FREEPORT, Pa. – With the outbreak of bird flu leading to egg shortages, consumers are seeing the price for eggs reach upt to $7 a dozen in some areas. This has consumers looking for an alternative to the grocery store.

A Freeport-based company, Rent The Chicken, was founded by Phil and Jenn Tompkins in 2013. Their objective from the start has been to help people have just one food source closer to their table, and they do this by letting consumers rent chickens.

“We call this concept ‘Yard to Table’,” Jenn said. “We have franchises across 28 states. Each location is a family-run affiliate helping families to bring one simple food source closer to their table, one rental at a time. Business has been very good. I don’t know if the price of eggs has caused a surge in our business, but I do know that anyone who rents from us won’t have to worry about the price of those eggs, nor will they have to worry about stores running out of eggs.”

Rent The Chicken provides two to four egg-laying hens, a coop, food dish, water dish, and 100-200 pounds of feed for either a five- or six-month rental. Also provided to the renter is a copy of the book Fresh Eggs Daily by Lisa Steele or Happy Hens Fresh Eggs by Signe Langford.

Prices start around $495, depending on the location.

“The rental program is designed for customers with a yard as small as a 10 by 15 feet space,” Jenn said. “The coops have wheels and can easily be moved throughout one’s yard. The benefits of a moveable coop is that it keeps the grass from being pecked to nothing and for a buildup of droppings not to occur, thus decreasing the chances of odors.”

Rent The Chicken franchise owners, or homesteads, do the leg work.

“One places a reservation either through our website or over the phone,” Jenn said. “We schedule a date to bring the portable coop, the chickens and all the supplies needed for the rental period.”

Rental for the chickens runs April through October or May through November.

“Toward the end of the rental, if someone realizes they were born to raise backyard chickens then adopting the chickens and all their supplies is an option,” she said. “As soon as the start of another rental period comes back around, we schedule a time to take the chickens back for another season of rental. We’ve traveled more than 300 miles each way to service our customers.”

According to Jenn, two egg-laying hens rented through Rent The Chicken will typically provide eight to 14 eggs per week, while four will provide 16 to 28 eggs.

“At any time, the customer can adopt the chickens or as we say, chicken out, and return the chickens back to the homestead,” Jenn said. “Or they can adopt, or purchase, the chickens and equipment or even upgrade to a larger coop with more chickens.

“It is understood that animals sometimes get ill or predators find crafty ways to have chicken for lunch. The chickens will be replaced free of charge within the free delivery areas as long as the death of the Rent The Chicken was not due to neglect.”

Heather Schroeder and her family are Rent The Chicken franchise owners, serving the areas of Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Lansing and mid-Michigan. She is based in Haslett near Lansing. As a youngster, Schroeder raised chickens in 4-H.

“I’ve loved chickens since I was 10 years old, when my grandpa let me keep a coop in his backyard,” Schroeder said. “I’ve been hooked on chickens ever since. They’re so much fun and each one has its own personality.”

As shoppers deal with egg shortages and record-high prices, Schroeder said some people are turning to getting their own chickens, or renting them, to make sure they have enough.

“It’s driven by the fact that they can’t go to the store and get eggs, as there’s been shortages and they’ve cut people off to only one or two dozen,” Schroeder said. “Also, people are being more self-conscious about what they’re putting in their own bodies. They want to know, ‘Hey, this is what I’m feeding the chickens and this is where my food’s coming from’…and, ‘I can go right out in my backyard and have that fresh egg there in the morning.’”

While the bird flu continues to impact egg prices, Schroeder noted that she sources her chickens internally and renters cannot mix their chickens with other flocks. If they do, they have to keep them. She also runs six different pens, which are kept away from her main flock.

Schroeder and her family currently have about 50 chickens. About half of those are set to go out to renters this year. That includes a few hens that will be returning to their renters from last year after they asked Schroeder to keep them over the winter.

Rent The Chicken also runs and operates the Hatch The Chicken program, a five-week hatch rental service for families, senior care facilities and schools to see the progression of egg to chick without the commitment.

“We’re always looking to partner with farmers and homesteaders in other states as well,” Jenn said, adding that her Rent The Chicken business is flourishing more with suburban and urban areas than rural areas.

In the Farm World readership area, Rent The Chicken franchises are found in Iowa (Council Bluffs), Tennessee (Nashville, Murfreesboro), Michigan (Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing) and Ohio (Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Mansfield).

For pricing and more information go to http://www.rentthechicken.com/p/buy.html.