The archive · Small Business & Money · Product decision · 2013–2018
Rent The Chicken lets families test-drive backyard hens with a rented coop — eggs included
A Pennsylvania couple delivers two proven laying hens, a wheeled coop, feed and instructions for the season — a try-before-you-own spin on homesteading.
Rent The Chicken
What it had to solve
Urban and suburban families wanted fresh eggs and the experience of keeping chickens, but had no idea where to start and didn't want year-round responsibility. The Tompkins, who raised hens anyway, saw renting as a way to lower that barrier.
How it works
In 2013, Jenn and Phil Tompkins of Freeport, Pennsylvania started Rent The Chicken from their homestead, wanting supplemental income that promoted their values of homesteading and yard-to-table food. For $350 for the May–November season (with a $250 launch discount), they deliver two egg-laying hens raised to six months–two years old, a portable wheeled coop, feed, a water dish and instructions.
The pitch to newcomers was that no experience was needed: 'People buy them because they're cute,' Phil said, 'but don't know what to do with them.' Renting full-grown hens avoided the hardest part of chick-raising and guaranteed 8–14 eggs a week; at the end of the season the couple collects the birds for winter and rents them again the following May, or sells the birds and coop to renters who want to keep them.
Customers used the service as a trial: a full-time hospital worker who didn't want a year-round operation rented hens so her sons could learn responsibility, and another renter planned to adopt her birds the next spring. Five years in, the couple said the business was still adding customers, with coops designed by them and built by an Amish artisan — and the model had drawn a Michigan competitor, Rent-A-Chicken.
Why it lands
- It removes the biggest barrier to backyard chickens — long-term commitment — and sells a low-stakes trial instead.
- The full kit (hens, coop, feed, instructions, help line) means a first-timer succeeds from day one.
- Seasonality lines up with the birds' laying cycle and the customer's curiosity: rent in spring, decide by fall.
- Renters who bond with their hens become buyers, converting customers without a hard sell.
What it did
Renters got a real trial of chicken keeping — fresh eggs, fertilized yards and responsibility for the kids — without a permanent flock. Five years in, the couple was still adding customers, and the model had grown into a small niche that includes competitor Rent-A-Chicken.
What you can take
Turn ownership into a trial: when the scary part is commitment, rent the experience, include everything needed to succeed, and let customers buy what they've learned to love.
Since then
The rental model outlived the fad: five years in, Rent The Chicken was still adding customers and the couple positioned it as the leading live-chicken rental business, facing Michigan's Rent-A-Chicken. The company's current site sells the same promise — coop, hens, feed and supplies included — and has added chick-hatching kits and summer-camp rentals.
Sources
- Would you rent a CHICKEN for easy access to farm fresh eggs?
- Couple cash in on the live chicken rental craze
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