music and voice teacher and spent twenty-five years working at the Hochstein School in Rochester. After a long teaching career, she took a step back to focus on her work as a yoga instructor and educating people on chicken keeping.
“I’ve been teaching yoga in Honeoye Falls, leading online and in-person classes, and have been creating content for an online yoga studio, so I have been very busy in my retirement from teaching.”
For Boysen Sluberski, keeping chickens is more than just a backyard hobby; it’s a way to spark joy, connect with her community, and inform the public. Whether she’s collecting their eggs from the coop, reading stories to children, or loading her educational materials for her next adventure, Boysen Sluberski proves that even the smallest and simplest creatures can bring a little magic wherever they go.
Lucy Crounse is a journalism and broadcasting major at SUNY Brockport.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of Upstate Gardeners’ Journal.
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