Rent-a-coop venture lets you try raising eggs

Some folks might buy a coop and a few hens for backyard egg production, only to chicken out (sorry) when they see what it entails.

A business up north has a solution: Rent a pair of hens for three months to get a feel for what it’s all about. Rent-a-Chicken Sacramento will provide the birds, a portable coop, feed and other supplies for $75 a month.

“The best reasons for renting are to make sure that chickens are a good fit for you, your kids, your partner, your neighbors and your pets,” Linda Easton, who helps run the business, said by email Thursday.

The hens come from Shayne Zurilgen’s farm near Davis, which also produces goats, rabbits and hogs. Modesto is outside the 50-mile radius where free delivery of the coops is provided, but customers here can drive up and get them.

Rent-a-Chicken Sacramento is one of several such ventures around the country. It serves people who enjoy these creatures as companions, as well as the eggs that result from their varied diet of bagged feed and kitchen and yard scraps. The 3-by-6 coops have open bottoms, wire screening on the sides and top, and areas for roosting, nesting and egg retrieval.

Mainstream egg producers, some of them in or near Stanislaus County, feed mainly corn and soy to their hens. They have expanded the cage space per bird to comply with a state ballot measure. Many of these cages also have areas for nesting, roosting and other needs.

Rent-a-Chicken Sacramento customers can expect about four dozen eggs per month for their $75 fee. That’s much more than eggs from a store, but they also get companionship and a terrific fertilizer from the droppings.

“Our mission is to help families discover the joys of keeping chickens in the backyard and converting kitchen scraps and yard clippings into the highest-quality eggs you can eat,” Easton said.

The California Poultry Federation discourages backyard coops because they can spread bird diseases to commercial chicken and turkey flocks, said Bill Mattos, president of the Modesto-based industry group. A key concern is bird flu, which has hit hard at Midwestern egg producers and can be carried by waterfowl that migrate south to the Central Valley each winter.

Mattos said this is nonetheless a growing fad, and he likes the fact that Rent-a-Chicken Sacramento takes back hens that customers decide they do not want.

“It’s better than just selling it and saying, ‘Here you go, good luck,’ ” he said.

Zurilgen said chicken renters can guard against disease by cleaning up in and around the coop and keeping the birds inside the “run,” the enclosed area on the ground where they can cavort.

He added that “a small home flock is a much smaller target than a huge commercial flock.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Rent-a-coop venture lets you try raising eggs."