Hooligan Hens - Renting Out Your Chickens for Garden Pest Control

This is awesome. An accidental side business that started as a Covid project for kids -- and grew.

Given the slug disaster at my place, I would happily trade with someone and let their feathered dinosaurs do the deed.

It sort of falls between cottage industry and agile work, but I think you need the home base for the birds so I put it here.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/chicken-hen-pesticide-service-1.5715746

Awesome! I used to trade produce for the neighbor's chickens to come eat my black widow spiders!

That's a great idea!

The only thing is that chickens are so destructive. They won’t stick to the bugs, unless that’s all there is, and they will eat all of the beneficial bugs too. I used to let my chickens go to town in our garden, but it turned out, that they do more harm that good, so now they are locked up, and I catch the worms/bugs for them instead 😆. What they do that I like though, is that they do most of my composting for me. No one makes compost as fast as chickens, and they do a good job of it too. The compost are free of insects and seeds, so ready to place in my beds.
That’s another money opportunity though. You can sell compost and chicken poop, and earn money that way. We have rabbits, and people go crazy for their poop.

Long term, yeah, they could do more harm than good. But the rental arrangement was her bringing them to a place for an hour or so. If you have a lot of slugs, they are going to go for the slugs because that's easy picking. A little chicken damage may be a great trade off for getting rid of hundreds of slugs and the damage they can do in a short time.

Seems like another way to feed your chickens for cheap and get some diversity into their diet.

Also, it might be better to market them as a garden preparation team. I plan to exclude them from my garden once I start growing.

I enjoyed the video, but I am not sure there is enough profit in it to make it worth moving the birds.

Thanks for sharing.

If you can get them, I would like to suggest Sapphire gems: These girls pretty much take care of themselves and eat very little food. They are the best foragers I have ever had. Abundant water and grit, but very little feed.
I've also found them cleaner than most: they prefer to be outside the coop at all times and poop 90 % of it under the roost and most of the left 10 % in the winter run..

I've read that ducks are much better at slug control than chickens, and less damaging to vegetation.  But if you already have chickens and can corral them easily then this might be a good side hustle, providing the customers' gardens have not had anything toxic sprayed or spread onto them.  

I met a call duck breeder today. Never really knew there were ducks bred to be small or that the were referred to as call ducks. The point I meant to make was made above, ducks may be much better at this role.

One more thing to consider, if the renter uses lots of chemicals in their grass, could that harm the duck or chickens?

Do you think it could be worth the risk?

Julie Reed wrote:Long term, yeah, they could do more harm than good. But the rental arrangement was her bringing them to a place for an hour or so. If you have a lot of slugs, they are going to go for the slugs because that's easy picking. A little chicken damage may be a great trade off for getting rid of hundreds of slugs and the damage they can do in a short time.

It is interesting to me that everyone is saying that their chickens eat slugs.  I have been raising chickens for 29 years now and have had many different breeds.  Slugs are always a huge problem here in New York state and they do an enormous amount of damage.  I have always had my birds in the garden with me when turning soil and they excited go for earthworms, wireworms and grubs. I have them eating out of hand anything I dig up but.....they absolutely refuse to eat slugs.  Even with all my cajoling, even if I don't feed them before offering insects, most will refuse to even try them.  Only once have I had a chicken take one and then watched as she spit it out and walked away!   I was wondering if it was just the Silkies that the lady in the video had who had a taste for slugs but others here are agreeing.  What's the deal?

The only livestock I have seen eating slugs willingly were ducks, they were Rouens, but I think all domestic ducks are primarily carnivorous.  Of course, they also ate grain in the winter but enthusiastically pursued insects from the moment they hatched.  And they leave plants alone in the garden as well.

Donna Lynn wrote:I've read that ducks are much better at slug control than chickens, and less damaging to vegetation.  But if you already have chickens and can corral them easily then this might be a good side hustle, providing the customers' gardens have not had anything toxic sprayed or spread onto them.  

That is totally true: chickens do not seem to eat slugs. In my sandbox zone 4, we do not have slugs. But in my previous garden/ field, we had a few slugs. They didn't eat them. Chickens will really clean around the trunks of trees in the orchard, something that ducks can't really do [Ducks just don't scratch when foraging]
Because they have a pointy beak, chickens will also attack dropped fruit and a good many insects: I use them to eat the rotten fruit and I think it is thanks to them that I do not have too much sickness in my trees: Plums and cherry trees with gummosis is the worst that I get. Chickens seem happy in the summer to live under the shade of my trees [which also camouflages them well from predators].
I thought of planting comfrey near the trunks, since comfrey will bring nutrients from very deep in the soil. I tried planting one near an apple tree I have in the chicken yard. The chickens picked at it so mercilessly that it disappeared. Gone! Gooseberry and blueberry bushes, currants and all small fruit are things I would not trust my chickens to leave alone. [Ask me how I know!]
During the growing season, I drive around the neighborhood, looking for trees with lots of leaves. Around here, it is maples. I also have a look at their lawn. If the grass is uniformly green and only one kind, I pass on their leaves: The lawn is probably treated.
Here, the county will pick up the bags of leaves regardless, so when I see bags of leaves but I'm not sure if they have treated, I will just ask them, as I ask permission, if they treated their lawn. Since their leaves will get picked up anyway, they tell me is they've used stuff on their grass.
I have chickens but I would be very hesitant to rent them out: Some folks who have never had chickens do not know to keep fresh water or lock them up at night.
That contract would have to be iron clad, and if one of the chickens turns up missing, I'd want to see the carcass. Most folks are honest but you never know.

I live in upstate New York and, as others have said, my chickens will not touch slugs. I hatched some chicks and when they were pullets they would take a pecker two at a slug and then walk away from it. Once adults, they would never touch them.

Douglas, that is a really neat project! A fun solution. Maybe more city folks will see the benefits of keeping chickens and the laws will eventually change to allow chickens in the city. Great opportunity for the hooligan hens to educate and entertain.

Our chickens don't seem to care for slugs either...maybe their scratching and top soil disturbance is enough to make the slugs run away.  

Thanks for sharing this.

Maybe more city folks will see the benefits of keeping chickens and the laws will eventually change to allow chickens in the city.

I've never lived in a city, but this is so strange to me. I actually wasn't aware it was even an issue.  I can understand a ban on roosters, but chickens? They are quieter than a barking dog or yowling cat, produce a commonly eaten 'perfect food' and help dispose of kitchen scraps. Why can't city dwellers with a yard have 'pet chickens'?

“Chicken pets”. The issue my urban chicken keeper friends ran into was the local city ordinance of only a grand total of 5 animals of any kind. A dog or two, a cat or two and they were down to so few chickens it’s cruel for social flock birds. Then there’s the neighbor who insisted that the chickens attracted mice(!) and rats (endemic here because this area was apple orchards & every backyard has old trees that no one picks up the fallen fruit). These kind of neighbors, who have outdoor dog food bowls btw, are the bane of urban chicken owners. If your chickens are pets, no emphasis on eggs, there’s not enough eggs to win them over. IF they would even accept “dirty” eggs. IF they don’t have dietary restrictions &/or beliefs about “using” animals. In an urban setting you can’t have a choice who buys the next door house. Many people do have reasonable neighbors, but…….

leigh gates wrote:“Chicken pets”. The issue my urban chicken keeper friends ran into was the local city ordinance of only a grand total of 5 animals of any kind. A dog or two, a cat or two and they were down to so few chickens it’s cruel for social flock birds. Then there’s the neighbor who insisted that the chickens attracted mice(!) and rats (endemic here because this area was apple orchards & every backyard has old trees that no one picks up the fallen fruit). These kind of neighbors, who have outdoor dog food bowls btw, are the bane of urban chicken owners. If your chickens are pets, no emphasis on eggs, there’s not enough eggs to win them over. IF they would even accept “dirty” eggs. IF they don’t have dietary restrictions &/or beliefs about “using” animals. In an urban setting you can’t have a choice who buys the next door house. Many people do have reasonable neighbors, but…….

Local city ordinances are one of the most undemocratically decided. Whether an ordinance gets approved or not depends in great part on who is in attendance that day, with the officers having an outsized share of the vote. Chickens do not attract varmint. If anything, they reduce human kitchen waste that is otherwise sought by rats. My kids live in Chicago, in a pretty good neighborhood, yet they have rats in the streets like you would not believe!
Some folks feed pigeons [they are not supposed to]  dogs and cats whose food sits outside all day and night, some folks drop their dirty wrappers wherever but having chickens oh, no!
Roosters can be a noise issue, but even there, my neighbor's dogs can be heard whenever they are at work, and they are not exactly the soft bark either. I live far enough out of town to not be bothered by these ordinances. In smaller towns, it is actually worse: Folks typically do not attend and most meetings have the Town Board with 3 officers [who vote] a Secretary and a Treasurer. It is rare to have more than  people in attendance, so decisions really hang on very few people.
One solution would be to ask that that ordinance be put on the agenda and gather as many folks friendly to your issue as possible. [customers could be helpful there.]

Sena Kassim wrote:Douglas, that is a really neat project! A fun solution. Maybe more city folks will see the benefits of keeping chickens and the laws will eventually change to allow chickens in the city. Great opportunity for the hooligan hens to educate and entertain.

As I recall, the pest control was a bonus. The real reason people called rent-a-chicken was because chickens in the garden are relaxing and calming, almost hypnotic to watch as they noodle around. During the pandemic we needed all the help we could get.

I wouldn't be surprised if rent-a-chicken got people thinking about having their own hens. And of course, there's nothing like poo on your shoe to remind some that this isn't fast fashion, to be discarded when you're bored with it. You're in it for the long haul. In my part of the world, keeping chickens through the winter is a big job.