Bird flu strikes chicken farm in Matteson: ‘A pretty devastating blow’​on January 23, 2025 at 3:50 pm

MATTESON, Ill. (WLS) — The first known outbreak of bird flu at a farm in Illinois this year has been reported in the south suburbs.

It’s a devastating blow to “Kakadoodle” in Matteson, and they will now have to operate in a different way over the next 150 days. The owners told ABC7 it’s been a whirlwind of a week dealing with the setback.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Just one week ago, everything seemed normal in the henhouse. They had 3,000 hens, and now none of them are left.

The owners first noticed that 30 of them died, but that happened as temperatures dropped aggressively in the area, so they thought it was just environmental.

“It was right when the temperate started changing so we were like maybe it’s environmental, then next day hundreds were gone, and we’re like, this is something,” owner Marty Thomas said.

When the rest of the 3,000 hens got sick and died as well, a vet and the USDA confirmed that it was bird flu.

“Which is a pretty devastating blow. Fortunately, Kakadoodle is more than just a chicken farm,” Marty Thomas said. “We’re an online farmers market so we deliver products from our farm and surrounding farms to people’s homes.”

The owners have been operating on the property since December of 2023, but now they’re under a quarantine for 150 days, limiting what they can produce and sell. The farm cannot produce any eggs.

“Bad things happen things happen in life, but the people that succeed are the ones that say, ‘What’s next?’ not, ‘Why me?'” owner Marikate Thomas said. “That carried us through last week and it’ll carry us through this.”

The owners said wild birds have recently been coming near the chicken feed. Despite their efforts to scare them away, they suspect this was likely what started the outbreak.

The set back will force the Thomas family to lose thousands of dollars a week that would have come from eggs. They hope to keep business going with on their website, where they sell local chemical free meats, greens and dairy.

Kakadoodle is now going through a series of steps under a quarantine, sanitizing and clearing certain parts of the property. They hope to rebuild a safer henhouse once the quarantine is lifted in June.

The community now rallying around them by raising money for the farm.

“Feeling the flood of emotions from the community, and the kind words and the messages we’re getting from people has been lifting us up,” Marikate Thomas said

A GoFundMe has been established to help the farm.