Sunday, July 17, 2011

Rent-a-Chicken

Down Under in Australia, some chicken folks have come up with a good idea: Rent-a-Chicken:

CLUCKY Victorian families who want fresh eggs but are afraid to commit are renting chickens to try before they buy.

Sarah McKay, 37, dreamed of bringing up chickens in her Greensborough back yard, but was not sure she could handle them.

So when she heard about rental chickens she jumped at the chance.

"It was something I always wanted to do, but it just seems like a really big thing," she said. "I didn't want to just launch into it."

The mum of two convinced her husband, Nathan, 42, and at Easter they paid $150 to rent a coop and two female chickens, Maggie and Bianca, who have become part of the family.

"It really allowed us to see exactly what it was going to be like," she said.

This is a great idea, a way for interested folks to try out chickens as a home project without getting involved in building a permanent coop and making the full commitment. Thanks for finding another route to extend better chicken welfare and better food to more people. Every person who keeps a few hens for eggs is one less customer for the egg industry.

3 comments:

Eric said...

I want to do that too!!!!

Maybe it is time to start a business here doing that.

Eric said...

I want to do that!!!

Looks like a business plan.

Eric

Christine Heinrichs said...

An idea whose time has come! A friend in San Luis Obispo loans out her chicks to parents whose kids want to raise chickens but for some reason, they can't keep them. The kids raise them for a couple of months and then return them. She's got a lot of pet chickens now!