Reasons to Love Toronto Now: because we can rent chickens

The bucolic Stoddart Family Farm in Kawartha Lakes raises hens destined for city living. They’ve partnered with Rent the Chicken, a Pennsylvania-based company that connects boutique farms with urbanites enamored of the local food movement and dreaming of backyard-fresh eggs. The company provides a portable coop, food, supplies and two (or four) laying hens—fancy breeds like Columbian Wyandotte, Barred Rock and the quizzically named Black Sex Link—for the summer months, then returns the chickens to the farm in October. Rent the Chicken launched its Toronto service earlier this year, and although the city doesn’t officially allow people to keep backyard hens or roosters, inspectors turn a blind eye unless neighbours complain (usually about the smell—coops should be cleaned, and fresh straw laid, twice a week). A happy hen will lay up to six eggs per week, which will keep her foster parents flush in fluffy scrambles. It’s all the fun of gentleman farming without the long-term commitment.

From $375. 647-313-3997, rentthechicken.ca.