I may or may not have had some judgement while in the midst of our TEN days at the Farm to Table section of the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show recently. The "what if I eat the chicken?" comments weren't funny on day 1. They were internal sighing and eye-ball rolling by day 10! haha Nonetheless, we tried to be as fresh and as relaxed on day 10 as we were on day 1. We still said "If it's not a good fit, you can (pause) 'chicken-out'!" on day 10 :) Winters in Pennsylvania are a valid concern for chicken keeping. Instead of asking "What do you do with the chickens in the winter?" or "How do the chickens do in the winter?", many asked "What do you do in the winter?". I started answering honestly with "I watch a lot of Netflix." I would pause and then say "Thank you for asking.. How about you?" bwahahahahaha By then I had already made some jokes and said "chicken-out". All fun! The best was when a good looking guy with his very tall and attractive lady friend came over with their burly guy friend. Hook. Line. Sinker. He said "What do you do in the winter?" Keep in mind, this was day TEN of 10 and about an hour before the show was due to close. I said "Oh.. I watch a lot of Netflix. That's pretty personal to ask especially in front of your lady friend? What about you?" LOL He turned about 10 shades of red and his lady friend busted her little gut while the burly friend about fell over laughing! He said "I like you!". It was HILARIOUS.
There are thousands of ways to raise baby chicks and to have backyard hens. Not everyone (chicken keepers and non-chicken keepers alike) understand our business model and our coop choices. Our coops are portable which allows the chickens to feel like they are free ranging when the coop is moved but they are still very protected by the coop. A portable coop also means there won't be a build up of droppings or a dead spot in no time flat unlike a stationary coop. Our coops are a good size for the number of chickens that we provide with our rentals. If we made our coops larger, they would either not be moved as much or at all. Then we'd be back to square one with the dead spot and build up of droppings PLUS there would be more desire for free range time as the chickens would have zero access to grass. Speaking of free range time, we ask for all of our renters to ONLY free range WITH supervision. A responsible person should be outside and near the chickens when the chickens are roaming outside of the coop. But why? One word - Hawks. Overhead predators. Everything wants chicken for dinner when all you want is breakfast! Plus, if the chickens are always put in after supervised free range time, there is ZERO chance that they will be forgotten about and not locked in when the sun goes down. Spoiler: The rest of "everything wanting chicken for dinner" comes out when the sun goes down. It's ironic that the same people who are concerned that our coops are too small and ask if they are safe in the coop, are the same people who think the chickens need to be free ranging. Guess who free ranging is not so good for?
Another spoiler:
Remember, there are thousands of ways to have backyard hens! We know what works for our rentals, renters, and our rental hens. We encourage our renters to follow our recommendations and remind them they will receive 5-6 months of education during the rental. From there, they can make a super educated decisions on their long-term chicken-keeping goals. :)
For both Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken, we ask for our renters to follow our recommendations. Are our recommendations the difference between life and death of the chicks & chickens? Sometimes it is! Other times it's ease of use. Other times it's predator control. Sometimes it's about egg production. We all do our best to be a "No Judgement Chicken Mentor" but you'll need to trust that we know what works for our rentals - Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken. We want for our chickens and chicks to be safe and for each of our renters to have a great experience!
Never had backyard hens before? No problem! We will do our best to answer your questions with the same patience and sincerity as we answered in 2013-2014 when we first started answering rental questions. Heads up: If you ask what I do in the winter.. I will likely say "I watch a lot of Netflix." :)
