For city dwellers who crave farm-fresh eggs, Rent the Chicken may be the answer. $400 gets a novice farmer two chickens, a coop, dishes and food for five or six during the spring or summer. Photo submitted by Rent the Chicken.
Words by Lauren Kassien
Brad Hanson isn’t a farmer. But unlike most city-dwellers, the Pittsburgh resident doesn’t let that stop him from heading out to his backyard each morning to collect a handful of fresh eggs for breakfast. Hanson is a subscriber of Rent the Chicken, a new program that lets urban and suburbanites test-drive raising backyard chickens for a season before returning them back to their farms in the fall. “I get a much-superior product to what I could get at the store and for much less money,” Hanson says. “I like knowing where my eggs are coming from. It’s just good, honest food.”
Rent the Chicken hatched in 2013 as a response to the growing farm-fresh food movement. Co-founder Jenn Tompkins of Freeport, Pennsylvania, calls the approach to local ingredients “yard-to-table” eating. For $400, the company offers wannabe farmers the chance to rent two chickens, a coop, dishes and food for five to six months during the spring and summer seasons. An additional $200 will get bigger families two extra chickens — and a whole lot more eggs.
“The original goal was just to pay our property taxes, but the business turned into something bigger and better than we ever imagined,” Tompkins says. “We’ve had so much positive feedback about this opportunity. People love that they can have the chickens without the long-term commitment.”
Today, Rent the Chicken has established 26 branches across the country, including ones that ship near central Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Missouri in the Midwest. And while there may not be a chicken in every Midwesterner’s yard yet, backyard coops have been springing up across the region and the country. A USDA study found that fewer than one percent of households owned chickens, but nearly four percent of those without them planned to have chickens within the next five years.
But with the growing demand for farm-fresh eggs also comes an increase in responsibility. Tompkins says many backyard chickens are purchased on a whim with little prior research. When urban and suburban families realize how much work goes into raising happy, healthy hens, they “chicken out” and send the animals away.
“If people buy chickens and realize they don’t want them, the animals end up at the pound, just like cats and dogs,” Tompkins says. “Those places aren’t equipped for chickens. With our service, we’re making sure this isn’t happening. If people find out at any point that raising chickens isn’t for them, we’ll pick up the chickens for free — no questions asked.”
Carrie Spain, a ranch associate at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, says she sees a lot of chickens move in and out of the shelter because of the growing demand for farm-fresh produce, including eggs. Spain notes that while raising backyard chickens is a great opportunity, there are a lot of factors people don’t consider before adopting.
“Chickens have a lot of predators,” she says. “Raccoons, weasels, foxes, hawks, the neighbor’s dog — you name it. You have to make sure the coop is predator-proof 24/7. Chickens will also scratch up your landscaping, your garden, and eat your fruit. In fact, they’ll eat just about anything, including your table scraps. Chickens need to be monitored and kept in a place where they can’t get to anything valuable.”
For renters like Hanson, the result — delicious and nutritious farm-fresh eggs — is worth the extra effort. A few years ago, Hanson and his wife Sally Jo gave up processed foods and switched to eating ingredients that are fresh and organic. He says his favorite part about Rent the Chicken is that the organization allows his family to eat this way without having to drop some serious cash on groceries. “You can go to a specialty health food store and get meat for $20 a pound. It’s ridiculous,” he says. “All I have to do now is spend about 15 minutes a day feeding, watering, getting eggs and cleaning the roost. It doesn’t get much easier than that.”
Hanson also says he’s been able to bond with the chickens each year, which makes taking care of them actually enjoyable.
“The chickens took to me and my wife pretty good,” he says. “They chase me around the yard, and they come when I call them, just like a dog. I have videos of them taking a bath in our birdbath. It’s just like having a regular pet.”
While backyard chickens haven’t been legalized in every state, the Midwest has approved more chicken ordinances than almost every other region. The chicken-raising online community keeps an up-to-date list of which towns, counties and municipalities have given city folk the green light to raise a crop of animals. But as the local food movement continues to gain momentum, the demand for chickens will grow, too. “We see more and more people are planting gardens and growing things like tomatoes –everyone now knows someone with a garden,” Tompkins says. “Everyone knows someone with a cat or dog, too. But how many people do you know have chickens?”
Soon, the answer could be a lot.
