JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
When egg prices surged to record highs this year, so did the number of people who added egg-laying chickens to their backyard. As many as 11 million households have them, according to the American Pet Products Association. But for those who aren't ready to fully commit, renting is an option. Chicken rental businesses provide everything a person needs - the coop, the food and the hens. Skyler Rossi with member station Harvest Public Media reports.
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SKYLER ROSSI, BYLINE: It's been just over a week that chickens have been living in Katie Hitt's backyard in St. Louis. And on this day, the four multicolored birds cluck as they snack on a treat of dried mealworms, which Hitt is shaking into the run of their coop.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHICKENS CLUCKING)
ROSSI: She and her family have enjoyed the pale blue eggs the hens lay, and her three young kids are having fun with the birds.
KATIE HITT: That's the first thing they're thinking of when they wake up in the morning, is, like, how are the chickens and what are they doing?
ROSSI: Local regulations for backyard chickens vary across the country. Hitt can only keep hens, not a rooster, in her backyard, and they must stay contained.
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ROSSI: She had wanted the birds for a while, but she was nervous about doing something wrong. She didn't know anyone with a backyard flock and was overwhelmed by the amount of advice online.
HITT: I'm looking at coops, and I'm looking at food. I'm looking at all these things, and I just wasn't sure what the right move would be.
ROSSI: But then Hitt heard about chicken rentals. She could have her birds and coop delivered right to her home, expert advice and only a one-year commitment. And renting was quick.
HITT: It was just like, boom, there we go. We didn't have chickens one day, and then we had a whole setup the next.
ROSSI: People flocked to get backyard chickens this year. Rent The Chicken, a national backyard rental business, opened over a decade ago. Co-founder Jenn Tompkins says in some of their regions, all of their birds were rented by early May, which was unusual.
JENN TOMPKINS: We've been so busy, we haven't even been able to compare numbers now versus last year. When we looked in February, we were already about 20% ahead on this year versus last year, this time.
ROSSI: Hatcheries say they were also flooded with orders. Some point to the recent expensive egg prices and shortages as the reason why.
TOM WATKINS: Things exploded, and it's almost 100% to do with eggs, and the cost of eggs, specifically.
ROSSI: That's Tom Watkins, the president of Murray McMurray Hatchery in Webster City, Iowa, which sells about 3 million chicks a year to people across the U.S. Typically, the hatchery has its sales lined up a few weeks in advance, but this year, Watkins says they're sold out through October, the end of the season.
WATKINS: That's 40 weeks of chickens that are presold. We've literally sold them, you know, counted them before they hatched, so (laughter)...
ROSSI: To be clear, even with the record high prices of eggs at the grocery store this year, you can expect to shell out more to keep the chickens. For example, in March, the average cost of a dozen eggs was $6.23. A person who bought a carton every week for a year at that price would spend about $320. However, Katie Bell, an agriculture educator with the University of Illinois Extension, says that all the supplies needed for chickens, like the coop and the fencing to protect them against predators, would cost more than that.
KATIE BELL: You could spend, easily spend, $500 before you even get the birds.
ROSSI: And that goes for renting chickens, too. In St. Louis, Emilie and Tom Schnitzer opened Four Feathered Hens at the beginning of this year. Their rental packages start at $95 per month for a year-long commitment. Emilie says their most expensive package, at $190 a month, includes full care of the birds.
EMILIE SCHNITZER: We'll come out. We'll feed the chickens. We'll change out the bedding and the coop, make sure everything is going smoothly, just so it's pretty much the family only has to collect the eggs.
ROSSI: Katie Hitt is renting from the Schnitzers. Her family is caring for the chickens themselves. Hitt says her kids are picky eaters, but they want to eat the eggs from their chickens.
HITT: This is like, oh, I know my chicken. You know, they're already deciding whose chicken is who. My chicken laid this one. I'm going to eat that one. And so it's really, really cute.
ROSSI: Hitt's not sure yet if she'll keep the chickens after the year is up, but for now, she's enjoying the experience.
For NPR News, I'm Skyler Rossi in Columbia, Missouri.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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