The N.S. Business Turning Urban Professionals Into Chicken Owners
SPRINGFIELD, N.S. — Once upon a time, Denise Panasiuk worked a high-pressure job at Hewlett Packard that had her constantly jetting from one place to the next.
It was an impressive position, but one that left her longing for something simpler: a home by the ocean, space to breathe, and animals—lots of animals.
Today, she lives in a small white cottage in Springfield, Nova Scotia that shares a two-acre plot with five ducks, a well-travelled old cat, a potbelly pig, a few barn cats, half a dozen dogs, and a flock of chickens.
She’s also given up working for the man and handling multi-million-dollar accounts. Instead, she works for herself.
Panasiuk is the owner of Hire A Hen, which she runs with her son, Robert Shakespeare.
The pair raise egg-laying hens and rent them out to people and families interested in keeping chickens. They provide training and education that lets potential chicken owners test things out without major risks.
It’s a significant change from her former life as a high-powered businesswoman but it’s one Panasiuk couldn’t be happier about.
Coming to work armed with chicken eggs
Panasiuk moved from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia in 2016, chasing the rural lifestyle of her youth.
She grew up on a Welsh farm miles away from the nearest store. In an interview with Huddle, she said moving to Nova Scotia helped her recapture some of that life.
“I wanted to live out in the country, and I wanted a little cottage, and animals—I wanted that life,” she said.
“I was a bit of a road warrior with Hewlett Packard; I left my home on a Monday and went to wherever needed me and flew back on a Friday. So I didn’t have that home base. I wanted that community; I wanted to go back to how I was brought up.”
Once she was in Nova Scotia, Panasiuk left HP for a job as a senior project manager at Nova Scotia Power.
She soon began raising chickens and, sometimes, it was all she could talk about.
“I would go to work and everyone would have to put up with me talking about my chickens and my eggs. Then I was coming into work armed with chicken eggs and duck eggs,” she said.
Eventually, people asked her to help them with a coop or some chickens to try it themselves. That, she said, was the start of Hire A Hen. But it would take a much more significant life event for Panasiuk to turn Hire A Hen from a side hustle into a full-fledged business.
The stroke that changed her life
In 2019, Panasiuk had a stroke. She is mostly fine today but the incident left a deep mark on her life.
“After I had my stroke, I wasn’t allowed to drive anymore and I couldn’t do the job that I was doing, handling multi-million-dollar projects. It was a job just to count to 20,” she said with a chuckle.
Her employer was very supportive but Panasiuk had to leave her job. That prompted her to dedicate more time to Hire A Hen. Today, she said it was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“Isn’t it wonderful that good things come out of bad things? Because this was the best thing to ever happen to me,” she said. “Now I’m able to do all the things I wanted to do [but couldn’t] because I had to go to work every day.”
‘Everything chicken-y that you could ever want to know’
With Hire A Hen, Pansiuk is now helping families who are living the kind of busy life she was once a part of.
She serves a wide range of clients, from military families to CEOs, but most of her customers are professionals in urban areas who want to be more connected to their food.
“The pace that we all live in a corporate world is so fast. We do want everything; we do want that family; we do want that good job,” she said.
That means a lot of people don’t have the time to do all the research and preparation it takes to raise chickens. Hire A Hen means they don’t have to.
When someone rents chickens from Panasiuk, she provides the chickens, a coop, and trains them how to take care of the birds—how to shop for feed, how to protect them from predators, how to tell if they’re eating properly.
“I tell them everything chicken-y that you could ever want to know, and some stuff they don’t,” she said.
Customers also get her cell number and email address, for 24-hour support.
Panasiuk said this removes the cost and time barriers keeping people from starting. They can try keeping chickens for the summer and decide if it’s for them. If it is, she lets them buy the coop and chickens outright.
But she also offers other options. She’ll take people’s chickens back over the winter and then return the same birds when the warm weather returns. She’ll also “hotel” chickens, for example, customers are out of town on vacation for a few weeks.
“We say we want you to enjoy the experience, we want you to benefit from this experience. We’re going to make it as easy for you as possible,” she said.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].