Self Sufficiency

There is such a thing as a rental hen market for people who want to get a feel for having their chicken in the backyard without the commitment. Seems like hiring a backyard farmer to teach people how they could become self-sufficient for food would make even more sense. Back when that story was published in 2017, backyard farming was more something people may have wanted to explore. Today, it could go the way of the rental hen. 

Rent the Chicken is a network of farmers in the US and Canada who deliver chickens, portable coops, and all the necessary supplies to people wanting to give chicken-rearing a test run, or for those who want to keep chickens only part-time. 

The company’s co-founder, Jenn Tompkins, said she expected business to dry up this year because people facing furloughs or layoffs wouldn’t want to throw money at borrowed birds. It turned out she was “dead wrong:” The waitlist in Toronto is now 175+ deep.