The Mahopac chicken whisperer 

Some teenagers spend their free time playing video games. Others work after school, play sports or obsess over cars.

At 15, Cade Freehill decided he wanted chickens.

Not because his family lived on a farm or because he was dreaming of fresh eggs every morning. The idea came after a visit to the Mahopac Farmers Market, where he wandered past a vendor selling lip balm and ChapStick.

What caught his eye wasn’t the merchandise.

It was the fluffy chicken sitting quietly in a cardboard box.

“They had a pet chicken hanging out in a box—a sort of company mascot,” Freehill recalled. “I had never seen one like it before. It was called a Polish hen. I thought I had all this knowledge about animals, but I’d never seen one like this.”

That chance encounter changed everything.

Curious, Freehill went home and immersed himself in the world of backyard poultry. He researched breeds, studied their personalities, and quickly realized chickens were far more intelligent and personable than most people realize. Before long, he had a plan to start a flock of his own.

There was just one obstacle.

His parents.

Rather than ask permission first, Freehill and a friend quietly cleared a 16-by-16-foot section of the family’s backyard while his parents and sister were out of the house. They finished before dark, and when everyone returned home that evening, no one noticed.

Morning was another story.

“I lied and just told them I got bored,” Freehill said with a laugh. “But later I told them I wanted chickens, and they said no.”

Fortunately, he had an ally.

Freehill’s uncle had experience raising chickens, and he helped convince Freehill’s skeptical parents that the project wasn’t as crazy as it sounded.

“I talked to my uncle, who kept chickens,” he said. “He helped me talk my parents into it. I was 15. When am I going to get a chance to do something like this?”

Once he got the green light, there was no looking back.

“I did everything,” Freehill said. “I bought all the food, all the materials to build the coop.”

He started with six chickens and a modest coop he found on Facebook Marketplace. It wasn’t long before six birds became 25. The flock outgrew its first home, requiring a much larger coop that had to be delivered by truck.

“I painted the whole thing red and white,” he said proudly.

After countless hours of research, Freehill settled on raising silkies, a small breed famous for its fluffy, fur-like feathers and remarkably calm personalities.

“Choosing silkies—it was calculated,” he said. “I knew what I wanted them for. They are cute as anything. Fluffy, adorable, and sociable. They are good pets.”

As it turned out, they were also exceptional therapy animals.

“I thought, ‘I want to show them off’ and so I wanted to join the 4-H Poultry Club, only to discover there wasn’t one,” Freehill said. “I approached the Cornell Cooperative Extension to start one, and they said no because I was just 15. But eventually they let me. We ended up with 17 kids. I was really surprised what a turnout we got.”

Freehill said that 4-H groups often have kids on the spectrum and some who are neurodivergent, which helped plant the seed for the Zen Hen idea.

“My mom is a behaviorist in the school district,” Freehill noted. “Then I saw how good kids were with the chickens and how calm and Zen they were when you put the chickens in front of them. It gave me the idea [to start Zen Hens].”

Although chickens cannot legally be classified as service animals, they have become increasingly popular in nursing homes, memory-care facilities and rehabilitation centers as therapy animals. Their calm demeanor, gentle nature and willingness to be held make them surprisingly effective at reducing anxiety, encouraging conversation, and creating meaningful moments of connection.

Freehill saw that potential almost immediately, but while getting the chickens was one challenge, finding a place willing to welcome them was another. When he first pitched the idea of therapy chickens, he ran into one rejection after another.

“I started calling people up, but no one would accept me,” he said. “They would hear ‘chicken’ and scoff.”

Then Emerald Peek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Peekskill agreed to give him a chance.

“Our main goal was memory stimulation,” Freehill said. “The patients would say things like, ‘I remember when we had a farm.’ It got them to look at their own lives.”

The visit was a success, and the nursing home invited him back.

“That got my name out there,” he said. “Other nursing homes heard about it.”

Freehill’s ultimate goal, however, was to work with children.

“My end goal was to end up in a school,” he said. “That eventually happened. It worked great, and the kids loved them.”

As word spread and he began posting on social media, invitations started coming in. Today, The Zen Hens has visited about 40 schools, libraries and other community venues.

“Over the years, The Zen Hens has touched thousands of people throughout our community and beyond,” Freehill said.

This fall, the Mahopac High School Class of ‘26 grad will attend Elon University in North Carolina, where he plans to study business. He’s also looking forward to taking advantage of the university’s renowned study-abroad programs as he explores a future as an entrepreneur.

Freehill said building The Zen Hens from the ground up gave him the confidence to believe he could create something of his own. “Although I never took a penny for that,” he noted.

“I want to become an entrepreneur,” he said, crediting the success of The Zen Hens with showing him what’s possible.

Although he’ll be away at school, The Zen Hens isn’t going anywhere. His mother will take over the day-to-day care of the flock, while Freehill plans to return home to continue making visits whenever he can.

After all, it all started with one unexpected encounter at the Farmers Market—a fluffy chicken sitting quietly in a box.

It turned out to be more than a curiosity. It was the beginning of a journey that changed one young man’s life—and brightened the lives of countless others along the way.