Livestock Sitter Watches South Shore Goats, Chickens While Owners Are Away

ROCKLAND (CBS) -- Keeping chickens and other animals in backyards is a growing pastime--but what do you do with the critters when you want to go away?

A young entrepreneur from Rockland has the answer, and his brainstorm has turned into a successful business.

"I'm a livestock sitter," says Tyler Dalton, a young man with a big idea. "I go from farm to farm."

He started his business, Roosts to Ranches, about a year ago.

"I noticed an explosion in backyard chickens and homesteading, and not a whole lot of people know how to deal with that stuff," he said. "It's relatively new, especially in this area."

But Tyler knew how to deal with it. He loves animals, and has been working on farms for years, so the light bulb went on and Roosts to Ranches was born.

"If people are away on vacation, I will come and I will take care of their animals," he explains.

He does that at places like Kaysea Hart's in Hingham. It's a typical suburban home from the front, but go around the back and it's a different world, a homestead with chickens and goats.

"He fills a huge need," she says. "It's easy to get a pet sitter for your dog or your cat, but it's not easy to find someone who can wrangle goats if they escape when you're in the Caribbean."

Tyler started by stepping in while people were away. He's expanded into doing a kind of "temp" work on farms, with a lot of different animals.

"Chickens, goats, sheep, cows, horses, llamas, alpacas, peacocks, emus, pigeons, doves, pheasants," he says, rattling off the animals he's taken care of. "And here I am with a business. I was not expecting that to happen that quickly."

At the age of 21, Tyler is planning to expand from the South Shore to the Cape.

When he graduated from high school, he felt that college was not for him--but now that his services are in demand, he plans to take some business classes.