Programs

Lively Little Farm became an affiliate of Rent the Chicken in 2022 and now offers both the Rent the Chicken and Hatch the Chicken programs to the LA area. 

To learn more about renting laying hens, visit RenttheChicken.com

To learn more about renting hatching eggs, visit RenttheChicken.com Hatching

Why we are passionate about Renting Programs:

Renting provides families and communities unique opportunities. Lively Little Farm offers the only rental or short-term option for raising livestock in the LA area. Short term commitments allow customers to explore agriculture responsibly, knowing that the chicks and hens have a safe home to return to at anytime. 

Rentals are a great fit for schools, home-schoolers, libraries, and care facilities that would like to offer educational and therapeutic enrichment to their communities. 

Hen Rentals: These six month rentals provide an all inclusive package, laying hens, deluxe coops, feeders, waterers, and six months worth of feed, with optional upgrades for organic feed. Customers receive hens who are in their first, most productive season of laying.

Many individuals know the benefits of keeping chickens but diving into raising an animal that they’ve never seen raised before can prove daunting and take months to prepare for. After the initial rental period customers may choose to rent the same hens again the following season, adopt their flock, or rent new hens the following season. Renting new hens ensures that they always receive the maximum number of eggs, an important consideration for those who are not able to expand their flock size due to city regulations. 

For those living in an urban or suburban area, sourcing materials can be difficult. When they receive everything upfront customers avoid the need to spend hours researching when and where to purchase equipment, run to the feed store, assemble items, etc.

Finally, the expense of raising hens to the point of lay is significant, at least five months of feed as well as specialized chick equipment that cannot be used once hens reach maturity. Mature hens are also much hardier, so customers can worry much less about the emotional impact of potential loss. Furthermore, no hatchery can guarantee 100% that all chicks sold as female will in-fact be female. By raising chickens from chicks, individuals run the risk of becoming emotionally attached to a chicken that grows up to be a rooster, leaving them in a difficult position. Many neighborhoods do not allow roosters and many people choose not to raise them for a variety of reasons. As a result, individuals with "surprise" roosters face the difficulty of trying to re-home or harvest them. Renting laying hens, allows customers to avoid all of this. 

Hatching Rentals:

Few things bring as much joy as baby chicks, and, happily, there is a growing awareness that their cuteness needs to be enjoyed responsibly. These five week rentals provide everything needed to hatch fertilized eggs and then care for the new chicks for two weeks before they return to the farm. Hatching rentals provide an alternative to purchasing baby chicks as cute gifts only to be overwhelmed by their growing, messy adolescent phase after a few weeks. 

Even for those with a more well-researched approach, rentals are a great alternative to purchasing expensive equipment. sourcing materials individually, and then rehoming the chicks when the hatching experience is over.