Rent The Chicken

Rent The Chicken is a backyard-chicken rental business in Hastings, in Oswego County, that lets families try chickens without a long-term commitment. It runs two programs, Hatch The Chicken and Rent The Chicken. Beyond families, daycares, schools, homeschoolers, senior communities, memory care centers and libraries also use the hatching experience.

Hatch The Chicken is a five-week indoor rental that includes a mini incubator, seven fertile eggs and a candling light for checking on the eggs. Rent The Chicken sends two or four egg-laying hens, a portable coop and the food and supplies for a five-to-six-month stretch.

What to Know

• Hatch The Chicken includes a mini incubator, seven fertile eggs and a candling light.
• A chick starter kit adds a brooder box, wood shavings, feed, dishes and a heat source.
• Families keep a copy of the book “Where Do Chicks Come From?” by Amy E. Sklansky.
• Rental hens lay roughly one or two dozen eggs a week, depending on whether the family picks two or four.
• Hen rentals come with delivery in spring, pick-up in fall and phone support.