Rent A Chicken

Phil: So, Sally, let's talk about eggs. Eggs are in the news practically every day. But now there's a new service out there that's trying to save people money on eggs. It's called rented chicken. What, tell me about this. 

Sally: It's a little bit more of a commitment than going to the supermarket and buying eggs, that's for sure. But, basically what you can do, this company is in Los Angeles, and they have this offering, this opportunity for you to rent. A chicken coop comes with two or three hens, comes with, uh, seven fertile eggs, a mini incubator. They de they deliver it, they set it up, they offer the lighting that you need to examine the eggs, and they give you a guide on how to take care of the chickens. So, what do you think Phil? 

Phil: Well, you know, I, I go back to a story that we did a few years ago about a family that had chickens in their backyard in Long Island. And while it was approved by, you know, the city as far as, you know, having the right permits and so on, the neighbors were up in arms because the chickens and hens were making a lot of noise. You've obviously got the feces to deal with. I think, to be honest with you, I don't think it's a great idea. I wouldn't like to see everybody have, you know, their own chickens in their own backyards. The good news is that you could rent it for two to four egg producing hands for up to six months. It costs $575 for a six month rental for two. 

Phil: And also what's so interesting, on average, two chickens will produce eight to 14 eggs per week. Four will produce 16 to 28 eggs per week. There's also a regulation here in Los Angeles that says the chicken coop must be 35 feet from a neighboring structure and a hundred feet if you have a rooster, obviously that's because of the noise. Mm-hmm. Also what we're noticing here in California is that the farmer's markets, which are prolific here, are selling a lot of eggs. The average eggs right now in California, even though national average is about $3 and 50 cents here in California, they're up to about seven bucks. So a lot of these farmers market people are selling eggs, keep in mind that they're not refrigerated and eggs should be kept refrigerated. And they're selling 'em for two to $3 a dozen less. 

Phil: The other thing that's going on in California, which I find hysterical, the biggest smuggling that's going on now over the Mexican border is about eggs. The US Customs and Border Protection officials are reporting a major spike in people bringing eggs into the country illegally from Mexico. You're not allowed to do that, by the way, by law. You can't bring in poultry, you can't bring in meat, you can't bring in eggs, but people are still doing it. A 30 count carton of eggs in Juarez, Mexico sells for $3 and 40 cents. So you get a lot more eggs for a lot less priced. According to this report, this is from N P R, just a dozen eggs in California are now priced as high as $7 and 37 cents if you get caught. So don't take eggs over the border if you can get caught. 

Phil: No. You know, they're gonna steal 'em from not gonna steal 'em. They're gonna confiscate them from you. But you can get fined $300, but by law, you can get a fine of up to $10,000. So you just don't wanna bring in those eggs no matter what they say.