CT Rent-A-Hen - anyone tried this?

[ctrentahen]

I rented 5 chickens from them this year.. May through Oct. The chickens were great. Healthy and great pets.
I did not use their coop I had my own small barn and we added on a run to that so they had lots of room and were safe at night.
I would highly recommend them to anyone. Nice people to work with and showed up on time with the delivery of the chickens.

Will be doing this again next year for sure.

Thank you!

 

[aart]

Hi Aart,

My name is John and I own and operate CT Rent-A-Hen along with my partner Marisa and we are located in Killingworth, Connecticut.

I appreciate your concerns and questions regarding the business of renting hens and wanted to take a moment to share with you our experience from our first year in business.

First and foremost, we were very concerned with the well-being of our hens once they were rented out. If we felt that renters could not provide adequate care and that the birds were stressed, we would immediately stop the rental and end our business. To our delight, our renters have done an excellent job in caring for the hens. We had 63 renters this year and some of our flock is returning now as renters begin to end their rental period. The hens are coming back in very healthy conditions, unstressed and continue to produce large brown eggs. We have found that our renters have become quite fond of the hens and consider them pets and family members. Most folks are requesting the same hens back next spring. We will board the hens throughout the winter and our renters will resume possession of the hens in April.

The triangular coop that we provide is 96 inches in length and 52 inches wide at the base and affords 64 cubic feet of space for the hens to comfortably call their home. The roosting bar is 63 inches long and each hen has plenty of room to perch. Our coop can accommodate from 3 to 4 hens. We are proud to report that our coop is extremely safe and no predators were able to break into the coop.

I am a retired elementary teacher and taught 5th and 6th grade for over 20 years. One of our main objectives was to provide young families the opportunity to experience the joy of having hens. I strongly believe that children can benefit in many ways from this type of stewardship in their backyards. We have definitely achieved this goal and Marisa and I have thoroughly enjoyed creating and managing this niche business.

We encourage you to visit our website, www.ctrentahen.com, for more information. If you are ever in Connecticut, please drop by and we will introduce you to our girls and give you some wonderful brown eggs!
Thanks,
John and Marisa
CT Rent-A Hen, LLC

How do you know the birds are well cared for, did you do 'welfare checks'?
There were no mishaps with care, illness/injury, predators with 63 renters?

The 'coop' is charming and attractive.
The run portion below appears to be adequate, in fair weather, for maybe 3 birds if moved daily, or twice daily.
....but....
the upper portion is sorely lacking in space, ventilation and thus functionality IMO.....as are most A-frame designs.
Cubic feet is rather irrelevant, tho actual height/headroom is very important, it's floor/ground space that counts first.
I hope your birds don't have to spend the winter in those 'coops'.

Curious how you will handle long term stock population.
I assume the birds delivered were at least 6 months old and already laying?
Will the same birds go out next spring...or new stock at POL?

 

[LI chickie]

$45.00 a month, plus other expenses for possibly three eggs a day?
That's insane, unless you have extra cash, and are just bored or something.

You could easily buy more than 6 dozen eggs for 45 bucks. Assuming the chickens lay six days a week.

Concidering my coop/run cost about $1,000 I know my husband would have thought this was s good idea. Personally I'd rather deal with my own chickens and the winter as well.

 

[aligarysmom]

Sorry I’m late to the discussion but someone posted that they used them with bad results. But I did want to say you could have spent half that to rent chickens and then six months and have nothing. So your cost for two seasons would pay for itself. I actually don’t feel bad about what I spent if thats what they are charging. And my girls are dry and comfy. Well and they are mine. You are trying to tell me that pool will get the same birds back after winter? That means you are housing 300 chickens for winter and then tracking the ones that went out and giving them back for spring and summer. I’m not buying it. And with the number of people on this forum that have problems that know what they are doing you are trying to tell people that none of your renters had any predatory problems? No pests? Sorry not buying that either. Sell crazy somewhere else we’re only crazy chicken ladies not stupid. Just my two cents.

 

[Broody_Mama]

Sorry I’m late to the discussion but someone posted that they used them with bad results. But I did want to say you could have spent half that to rent chickens and then six months and have nothing. So your cost for two seasons would pay for itself. I actually don’t feel bad about what I spent if thats what they are charging. And my girls are dry and comfy. Well and they are mine. You are trying to tell me that pool will get the same birds back after winter? That means you are housing 300 chickens for winter and then tracking the ones that went out and giving them back for spring and summer. I’m not buying it. And with the number of people on this forum that have problems that know what they are doing you are trying to tell people that none of your renters had any predatory problems? No pests? Sorry not buying that either. Sell crazy somewhere else we’re only crazy chicken ladies not stupid. Just my two cents.

Did you see what they are charging now?! Looks like they used to charge $45/month. Now it's $400 for three months, so $133/mo. That's insane. Supposedly they are selling out, so enough people must be drinking the kool aid. I don't buy for a second that this is good or low stress for the chickens, and I certainly don't buy that no chickens have died due to pests, predators, negligence or illness.