Feels like Springtime... but it isn't!

 Hello!

 

Homestead Jenn checking in!

 

Again, thank you to all who already made your reservation for 2026! For Hatch The Chicken rentals, we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information. For Rent The Chicken rentals, we deliver in either April, May, or June depending on where you are located. Stay tuned for more details!

 

Wow... I know people can't stop talking about the snow (and apparently the Half-time Show but that's not what I'm going to chat about that!)! Here in Western Pennsylvania, we had about 18" of snow fall in about a 36 hour period on January 25-26! There's still a lot of snow outside but today's high is 51F (10C) so we are hopeful for a lot to melt today. We are thinking about Spring, baby chicks, chickens, and fresh eggs over here!

 

Yesterday, after all of the frigid temps recently, it was like a heat wave at 32F (0C) and the roads were clear enough for Homestead Phil (my husband and Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken) and I to bundled up and took a 26 minute brisk walk. It was glorious! See below for a photo.

 

In my last message, I mentioned that I had been sick. I felt better and went on a cruise to the Bahamas with my mom, my cousin, her daughter, and 6 of my mom's friends. See below for a beautiful photo I took from the ship. It was warm and lovely! My mom even zip-lined for the first time with some of her friends. I stayed on the ground where I was comfortable! haha Then... I got sick AGAIN when I got home. I'm feeling better now and hoping to not relapse ... again.

 

At any rate, I have more big news! Last time I wrote using this format, I announced that we now have Rent The Chicken rentals available again in New Jersey. Hooray!

 

I have three more locations to feature and announce as we continue to egg-spand:

 

Rent The Chicken backyard egg-laying hen rentals are available in all of Salt Lake City, Utah, Dallas / Fort Worth, and Kamloops and Okanagan, British Columbia in 2026!

 

For Rent The Chicken rentals, we've had Affiliate Partners in Dallas / Fort Worth previously as well as in the Interior of British Columbia. Rentals in these areas are baaaaaaaack! Here are some links for both Hatch The Chicken and Rent The Chicken:

 

Salt Lake City & Utah Valley - Rent The Chicken

Salt Lake City & Utah Valley - Hatch The Chicken

Dallas, Texas - Rent The Chicken

Dallas, Texas - Hatch The Chicken

Fort Worth, Texas - Rent The Chicken

Fort Worth, Texas - Hatch The Chicken

Kamloops & Salmon Arm, BC - Rent The Chicken

Kamloops, BC - Hatch The Chicken

Kelowna & Vernon, BC - Rent The Chicken

Kelowna, Salmon Arm, & Vernon - Hatch The Chicken

 

Homestead John & Rachel are providing Rent The Chicken & Hatch The Chicken to Dallas and Fort Worth. Homestead Mollie has been with us for about a year offering Hatch The Chicken to the interior of British Columbia but decided to offer Rent The Chicken as well! Homestead Devin join us last summer to offer Rent The Chicken & Hatch The Chicken to her local area in Utah. It's all egg-citing!

 

To see a list of all of our Rent The Chicken locations - click here.

For all of our Hatch The Chicken locations - click here.

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in the USA - click here.

To place a Rent The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

To place a Hatch The Chicken reservation online in Canada - click here.

**For Hatch The Chicken, before reserving it is best to find out what dates are available in your region. Feel free to respond to this email and I'll be happy to send the available dates over to you!

 

Wow.. I had more to say than I thought! Some of you who know me aren't surprised though! haha Until next time...

 

Stay warm and chat soon!

-Homestead Jenn

Rent The Chicken - Co-Founder 

Is this thing on?

 

Hello!   Homestead Jenn checking in! This post was from mid-January but I forgot to hit "publish" since it has been so long since I used this as a creative outlet! We are clucking along here in the New Year! Thank you to all who already made your reservation for 2026! Wow! We are making a lot of chicken dreams come true this year! For Hatch The Chicken rentals, we'll be in touch about a week before your delivery with more information. For Rent The Chicken rentals, we deliver in either April, May, or June depending on where you are located. Stay tuned for more details.   It has been a snowy and cold winter here in Western Pennsylvania. The snow has melted but we will see more soon... no doubt! Hens lay eggs based on daylight hours. With increased daylight hours, their egg production is slowly picking back up! For those who don't know, I'm quite the fitness junky. I've been sick on and off since Thanksgiving with respiratory issues so my fitness schedule came to a screeching halt! I went for one single run in December which was on Christmas Day. Homestead Phil, my husband and Co-Founder of Rent The Chicken, joined me as the weather was gorgeous! Pic or it didn't happen photo included below. (Well... for winter in Western Pennsylvania!) I'm feeling better and went for 3 walks in the past week so I'm well on my way to start running again. Hooray! At any rate, I have BIG news!   Rent The Chicken backyard egg-laying hen rentals are available in all of New Jersey for 2026!   Homestead Mike & Judy (pictured below with their kiddos, some of their chickens, and kitty) live in South Jersey and are egg-cited to offer Rent The Chicken in New Jersey! Here are links to the Rental Packages: Central / Southern New Jersey Northern New Jersey   To reserve online for a New Jersey (or anywhere in the USA) Rent The Chicken rental of backyard laying hens, click here. If you're in Canada near one of our locations, click here to reserve.   We also have Hatch The Chicken rentals available in New Jersey. Click here for more information. To reserve online for a New Jersey (or anywhere in the USA) Hatch The Chicken program to experience baby chicks hatching, click here. If you're in Canada near one of our locations, click here to reserve our Hatch The Chicken program. Stay warm and chat soon! -Homestead Jenn Rent The Chicken - Co-Founder

Welcome to 2021!

Hi all!

What a whirlwind of 2021 so far, right?! Every January, Homestead Phil and I host a Rent The Chicken Owners Conference for each of our Affiliate farm partners to be able to focus on growing their business, chat with other Affiliates, and enjoy a weekend away. We've hosted it in Myrtle Beach, Western Pennsylvania, and last year was our favorite - a luxury vacation home near Orlando, Florida! This year, with Covid, and Canada / USA borders closed, we had to make some changes like most other conferences and move to a virtual option. We started our weekend with special guests like Lisa Steele of Fresh Eggs Daily, the publisher of the Fresh Eggs Daily book - Paul Kelly of St Lynns Press, the Head Hen of Cutest Coops - Kathy, and Brad from Coop Dreams. Signe Langford who wrote Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs which is a book we provide in Canada made a video for us to share as she was unable to attend virtually. Oh my goodness, we did this fun activity to recreate the "American Gothic" image. We for sure had some good ones. Take a look:

We dove into "why" we each provide Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken. It was moving as each of us have a different perspective on why we are in this crazy business. Stay tuned as I'm sure we'll be sharing some of the videos on our Facebook page as time continues. We covered parts of a book called Eat That Frog and ways to help reach each of you so you know what we have to offer through Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken! Our friend and business coach, Wendy, joined us for a session as well! Check out the Group Photo!

Looking forward to hugging necks and seeing our attendees in person in 2022!

My business heart hurts.

Is that a thing? "business heart"? Let's say it's a thing. Mine is hurt.

Homestead Phil, each of our Affiliate Partners, and I work really hard to provide these fantastic products of Rent The Chicken and Hatch The Chicken. We strive to have ethical standards of business practices as well as farming / homesteading practices. Certainly our service isn't for everyone! That's OK.

Now and again, potential renters ask "what happens to the chicks / chickens at the end of the rental?". I chuckle and make light saying "We don't have a big barbecue that's for sure!" They chuckle then I provide a more in depth response.

Sometimes, potential renters state "Someone said you kill all of the baby chicks after the rental.". Wait. What? Someone said *WE* do what? Who said that? This week, some one said they read it on a website. Certainly not our website! Those babies are worth more to us and our Affiliate partners as live baby chicks than dead baby chicks. :(

Here are a number of scenarios as to what happens to the baby chicks after our Hatch The Chicken program is complete:

The girls are raised to be hens for Rent The Chicken

The girls are raised as breeding stock for Hatch The Chicken

The boys are raised to be roosters to fertilize eggs for Hatch The Chicken

The girls are raised to lay eggs for our families

The boys are raised to protect our flocks to help keep them safe

The chicks are sold to families looking to expand their flocks

The roosters are sold to families looking to protect their flock

I can't confirm what other organizations do with their baby chicks after a hatching program but I know with my whole heart that all of the chicks hatched with our Hatch The Chicken program provide a purpose following the rental. We value their lives and value what they bring to our business and those who participate in our programs.

"No Judgement Chicken Mentors"

This morning, as I was chatting with a renter who was signing up to reserve her Rent The Chicken Rental, she said "My farming friends keep saying to me 'Just get chickens' but I'm not ready for that! I need a 'no judgement' ..." As she was pausing to find the words I blurted out "We'll be your 'No Judgement Chicken Mentors'!" We laughed and she said that would be a great topic for a blog post. So here it is... "No Judgement Chicken Mentors"

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." :)

The Great Dayton Fair!

We LOVE our local county fair - The Great Dayton Fair! It's not the "Dayton County" fair as our county is Armstrong County but the fair is located in the very rural town of Dayton. This is year two of us camping in our little RV next to my sister and her family who have been camping at the Fair for likely 10 years or more! When we tell people that we will be camping at the fair, they assume we are showing animals as most people who camp do show animals. This fair does not have a poultry category so the chickens stay at home. We love our local fair so much that we want to enjoy all of it and not have to make the 45 minute drive home every night then tackle bedtime upon arriving home. Between our niece Brooklynn's, Our Girl's, and my entries (which Homestead Phil of course takes part in!), we submitted 30 exhibits in varying categories of canned items, baked goods, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, as well as items created at the 4H craft camp that the girls attended this summer!

Here's what Fair week and the week before the fair look like for us:

A few weeks before the fair, I start perusing an almost 200 page booklet to decide what items we should submit.

Before the Saturday a week before the fair starts, the official entry form needs to be filled in and submitted.

We trek to the Fair Grounds to reserve our camp site, pay for our wrist bands, pay for the ride all week passes, AND submit the forms.

Grocery shop for ingredients of the proposed baked good submissions.

Wednesday and Thursday before The Fair starts, the baking commences, the lego building is finalized, the craft camp items are gathered, and the eggs are weighed.

On Friday morning, the baked goods are plated. It's decided which of the vegetables we are able to submit vs ones we want to eat! The canned items are retrieved from the basement. The eggs are carefully wiped and placed into the cartons. The craft camp items are given a once over to determine if anything needs any last minute glue!

It's time to load the vehicle! Submissions are accepted only between noon and 7pm!

Exhibitor tags can be picked up earlier in the week but since The Fair is 45 minutes each way, we decide to tag our items at the Fair Grounds. We bring a stapler, scotch tape, a hole punch, a marker, and yarn to attach our appropriate tags! (not my first rodeo, friends!) This garden stone was created at Craft Camp. Imagine that the silver is the plate then you'll see the masterpiece all come together! This is an example of the tag with the yarn showing our heart shaped hole punch :) Without the yarn and the hole punch, I have no idea how we would have attached the tag!

We form an assembly line at the vehicle after picking up our tags.

There's a station for each category. Kids are in one line while I'm in another before going back to the car to tag and retrieve more items!

30 items submitted! Record amount for us!

Then we wait. The building doesn't official open until Monday morning to see what ribbons were earned for each item! Oh the wait!

There's still plenty to keep us occupied as we have to grocery shop for the week, prepare the RV, and load it up!

There are pre-fair events that happen like horse pulls and the like. Our main goal was to have the RV set up with time for relaxation before the crowning of the Dayton Fair Queen which happens on Sunday evening. This event was near to our hearts this year as our niece, Gabi, was handing over her crown to the next Dayton Fair Queen. Gabi's reign of 2017 Dayton Fair Queen came to an end that evening. Brooklynn and Our Girl knew the 2018 Dayton Fair Queen from their time at Craft Camp and were thrilled to be able to say they knew the Queen!

In other news, we were able to get into the Exhibit Hall to get a sneak peek of some of our categories that were already judged! Say, what?! We didn't have to wait until Monday! I'll share the ribbons below. To fill you in, we received ribbons for 20 of our submissions!!

Throughout the week, we enjoyed a concert of Danny Gokey, unlimited rides, plenty of rain, limited fair food, watching our nieces compete with their horse, seeing all of the fair animals, meeting up with friends & family, and of course, showing off our ribbons to anyone who would walk to the Exhibit Hall with us! :) Oh.. and of course the Demolition Derby & the Rodeo! Brooklynn exclaimed "I saw a real life cowboy riding a bull!"

Remember when I offered selfies with Reba The Chicken at the Southern Women's Show? Well.. I met her cousin! Reba The Horse! Of course I took a selfie! (I know you were just thinking "Did Homestead Jenn snap a selfie!?")

Friday night of The Fair, I caught up with my friend Molly and her family. Her husband's family has been involved with the fair FOREVER! His great grandparents had their name on a bench at The Fair for years. The Fair is working on replacing the old benches with new ones and offered the oldest benches to be donated back to the family members. Molly and her family had been walking around The Fair all week to look for the bench that they had no problems finding each year previous but without success. I made it my duty to try to find the bench on Sunday. I gathered up two of my nieces plus Brooklynn, and a few other random horse kids who camped near us. We strategically walked around the ENTIRE fairgrounds to try to find the bench. We were also determined to get our pictures in each of the wooden displays around the fair. It was quite an adventure! I promised ice cream at the end. I'm fairly certain that we walked for more than two hours! The littlest kiddo was 4 or so years old! *blink* The oldest was 14. We had fun! We took one last look at all of our ribbons and by this time, moldy baked goods :P We sadly did not find the bench but we did find ice cream! Molly and family were able to retrieve their bench on Sunday after The Fair. Turns out, it was in rough shape, still covered in cobwebs so it was thought that it wasn't even used this fair! We got a good walk in at the fair and enjoyed ice cream nonetheless!

The girls' ribbons:

Our ribbons:

There are a few items that we hoped to submit that we just ran out of time for. Next year, we are hopeful there is still a Duct Tape contest - make anything out of Duct Tape and submit the creation! I also hope to crochet some over the next 11 months and submit a few of my creations. See you next year, The Great Dayton Fair!

Where do I start? It's my birthday!

I plan on getting back in the groove of blogging. Our summer visitor / niece Brooklynn has returned back to Oregon after 10 weeks of being with us and Our Girl has started school. Both of those factors SHOULD mean that I have more structure in my life and can get back to some "Family. Food. Fun!" especially on Fridays on our Rent The Chicken Facebook Page.

I don't even know where to start! Instead of puking words out in just one blog entry, I will start small and give tidbits. So I'll start with this: My birthday is tomorrow (which will likely be today by the time I post this)! I am turning the big 4-2! For about six months of the year, Homestead Phil and I are the same age. Pretty incredible as we didn't meet in college or high school where one might think when our ages are so close together. We're not throwing nor hosting a big party BUT my mom's Family Reunion is on my birthday (again)! It's special to me. For as long as I can remember, I celebrated my birthday with my maternal Gramma. Her birthday was September 2nd along with one of my uncles. Her birthday morphed into a family reunion so it's like I always have a big family gathering right around my birthday on Labor Day weekend. Will there be cake with "Happy Birthday"? No idea but there is usually the best deserts in the whole county at our reunions! I made some of my famous "Deviled Egg Casserole" which is just egg salad! I also made gobs. They are yum and are known in other parts as whoopie pies.

On my birthday in 2013, the Family Reunion was held. It was also the same day that Rent The Chicken was first ever printed in a newspaper - front page below the fold in the local newspaper of my hometown: Indiana, Pennsylvania. That's confusing for those not familiar. Indiana is the town in the state of Pennsylvania. We were certainly the talk of the reunion and some of my relatives even brought copies for us to see! From there, the Associated Press picked it up and we were printed in even more newspapers! Here's a link to our OG article: The Indiana Gazette We didn't even have official Rent The Chicken shirts yet! :)

I love my birthday. I talk about it for about a week or so before hand. Pre-Facebook, I'd tell everyone that my birthday was approaching. I wouldn't be fishing for a gift. I just didn't want anyone to forget the feel bad. So everyone had a heads up! :) I love that Our Girl loves to tell people about her birthday. We celebrated her birthday this summer. Maybe it's her age or maybe she's like me and just likes to tell people about it! Maybe I act like a child in regards to my birthday? haha.. one or the other is quite possibly true! Either way... I love being with family, eating yummy foods, and hearing that great jiggle of "Happy birthday to you...!"

Remember when...

Remember when I used to blog at least once a week? I'll try my best to get back into the swing of things!

With our niece Brooklynn visiting for the summer, Our Girl (foster kiddo who we plan to adopt), day trips, maintaining and growing both Rent The Chicken and The Chicken Network, plus managing the home part of The Homestead, I've been a bit busy and maybe even overwhelmed so my blog took a backseat. In fact, it may have been on the back bumper and not even on the backseat!

We drove to New Jersey to be part of a Coops for Troops presentation. It was our first time but a number of our Rent The Chicken Affiliates have participated previously. To watch last season's episodes of Coops for Troops for free online, go on over to Coops for Troops! Scroll down to "bonus features" which are the actual episodes. It was an incredible experience. A local chicken 4-H club nominated a vet to receive the package of generous sponsors including chickens from Rent The Chicken!

We made a day trip to Old Bedford Village in Bedford, PA. It's been a few years since I've been there. It's this great "village" experience that stepped us back into the 1800s with basket making, history lessons, a blacksmith, candle maker, and more! They did have some chickens but none were available for rent! :) Like Aunt like niece in these photos!

We are well into #TompkinsPalooza2018 as I mentioned a few entries back. It's really about being purposeful with friends and family. Neighbor kids from up the road have been visiting again. They used to visit when we had our last little guy and it's good to have a reason for them to be visiting again. In addition to a few trips, we've also been puzzling (probably not the right verbiage?!), swimming in the river, playing board games, creating in the kitchen, and more! We also hatched baby chicks this week! Can you believe these kids are convinced that they need three meals a day?! Yesterday, "Uncle Dad" (as Homestead Phil has been renamed around The Homestead) "made" breakfast, we went out for lunch as we were out running errands and the natives were getting restless, and we traded eggs for pizza at our favorite local pizza place - Wolfies. I didn't have to cook one meal! There was a death in our church family so I did whip up about 3 dozen eggs worth of egg salad for the meal to follow the funeral.

Our IT department (aka Homestead Phil) is backing up my phone, updating my operating system, and has big plans for a phone upgrade for me. So I've been without my cell phone for hours! It's a good thing I have a PC and a work phone all conveniently located at my desk while the updates are happening. When I talk on the phone, it sounds like the person on the other end is a little mouse in a box trying to talk to me so I've been using the speakerphone option. Even my headset isn't work well. In addition to hearing people when I'm trying to talk on the phone, I hear the emojis with the last 27 iOS updates are pretty great! I wouldn't know, they all show up as squares and question marks when people send them to me. I just use my imagination as to what emojis are being sent to me :) All in a days work, right? Hot Date plans for our Friday night include a trip to the Verizon store. Yay.

Chat soon!
-Homestead Jenn

The Broody Hen

This is new for me. Not the broody hen subject but posting my blog on a device rather than on a computer!  I'm not quite sure if I can add pics but I'll try!

We troubleshoot all sorts of ailments during the rental season one of which is a broody hen. When a hen is broody, she is determined to hatch chicks even if: there's no rooster for chicks and  eggs are removed from her regularly! If she is left to her own devices, she will slow up in eating and drinking, spend countless hours in the roost area, pull feathers from her underside to create skin to egg contact increasing the temp, and fluff her feathers out.  PLUS, if you try to move her, she will give her opinion of you VERY loudly! Haha!I had to apply some of my own advice recently as we had a Broody Hen at the Homestead.

We have a big coop that holds about 25-30 hens or so on each side with separate everything: run, roost area, and nesting boxes. We only had hens on one side a few weeks ago but we integrated more of the same hatch of the same breeds on one side.  We brought home younger Red Stars and wanted to keep them  separate on the other side.

A black Australorp went broody. Always on the eggs (10-12?!) every night when i would collect eggs. I'd move her to a roost as well as others who were sleeping outside to train them where to sleep.

The other night, I was done with her shenanigans! I moved her from the nesting box to the red star side and put her on the roost! She's the ONLY non-red star on that side! The next night I peeked in on the red star side... She was on the front roost lined up with all of the other red stars! It's been a few days. She is back to eating and drinking and goes to bed on the roost. It makes me giggle every time I see her out with her new friends! I flex my brain muscles at her and take pride in the fact that I won the fight!

How is it... ?

How is it that it's 12:34am on Saturday and I failed as a blogger to

• Post a single blog in the last 7 days
• Make a #FridayFamilyFoodFun! post on Facebook on Friday?
• That May 2018 is here already AND we are already on day #5?

If I had a boss, I would possibly be released from my duties as Jenn The Blogger. Good thing I am Jenn The Boss! To read all about these JTB nicknames, click here. I'll continue with this haphazard writing for all of you to enjoy :) Maybe my lack of entries generates suspense?! haha I doubt it. When we were at the Farm to Table event in Pittsburgh 3 or so weeks ago, one of our previous renters turned long-term chicken keepers (shout out to Sarah L!) said "I really enjoy your blog!"! Made me smile. When I read someone's personal blog, it really makes me feel like I know them better. I hope that is the same for you.

As planned, I attended our church's Ladies Tea #NCLParTEA last Saturday. I had a fantastic time and wore my fanciest hat for the festivities. (See photo above as if you didn't already figure it out!)

I think I forgot that it's not typical of an average person like myself to be in the news a few times a month and even a few times a week sometimes! Here's a real convo with Homestead Phil earlier this week:
HP: I'm going to need your help outside with the animals in about 30 minutes.
Me: Ok! I need to do two things uninterrupted that I HAVE to do before I come outside.
HP: ok. You better hope the phone doesn't ring.
(famous last words)
...20 minutes go by...Phil comes inside.
Me: I'm not ready yet. The phone rang. The Wall Street Journal called for an interview.

I posted this convo on my personal Facebook page and received a ton of reactions (that's what the likes are called now) and over 20 comments of kudos. Either I should post more often about our media attention or keep only doing it once in awhile to keep peeps on their toes? The article is not published as of yet. When it does, I'll try to post here for you to take a read. For fun, here are a bunch of news articles and videos at Rent The Chicken.com that feature many of our Rent The Chicken Family!

We have a new option at Rent The Chicken.com. Even though we can service more than 60 major markets in the USA & Canada, there are still people out there who are in need of some chicken friends. We now have an Out of Area Package available. It's not a rental. It's a turnkey purchase which provides our brand spanking new coop made by our Amish friend, 3 hens, and supplies needed to get started with backyard hens. The portable coop ships flat, assemblies with just a few tools, and is easy to move daily. Big props to my cousin Jamie for taking some incredible photos of our new coop!

For the first time in AGES, I joined Homestead Phil on a delivery day! That's a BIG reason why I didn't make my #FridayFamilyFoodFun! Facebook post today! We made three deliveries to families who are new to backyard hens and one delivery to a renter who is ready to a long-term chicken keeper! The first photo is of my new friend Nikole. She's an awesome photographer / food blogger and you can find some of her work on Instagram. Give her a follow! She was also raised in Western PA like me. She moved out of the area and found her husband. Ironically, she found her husband in Portland, Oregon. I found my Portland, Oregon raised husband in Maryland. Both Nikole and I then moved back to the area with a spouse in tow! The second family looks like they were born to have backyard hens, don't you think? Lastly, I'm so proud of our third Happy Renter as she never a held a chicken before today! These are some Happy Renters, don't you agree!?

We'll have some more news in the coming weeks in regards to a huge project that we've been working on. God willing, we'll also have some news to share on the foster to adopt front. We are blessed.

Simple Pancake Recipe!

Hi all!

This Simple Pancake Recipe has been provided by Homestead RayLee who provides Rent The Chicken to Middle Tennessee!

1 Rent The Chicken Farm Fresh Egg (Ok.. you can likely use any egg but fresh eggs are the best!)
1 very ripe banana

In a bowl, smash the banana and add the egg. Mix until the two are combined. Cook like you would a regular pancake. We're big fans of cast iron skillets so we like to cook ours in the cast iron. Top with butter and syrup!

Enjoy the best pancake you've ever had!

Oldies but Goodies - Hens that is!

I was chatting with a former renter, Lindsay, and now great friend and it was suggested for me to talk about the "Oldies but Goodies" in regards to hens! This particular friend rented from us in our first full season in 2014 with her assigned "Steeler Chickens" of a Black Australorp and a Buff Orpington named Maty & Iris. Maty passed away last summer and Iris is plugging along as an only although she sometimes sneaks into the house to hang with the fam!

Lindsay is not the only one who converted to being a long-term chicken keeper of our first season of chicken rentals! After looking through our very first list of renters, at least half of them are long-term chicken keepers! These folks participated in Rent The Chicken and still have chickens to this day! Some took a break after the rental. Some let us winter their hens and adopted in the spring. Others took the plunge and adopted at the end of their first rental. They all earned an education through our service and made great educated decisions on their long-term chicken keeping goals because of it. Here are some throw backs of our Happy Renters of 2014!

A big thank you to all who have trusted us to guide you through the first steps of backyard chicken keeping!

Pizza Crust Recipe!

Hey y'all! (You can tell that I'm still recovering from my Nashville trip!)

This low carb and egg based pizza crust has been provided by Homestead Brandon & Alyssa who provide Rent The Chicken to the Laurel Highlands Area of Pennsylvania.

4 eggs
4 oz softened cream cheese
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
Garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything until smooth with hand mixer. Pour onto a baking sheet and smooth out (it will be a bit lumpy, no matter). Bake at 350F until golden (about 35 min). Top how you would like and bake for another 10.

Enjoy!

"Egg in the Hole" Technique

Do you know what an "Egg in the Hole" is? I'm not sure I did until I met Phil! Here's a picture of my perfected Egg in the Hole!

I've tried to make this probably twenty different ways and FINALLY pulled all of my positive Egg in the Hole results together! Here's what I've learned through the years:

• Use an electric griddle and not a skillet - I don't know why but I think this is what helped perfect it!
• Butter one side of the bread. Place it on the hot electric griddle butter side down. Butter the other side.
• Cut a hole into the bread. I usually cut a square about 1.5". Be careful though! Don't scratch your griddle!
• I always crack my egg into a little bowl before adding it to a dish. At this point, I gently pour a bit of the egg white in first and finish with the yolk.
• Once the bottom of the bread is nice and toasted, CAREFULLY flip your Egg in the Hole over.
• Let it cook until you have a desired "dippy" (it's a Western PA thing!) or over easy egg.
• By then, the bottom of your bread will also be toasted.

You're welcome! :)

Hard Boiled Eggs - It's That Time of the Year!

Before high speed internet and google, anytime I needed a recipe, I'd call my Mom. No matter if my Mom or stepdad answered, they would give line after line on the recipe card from the recipe box. I never would write down the "How to hard boil egg" steps and called every time. At that time, I was in my early 20s and didn't make them often. I would get confused with putting the eggs in the cold water like boiling potatoes or putting the eggs in the boiling water like pasta.

One year, I was gifted a cookbook from my Mom and stepdad with this note inside:

Ironically, when Phil and I married, we both had a copy of the same cookbook! It's the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book! Click here to buy it on Amazon. Phil's was ring bound with a hard cover so my copy is stashed with my pile of cookbooks and I use his regularly.

Here's the recipe straight from the book!

Here are my added notes about preparing fresh eggs prior to cooking:

• Fresh eggs can be kept on the counter unwashed.
• I have a small "Easter Basket" bucket from Walmart for $1 that I use only for egg washing. Click here for similar ones to mine.
• We have an egg storing system on the counter but one never knows if there was a breach in the system so while washing the eggs, I always do a "Float Test". It's easy peasy! If the egg sinks and stays at the bottom of the bucket of water, then it's still good to use. If it floats, as Homestead Phil says "Float it out of your house" meaning be gentle as it is likely rotten. Put it in a Ziploc bag and place it gently in the trash or without the Ziploc carefully place it into your compost bin.
• The cleaner you keep your nesting box, the cleaner your eggs will be. In the case of dirty eggs, I use a great homemade crocheted scrubber similar to these ones on Etsy.com.
• Fresher eggs tend to be harder to peel. Either just know that or keep older eggs (a week or two old) around for hard boiling.

Here are added notes on after the cooking time has finished:

• I place a metal mixing bowl into the sink and fill it with cold water
• I use the largest straining "spoon" I've ever seen to move the eggs similar to this one to move the eggs from the hot pot of water to the mixing bowl of cold water.
• As the water starts to warm from the eggs transferring the heat, drain as much of the water out of the mixing bowl as possible and add more cold water.
• With this method of cooling the eggs, I have found even fresh eggs easy to peel.
• If not, we've found an OK method of peeling which doesn't do as much damage to the egg but it's more for immediate eating or egg salad or deviled eggs and not whole hard boiled eggs. Use a butter knife to cut the egg with the shell down the middle. Use a plastic spoon to scoop the egg out of the shell. You have to do this step just right with the membrane or it doesn't slide right out.

Here's a pic of my infamous "Deviled Egg Casserole" as it sounds fancier than Egg Salad and less labor intensive than Deviled Eggs. :)