Vance family installs Victorian-style chicken coop at vice presidential residence
(CNN) — Chicks are flocking to the vice presidential residence.
Vice President JD Vance and his family are welcoming a dozen chickens to their growing brood, installing a new custom coop at the US Naval Observatory.
And while the coop might look like it belongs on Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Waco, Texas, farmhouse property, it was designed by Carolina Coops — at no cost to taxpayers — to reflect the storied vice presidential residence, according to a source familiar with the matter. The coop draws from architectural elements of the Queen Anne Victorian style of Number One Observatory Circle, where vice presidents have lived with their families for decades.
The birds will come home to roost inside the large, white, farm-inspired structure with an attached turret entryway, green door and faux slate roof. It’s surrounded by gravel and potted plants overlooking a fenced yard with a view of Washington’s National Cathedral, according to images shared with CNN.
Guests at a camp-themed party at the Vance home this weekend got a first look at the coop, according to the source familiar, along with a 4-H demonstration from local students.
“Seeing our work become part of a historic residence like the Naval Observatory is a milestone I will never forget,” said Carolina Coops owner Matt DuBoise.
Once grown, the chicks will provide farm-fresh eggs to the Naval Observatory — including for Vance’s children, whom he once joked on the campaign trail “actually eat about 14 eggs every single morning.” That appearance at a grocery store drew some scrutiny at the time for his exaggeration, though Vance used the visit more broadly to draw attention to inflated egg prices.
The Vances are jumping into the popular urban farming trend; according to the American Pet Products Association’s latest pet owners survey, 9 million US households own backyard chickens. And they’re not the first second family to introduce new animals to the Naval Observatory — second lady Karen Pence unveiled a backyard beehive in 2017.
The chicks arrived just before another new member of the vice president’s family: Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, are expecting their fourth child this summer, a baby boy due in late July.
It also comes as the vice president is weighing a potential 2028 GOP presidential bid, which his wife weighed in on in a recent interview.
“I think JD would make a great anything he’d like to be,” Usha Vance told ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
Pressed on whether she’d like to see her husband be president, she said, “I am not a particularly politically ambitious person. I would like to see him happy. I would like to see him making contributions that matter, and whatever form that takes is a form that I’ll be supportive of.”
The-CNN-Wire
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