Before Facebook it was all about the blogs.  It was a place where you could share all sorts of information on any topic with the rest of the world.  However, once Facebook came along, they made it really easy to share information, no matter when or where you are. 

It takes a lot of time to keep up a blog, and as you can see here, I haven't done a very good job of it.  I have kept posting on our Facebook page though, so I want to encourage you to visit our Facebook page and Like it so you can stay up to date on everything that is going on at The Chicken Rental Place.

www.Facebook.com/TheChickenRentalPlace

​Hope to see you there.

It seems that winter is done, for the most part.  The hens are laying eggs and out scratching around, enjoying the warmer weather and the grass and weed sprouts that are starting to come up.  Soon they will be picking around getting all the bugs they can eat.  Good protein!

All the feed stores are selling chicks, so everyone is starting to think about chickens.  Now is the time to get your rentals.  You can receive your rental hens with the coop and all the equipment and start having fresh eggs the next day.  They hens have been laying for the last month or two and are in full swing.  

And all those eggs were from one trip down to the coops!  You can see the larger coop in the center of the picture towards the top.  Most of the hens stay in that coop.  There is also a brooding coop that we use to the left that is hard to see behind the handle of the basket.  Some of the rental hens are still in that coop, waiting to go to their new homes.

We look forward to talking with you and finding out if chickens are right for you.  Give us a call at 804-501-8266.  

No chickens were harmed or tortured in the creation of this post!  What I am talking about is having hens come back for a visit.  

We had some renters from last year that decided to adopt their hens.  Once the winter weather set in with all the rain we have had, their backyard turned into a mud puddle and they called for assistance.  They brought their hens over and are staying at our place until spring shows up, hopefully in early March.  

They seem to be enjoying themselves back at our place, visiting with all their old friends and meeting new friends that will be going out this spring.  For some reason though, they often seem to end up in the garage.  Not sure what they are looking for in there, but we have to watch where we walk!  They also like to eat any plants and weeds coming up in our pots sitting outside the garage.

This is a service that we offer to our customers.  If you have grown attached to your hens and would like to keep them full time, but don't want to deal with the frozen water and other issues of keeping them during the winter, we can help.  We will band their legs for identification and then let them stay with us for the winter.  Once spring arrives, we can reunite you with your hens.  We try our best to make having chickens as easy as possible!

Winter is a cold and dark time of year for chickens.  They don't receive enough light during the winter months to really keep up egg production.  It is a time for them to rejuvenate and relax.  For the pullets it is a time of anticipation.  "When will the first eggs show up?"  "How much longer until we start to get eggs from the new hens?"  Each day I go down to the coop, hoping to find an egg or two in their nesting boxes, but nothing so far.  They should start laying any time this next month, making them ready to go for March.  

Even our hens from last year have taken a break this winter.  With about 22 hens in the coop, the egg production varies from three to seven a day.  It seems with this last cold stretch it has dropped to two!  But that is alright.  I know that once the warmer weather comes and once the sun starts coming up sooner and staying up in the sky later, the number of eggs will increase!  Another good reason to look forward to spring.

If you want to be at the start of the egg production, let us know and we can set you up with a coop and some laying hens so you can enjoy fresh eggs yourself.

The blog is a new feature on "The Chicken Rental Place" website.  It will be a place for tips, comments and photos on chicken rentals and chickens in general.  Some of you may be following us on Facebook, which is great.  Everything here will also be posted to Facebook.  Facebook will also include more general photos of the chickens and doing what we do around "The Chicken Rental Place."  I hope you enjoy this journey with us, and please, feel free to leave comments and start a dialogue.  If you have any questions about chicken rentals or chickens, please let us know.
Thanks!