Kamloops couple offers up their chickens for rent

KAMLOOPS – Have you ever wanted fresh eggs every morning, but don’t know the first thing about raising chickens? If only there was a way to rent the birds and to test your skills as a poultry farmer.

Well, you’re in luck because a Kamloops couple are doing just that. Ron and Marie McGivern have recently signed on with the American company Rent the Chicken.

“It’s a great opportunity for someone who wants to try it out,” McGivern says, adding raising chickens can be a steep learning curve.

The chickens will be available from May through November starting next year. The McGiverns will provide customers with two to four egg laying hens, a portable coop and all the food necessary for a five to six month rental.

“It just struck Marie and I that this was a natural extension of what we’re already doing,” Ron says. The couple raise sheep and chickens for sale locally at their farm in Cherry Creek.

Plus, Ron says the business also sounded like a lot of fun. The couple already have people who are interested in renting birds.

“People think it’s a neat idea," he says.

Jenn Tompkins, the founder of Rent the Chicken, says her company falls right in line with the direction Kamloops is heading with urban agriculture.

Tompkins and her husband Phil came up with the idea when her previous job came to an end.

“I thought ‘I know how to build stuff’ and Rent the Chicken was hatched,” Tompkins says.

“People want to know where their food is coming from,” she says believing a change in attitudes towards food and food production has created a demand for her particular product.

“We’re more popular then we could have imagined. We always say 10 years ago, chances of it being successful were very slim.”

To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.