David Hager has a big hobby. “It’s like playing golf or anything else,” Hager says. “It’s a hobby.” However, Hager’s hobby is raising and showing some 240 bantam chickens at his home in Mount Ulla.

North Carolina’s poultry industry has taken flight. Farms now stand near the mountains, the coast and the state’s largest cities. The state’s largest ag industry raises more than 1 billion chickens ...