I can't help it, when I think of Easter chicks, I always hear the lyric from "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" from the musical Oklahoma! 

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry

When I take you out in the surrey,

When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!"

Why that is, I'm unsure, but since it is Easter time and because a family farm in the Omaha area ended up in the Omaha World-Herald and then into the national spotlight, because they will rent you chicks just for Easter, I began my own investigation into this trend.

In the effort to make farm-to-table meals a reality, people are renting and/or buying chickens, lots of chickens! And apparently this movement is not a new one, but here in Sioux Falls urban chickens are a fairly recent occurrence. Yes, if you live within Sioux Falls city limits you may have up to six chickens as close personal friends.

Here in Sioux Falls, Paul's Rent-a-Chicken can fulfill your desire to make all your future omelets and frittatas with fresh, organic eggs, laid right in your backyard. It certainly would be a conversation starter, that's for sure and chickens can be very entertaining when they're not worried about you cramming them in a crockpot with veggies!

RenttheChicken.com is another company that will rent you everything you need to foster a passel of cluckers (a portable coop, food & supplies and egg-laying hens) and they have locations around the U.S. and Canada.

RentaCoop (located in Maryland and New Jersey) rents you all the items necessary to teach your kids about where the Easter Bunny gets all those eggs and how those eggs become chickens.

Finally, we have the Barreras Family Farm's Rent-a-Chick program north of Omaha. For $25 (for 1 week) or $35 (for two weeks) you can rent two adorable chicks for your Easter celebrations and then return them before they turn into ankle-pecking pullets!

These are but a few of the chicken rental operations around the country, so as you can see, this business concept is not a novel one by any stretch of the imagination. If you have questions about starting your own home chicken coop or need education on any other urban agriculture subject, Dakota Rural Action would be happy to field all of your questions, except of course, "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?"


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