Are You a Chicken...Lover?

Hi all! My goal is to try and get a post about every single animal, and I decided to start with chickens. This entry is mainly about Rent-A-Coop, which is a great program that I did myself.

The basic idea is that you rent the chickens, their coop, bedding, and food for one month. (You also get eggs, about one per day per chicken.) Two chickens per coop. Underneath is a picture of the coop that I got from the site:

You can pick your coop; the one I got had a green door and roof and the rest was brown. However, all coops include the same thing: 

• A area padded with bedding underneath the roof where the food is stored and the hens lay. (Also has a window in the back.)
• A area underneath that one that has bedding that provides complete shade and grass under a wire bottom used to keep predators out.
• A perch for the chickens to, well, perch on.
• A ramp for access to the bedded area.
• Under the perch is grass under a wire bottom, again, used to keep predators out. However, if you park the coop on the concrete, it will be concrete under wire. (But don't do that, there aren't any worms for them! But seriously, put it on the grass.)
• Wheels, so that when you pick up the coop by the front, it rolls. (If you rent from them, you will be asked to move it every now and then.)

The water comes in a special bucket made especially for poultry. The food comes in a bucket also, and you put the food in a milk carton that has a hole in it. (Inside the bucket of food is a cup and you take the food and keep filling up the milk carton. They do not overeat, so don't worry about having it "too full.") The bedding comes in a big, fabric bag along with the instructions to keep it somewhere where there isn't humidity, and cool. (I kept mine inside.)

One thing I love about Rent-A-Coop is that they totally support free-range chickens and eggs, and the chickens they rent out are free range, meaning you have to let them get out of their cage for at least fifteen minutes every single day. They have to be supervised, because a hawk or owl could come and scoop them up. (You get charged $40-50 if the chicken can't be returned, or is dead. If you wish to keep everything that they provided you with, bedding, coop, food etc., it is $500.)

For those of your who were wondering about the pricing, here is the first price that was listed on the site:

• For 4 weeks of hen and coop rental, the total is $180 (Does not include cost of bedding, feed, and specialized bucket for the chickens to drink out of.)

There are more prices online, e.g, for an additional 4 weeks. (2 months total.) If you don't go to pick up the chickens and coop, they also charge you for milage. 

They also put the chickens in the yard for you, even if you are out running an errand or something. Rent-A-Coop also takes them out for you when the month is up, or however much time you paid for.

The proper way to pick up a chicken is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Stand above the chicken, and then place your hands on their wings, so they don't flap around in your arms. Lift them up. Ta-da! That's how you pick up a chicken. If you want to put them down, lower them so that their feet have contact with the ground, and then take your hands off their wings. Violá!

If you have a dog, Rent-A-Coop has steps on their site on how to introduce the chickens to the dog. Their chickens are good with dogs, but your dog may not be good with chickens. I have a crazy Husky-German shepherd mix, and after step one, chickens in the coop and dog outside of coop, it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to be interacting with the chickens anytime soon. Buddy had WAY to much hunting instinct, and would not stop howling/whining/crying/whimpering during step one.

The plus side of your dog getting along with the chickens is that they can both be put outside at the same time and instead of you supervising the chickens, the dog will.

Everything is provided: food, bedding, coop...chickens.

And the eggs are delicious! 

It really is a great program. I did it once, and LOVED it. The chickens do not come with names, but I named mine Emma and Cluckette. (Another good chicken name: Cluckery.) Underneath is a picture of Emma. 

It's great because if you weren't sure about getting chickens but wanted to try it out, you can for a month, then decide. If you loved chickens and were thinking about getting some, I hope this helped!