Kids (and adults) love baby chicks. There’s a business idea in that. Photo by Becky McCray.
Everyone loves baby chicks. That’s probably why every Easter, we hear about families who buy chicks for their children, only to realize they grow up to be full size chickens that don’t really fit into their lives. One farmer in Nebraska turned that into a business idea: she rents chicks to families for Easter.
Mariel Barreras is the farmer, and the Barreras Family Farm‘s Rent-a-Chick is the result.
Families come to the farm, pay $60, and take home a kit with two cute chickies, keep them for a couple of weeks, then bring them back to rejoin the Barreras’ flock where they grow up and live out their happy chicken lives laying eggs.
Barreras has grown it into an educational program that caters to day cares, schools and home school families. They’re now providing a full kit of supplies, emails with activities, and a certificate good for the eggs the chicks will grow up to lay in the fall.
It’s important to note that Barreras’ program started much smaller. In 2017, the third year for the Barreras, the price was $35, and chicks came only with a cardboard box.
Anyone could start with a simple setup like that. I could even see a 4H or ag student group trying this idea.
Hat tip to @maniactive on Twitter for the link
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
[…] regular contributor, Becky McCray, an expert in small town and rural businesses, recently shared on Small Business Survival a business idea and marketing outreach program that convinces us what comes first in business: […]