Abraham Eaton knows quite a bit about chickens. The young Windham entrepreneur, who turns 10 on March 26, is flying into his third year in the “raised-to-order” chicken business.

The business model is pretty simple. Customers place their order by April 1 and Abraham will raise the birds from chicks and deliver a “ready-for-the-oven” roaster sometime in early summer.

Abraham hopes to do about the same amount of business he did last year, which means he expects to order about 100 chicks.

Customers can get a mixture of roosters and hens, “unless you order them that way, and even then it’s not that reliable,” he said. Customers can order all hens or all roosters or just take what he sends out. //HOW MUCH???DO CUSTOMERS GET LIVE BIRDS OR BUTCHERED BIRDS? WHO BUTCHERS THEM?//

“If you want fewer, bigger birds at the end, order all roosters, because they fight a lot,” he said. “If you want more birds at the end, order hens, but they’ll be a little smaller.”

Maine has a long history of chicken raising. Old chicken barns still dot the countryside. With the advent of the big processors, local chicken farmers have dwindled. Concerns about the rising use of genetically modified feed for animals has helped renew interest in locally grown, all-natural meat.

Abraham says his father //NAME?// provides funding to purchase the birds in the spring, and he is responsible for their daily care.

//PERHAPS A SENTENCE OR TWO HERE DESCRIBING THE FAMILY HOME – I MEAN, IS HE IN A SUBDIVISION RAISING CHICKENS OR ON A FARM OR WHAT??//He said he has to feed and water the birds. He doesn’t find it too bad a chore. “At night they just sit down and won’t move,” he said.

The birds live in a contraption called a chicken tractor.

“They’re in a pen, which is a rectangular pen with chicken wire on top. It is on wheels so they are moved to fresh grass every day. They can’t free range, because they would be eaten by predators,” said Abraham.

When asked if he makes money on the venture, Abraham said, “I do all right.” First, he pays his dad back for the original purchase of the birds, then some of the profits go into his “God bank” for his church tithe, some to savings and the rest he gets to spend.

Abraham lives with his parents and five siblings and attends fourth grade at Windham Christian Academy. He loves sports and math, plays piano and recently traveled to Africa.

On top of everything else, Abraham is an actor who performed in the Windham Center Stage Theater’s children’s production of “A Little Princess” last weekend at Windham High School.