wellington womble
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Rent-a-chickenMy local farm shop has just started a rent-a-chicken scheme. You choose an amount (in half dozens) a pick up day and a timescale (quarterly up to a whole year) and get eggs for that period - eggs are collected the day before your pick up day, and are guranteed less than 24 hours old, at a 10 - 15 percent discount on usual prices. Struck me as a good idea for people like me, who would like chickens but who are prevented by practical means.
They're also doing starter kits, but I'm not allowed to look at those 
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RichardW
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Marketing spin lol
6 hens will produce 30 ish eggs per week. I bet you wont want that many
15% discount on what price?
You dont get the eggs from your hens.
Whats the cost of the rental?
They just want to
a, make you feel good
b, have a guaranteed market for the eggs
Clever but not "real world" just like carbon offsetting & plant a tree schemes arnt.
Richard
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tahir
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| RichardW wrote: | | Clever but not "real world" |
I'd say very clever in the real world, you get a regular punter for your eggs who'll hopefully buy other stuff too. Prolly not a huge benefit to the punter though.
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wellington womble
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| RichardW wrote: |
They just want to
a, make you feel good
b, have a guaranteed market for the eggs |
Of course - that's why this is in trading post. It's a good idea for other egg producers to suck in people with money to pay for luxury goods and get a regular income (and for people like me to get decent eggs at a discount)
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tahir
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Well done womble. The trick with any farm shop is to keep the punters regular, and this is an excellent way to do that.
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RichardW
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| wellington womble wrote: |
Of course - that's why this is in trading post. |
Is it? Thought this was SMC?
But yeh good for the sellers just cant see why punters would fall for it.
Richard
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Jamanda
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Because as you said, it makes them feel good. Can't see anything wrong with that. And they can buy nice fresh free range eggs from a place they trust. I'd say it was win win.
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wellington womble
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| RichardW wrote: | | wellington womble wrote: |
Of course - that's why this is in trading post. |
Is it? Thought this was SMC?
But yeh good for the sellers just cant see why punters would fall for it.
Richard |
Sorry - that's what I meant!  From my point of view, I would like to have chickens, but can't at the moment and it means I get fresh eggs (they have often sold out by the time I get there on a Saturday morning) and a discount of around ten percent. I'd imagine it's be great if you were trying to get kids interested in where their food comes from, or give an original Christmas gift for someone difficult.
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Cathryn
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I think it's a great idea. We discussed variations on it in HMM. Go and pack Richard. 
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Chez
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I think that's a great idea. How much are they charging? I reckon it's costing me 14p per egg to produce at the moment.
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Barefoot Andrew
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I think it's a great idea too - would suit me to join such a scheme. Wonder if I can suggest it to anyone...
A.
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Chez
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I should think local small producers would snap your arm off - as a small producer, I want a few regular people who take a small-ish amount weekly or fortnightly - not someone who comes irregularly takes six dozen and then buggers off never to be seen for eight or ten weeks.
Not that my mother in law does that, oh no, of course not.
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Barefoot Andrew
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| Chez wrote: | | I should think local small producers would snap your arm off |
I've seen better customer service
A.
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RichardW
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| Cathryn wrote: | | Go and pack Richard. |
Dont you start lol
Richard
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Penny
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Stop ganging up on him 
It's sort of what I do, but with friends and family.
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Cathryn
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It's sort of what I am going to have to do since Pookie gave me a dozen hatching eggs and I begged some more of Lottie earlier. 
It is great having hens back in the garden and true to form the cockerel took them all off to bed early, very early, lunch time in fact! They did keep rebelling and popping back down for a snack.
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Steel
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I spoke to a friend of mine in australia this morning who said a place near her had just set up a rent-a-chicken scheme. They come to your house with everything you need, leave it all with you for a month and at the end of the month you give the chickens and equipment back or pay them to keep it all.
That way people can test the water before they commit.
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Chez
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Hmm. That sounds like a good business idea.
*goes off to plot*
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Steel
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I've no idea if anyone over here does something similar.
It took hubby and I a year to build up to getting chickens and we fretted terribly about whether we were doing the right thing.
If we had known someone that could have rented us everything we needed and had them to call on during that time for advice and if we hated it we could just pay for the month and hand them back, we would definitely have done it much, much sooner.
I imagine you'd have to vet people quite carefully and assess if where they'd be keeping them is suitable. And I'm not sure how you sort out the money so they don't take to the hills with all your gear without paying. Take all the money upfront and then refund the difference if they hand it back after a month?
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Chez
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Yes - and you'd have to take an up-front deposit in case they disappeared with the birds or ate them or something ... but it's certainly worth thinking about now I'm back in the Chicken Pushing Saddle. (If there is such a thing!).
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Steel
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| Chez wrote: | | Yes - and you'd have to take an up-front deposit in case they disappeared with the birds or ate them or something ... but it's certainly worth thinking about now I'm back in the Chicken Pushing Saddle. (If there is such a thing!). |
I just edited my post to say that!! Great minds.....
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Rob R
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| tahir wrote: | | The trick with any farm shop is to keep the punters regular |
Should I start injecting the beef with laxatives then?
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Chez
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| Rob R wrote: | | Should I start injecting the beef with laxatives then? |
No, just the oxytocin .
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Rob R
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Nah, it doesn't freeze well
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suomi
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rent a chicken mark 2!we have just thought of a "rent a chicken" but with a slight variation. we are going to "rent a chicken" or chickens for the months of, may through to sept, then have the chickens back for the winter months. because of the winters here(in Finland) its difficult and expevnsive for people to over winter chickens, but we have the set up already so for us its no problem.
we are just trying to work out what to charge people, 20cents per day per chicken, thats hoping they actually lay an egg a day!
had a few people interested already which is great.
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Lorrainelovesplants
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I was thinking of doing this.
We have friendswho dont have the room or the time, and this got me thinking....
I was thinking of renting a chicken (which they can name), they can come and feed/cuddle etc by appointment, and collect a box of 6 eggs (! can trap nest the said chicken) weekly.
They get the eggs, the chance to come and see 'their' hen and I get a regular customer.
I was thinking of charging a tenner a month for a minimum 6 month stint. What d'you think?
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yummersetter
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All I could think was £5 a dozen! I'd have to have quite a need for the affection of a fowl for that - and I'm writing as someone who had chickens perching overnight on the bedstead as a child
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Lorrainelovesplants
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well, I sell eggs at £1 for a box of 6, so thats 4 boxes a month. That leaves £6 amonth for access to 'their'chicken to pat, take photos etc.
Is this too dear?
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sean
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I've no idea about pricing this. I did wonder what you'd do if 'their' chicken went off laying.
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yummersetter
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would that include your costs for the identical matching chicken that you keep behind a curtain in case of unfortunate fatality?
Whether it's too expensive depends on whether you have a well-heeled urban community nearby, perhaps, but I'm no expert
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Lorrainelovesplants
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I think that chickens going off lay is part of the thing...you tell the person, explain itand offer eggs from another chicken until Brenda or whoever starts laying again.......
same as a fatality.......
I think you have to be straight with folk, and telling lies justs ends up a nightmare anyway.
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Lorrainelovesplants
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actually, be glad its 'rent a hen'and not as my husband suggested 'rent-a-cock'. (for folk wanting their hens fertilised but not wanting to keep a cockerel permanently.
He was actually prepared to get a sign done for my little van with that emblazoned on it! You can just imagine the kind of phone calls we'd get..................
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wellington womble
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| sean wrote: | | I've no idea about pricing this. I did wonder what you'd do if 'their' chicken went off laying. |
It's not really your chicken (or here it's not, anyway) I don't think anyone really expects it to be. You do get newsletter and a picture (I believe my chicken is called Belinda - I asked the little girl at the farm to choose for me) and my eggs are collected on Thursday for my collection on Friday, so they are all fresh (they are very keen on fresh at Mill Farm) It's just a value-added standing order. I'd rather have that than week old eggs, though.
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