This is a story about happy chickens.

It turns out that the happier the chickens, the better they taste when humans cook them and eat them. It’s also true that happy chickens often result from happy lives —which, in turn, result from eco-conscious farming practices that restore the local ecosystem instead of depleting it.

If you’ve read this far you’ve got the basic concepts behind Kaya Bird, a fledgling agriculture business in Windsor that has taken flight since it debuted in May.

The woman behind the business, Sarah Laybourn, is relatively new to both farming and to Sonoma County. Over the last two years or so she has restructured her life around this side gig of raising, butchering and selling happy chickens every weekend under a tent next to the egg vending machine at the entrance of Wise Acre Farm.

For Laybourn, 37, the business is as much about life as it is about lifestyle.

“We foster a reconnection to our food by honoring the birds we raise while simultaneously focusing on nature to guide our agricultural practices,” she said. “Honestly, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Laybourn’s story is one of passion, a passion for the Earth she has had for most of her life.

She grew up “a mermaid,” and was a competitive swimmer for most of her early years. Later, she spent time as a competitive outrigger canoe paddler, and was part of the teams that paddled in the Na Wahine O Ke Ka between the Hawaiian Islands of Molokai and Oahu, 41 miles of open ocean in all.

In 2009 Laybourn took a job as a crew member with Trader Joe’s down in San Diego, and moved through the ranks to the position of manager. It was during these years that she began to educate herself on regenerative agriculture, and how the current agricultural system puts carbon and methane into the air by monocropping, tilling fields, and, as she said, “treating animals abhorrently.”

Fast-forward to 2020, Laybourn and her husband moved to Sonoma County.

Then in 2021, the duo visited Wise Acre Farm and met Tyffani Holbrook, who owns the 15-acre operation off Arata Lane. Laybourn and Holbrook got to talking about farming. Laybourn asked Holbrook if, once she relocated, she could intern on the farm. Holbrook jumped at the chance.

“I’m usually hesitant about volunteers, but I could feel the passion with her,” Holbrook said recently, looking back. “It was a great decision as (Laybourn) is eager to learn.”

After Laybourn arrived, she transferred to the Trader Joe’s on Cleveland Avenue in Santa Rosa, where her day job comprises running cash registers, ringing orders and helping customers. In her free time and on weekends, she interned at other farm operations — including Farm to Fight Hunger in Healdsburg and Hidden Pond Farm in Fulton.

At the end of these three internships, Laybourn was convinced that regenerative farming would be her next big adventure.

“I can’t feel good about myself unless I’m doing something to help,” said the now-Healdsburg resident.

Laybourn set out to purchase a coop and Murray’s Big Red broilers, which are chickens that end up as food for humans. By March of this year, 115 chicks were in the coop, pecking, scratching and doing other happy chicken things. All that remained was naming the outfit, and that was easy: She named it after her brother’s late dog. Kaya Bird was born.

The Kaya Bird philosophy is clear as soon as you land on the company’s website: “Honor the bird, honor the planet.”

This philosophy starts with the birds. Laybourn’s pasture-raised Murray’s Big Red broiler chickens live in mobile coops that provide them with safety, fresh grass, bugs, air and sunshine every day. The birds are free to move about the coops and they get to engage in their natural behaviors. Laybourn practices pasture rotation, which means she moves each coop to fresh pasture constantly. She keeps the birds in a clean place and creates an exciting environment for them to enjoy. For chickens, this is the good life.

But Laybourn also pays attention to the soil. As she rotates chickens through the pasture, they leave behind nuggets of poop that feed the soil. This poop is like a miracle fertilizer of sorts.

“Did you know that chicken poop has all 13 essential elements for optimal plant growth?” Laybourn said. “When they scratch the surface of the soil looking for bugs and worms, it helps to delicately aerate the soil without disturbing the abundant life further beneath their feet.”

According to a University of Nevada, Reno study, “Using Chicken Manure Safely in Home Gardens and Landscapes,” composted chicken manure is a source of macro- and micronutrients and acts as a soil amendment. Compared to other manures, chicken manure is higher in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and are also rich in organic matter. Organic matter in soils increases a soil’s water-holding capacity and improves a soil’s structure among many other things.

Put differently, Laybourn’s birds regenerate her Windsor soils with each poop and scratch they make.

Customers say this commitment makes a huge difference.

Laybourn sells the birds whole — butchered, plucked and frozen — for $7.99 per pound. Gerry Fightmaster, a 79-year-old Windsor resident who lives just down the street from the farm, has bought several since Kaya Bird launched in May, and eagerly plans to come back for more.

The way he tells it, Laybourn’s product is so pure, he hasn’t had anything like it in more than 50 years.

“I grew up in Arkansas around the poultry industry and I won’t eat anything with the names Foster Farms or Tyson,” said Fightmaster, who turns 80 this spring. “It’s hard to find a good clean chicken today. When you find one, you want to support the business behind it. I don’t care if they cost double.”

Lucky for Fightmaster, the Kaya Bird pipeline of happy birds will continue into 2023 and beyond.

Laybourn already is planning for next year, and she expects to receive another set of about 150 chicks in March. She’ll raise them in the same movable coop her chickens are in now. If all goes well, this means Kaya Bird will have chickens to sell again by May and throughout the summer.

One of the things that will be different next year: The species of chicken.

Next year she’s slated to receive Freedom Rangers, which are tri-colored or red feathered chickens. These chickens can reach 5 to 6 pounds in just 9 to 11 weeks.

Kaya Bird isn’t certified yet, so Laybourn must do all her farming, slaughtering and selling from Wise Acre Farm. Eventually, as Laybourn expands the operation, certifications should come and she’ll be able to sell the birds anywhere, and directly to restaurants.

Until then, Laybourn said she expects to stick with her program, raising happy chickens all the while.

“The more I work with chickens, the more I’m falling in love with them,” she said. “Now it’s up to me to help everybody else fall in love with them, too.”

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