I'm going to be sharing posts from a blog: The Renegade Poultry Project, we wrote for our business in 2015-2016. We had this fun idea to rent out chickens and chicken coops to people in Albuquerque. It was an easy business to start and run if you have the tools and skills! We had up to 45 renters/eventual buyers. The whole idea was to get the chickens and chicken coops into their back yard by renting them out, then people would fall in love with the chickens and just buy the whole set up with the birds from us. It was a perfect little side business that @renegadefarmer and I had a ton of fun starting together, enjoy this series!

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We are a two-person team working towards building a local, organic, hormone/antibiotic-free poultry farm here in New Mexico for the local community (a real emphasis on local). This would be "The Renegade Poultry Project" which really only sprouted in Cameron's mind less than a year ago. In its infancy stages, we are currently looking for land. We have most of the vision sorted out so far, at least how we would like the farm to function. I doubt that what we plan is what will be implemented exactly, if we have learned anything so far its that the unknown is all knowing.

Currently there's Renegade Rent-A-Coop our venture to incorporate chicken-keeping into the urban community. Rent-A-Coop is up and running now with 10 renters across Albuquerque with Renegade hens, we'll start the poultry farm with what we hope to gain from Rent-A-Coop.

Rent-A-Coop actually began right after Cameron and I met last June. He had read online about companies renting out chickens, most operating in the Northeastern states where normally city folk don't keep chickens. But this is the Southwest, most people (even inner-city) have had chickens or have had contact with chickens. We found this out quick at the market, where our hook was "hey there, do you got chickens?" and a lot more people than expected would confirm immediately, then proceed to tell us all about their chickens. People who have chickens, love chickens and love to talk about them...including us!

We are the first to rent chickens in New Mexico and the locals seem to really love the idea so far, we've even had a few magazine interviews. We attended the Mile-Hi Farmers' Market for only 8 weeks of market. We feel pretty accomplished for such a short time and all the buzz we've received online, since our coops are so visually appealing. We figure they have to be little works of art if people are going to want to put them in their backyards.

All our coops are hand-built and hand-painted by us, and no two coops are alike. Renters can sign up for 2 egg-laying hens or for 4 teenage hens, which can be raised into egg-laying hens for the same monthly price. Cameron has come up with a more streamlined design with roost bars and raised nest boxes for this new season. The renters have the choice of color scheme to try to fit into their backyard decor: Natural, NM pride, or Renegade. Renegade is the preferred choice, it means whatever I feel like painting/let my creative juices flow...and it works out even more wild than I envision most of the time.

Then we drop off the coop to their backyard, and it stays for as long as they want to rent it. If the renters enjoy their chicken-renting experience, we hope they will purchase our coop and chickens to become real chicken-keepers. We help them get used to the idea and try it out without all the upfront costs of chicken raising...plus the only choices in NM are Chinese-built coops to purchase from national chains, even the local feed stores sell imported coops.

Rent-A-Coop is our baby right now, we are constantly building & painting, attempting to acquire new hens, trying to get the word out, dropping off coops to new renters and experimenting new ideas. This winter our goal is to be ready for spring by building a stock of coops, so come spring when a renter signs up there is no waiting period.

Check out our new style for 2015 - much bigger this year to accommodate future additions to the flock, chickens are addicting, well at least the fresh eggs are...

First coops of the year:

forever grateful*
Jennifer

Renegade Poultry Project, 1: Rent-A-Coop

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