How much would you pay?

The Wife and I are thinking of getting a few more hens, the one we want will be fancy ones
as my wife has seen a lot from other hen keepers plots,
Like white Sussex Freach something or other, more RIR, welsummers dorkings,
I phoned a lady this moring and she had most of what we where looking for plus others.

But when it came down to the price I nearly fell off my chair when she told me how much
£25.00 each ?? now I know I have paid £10 to £15 for some of my last RIR, but it did seem
alot? But is it a lot to pay? we wanted another 4 but at that price that will have to wait.

Any way if I may ask what would you pay????

I have never aid more than £10 for a chicken but then again I only want them as egg-laying machines rather than for their looks.
I see fancy breeds going for that price and steeply upwards from there. It's not that expensive compared to a pedigree cat or dog or whatever, I suppose.

Could you not borrow a cockerel from someone and breed a few of your own? Or just buy some fertilised eggs off the internet or the back pages of Country Smallholding and hatch them out?

Dorkings, Legbars etc are very expensive NB...I would either borrow an incubator and buy some fertile pure breed eggs, OR wait till a feathery lady goes broody and do the same..

I paid £16 - 20 for my various hens last year, the White Sussex and the White Leghorn were £18, the others were either fancy crosses ( Bluebelle, Columbine) or were ISA Brownso proven egg layers and gentle and pretty... Black Rocks were £20

I got the Legbar fertile eggs for 2 each...so I now have 3 pure breed Cream Legbars as a breeding trio at point of lay They would probably fetch £50? The Dorking trio sold for about that...which was a bargain price really...

If you want eggs from the fancy birds fairly soon then its probably worth going for POL otherwise its good fun to rear some chicks....I know you had some losses last time though....

Are you interested in a breeding trio of Cream Legbars?

Point of lay brown or black chooks off the market - 7.50€ each and they lay lots of lovely eggs

Mine are all egg machines and now mostly home bred, but I did pay $2 a bird for some gorgeous pale cream Ameraucanas, cos I'm a softy and they were pretty

Yes CW I would love to start in breeding some chickens, But there is only one probblem with that on our allotments we are not allowed to have cockerels knor can we have them at home as the local council said that the noise would be to much on an estate????

Who are they trying to kid!!!!!!
But thanks anyway.

im hetting some lohmann brown £7 each i been quoted £16 each for light sussex

Thats a good price gunners

I've noticed on some sites that sells chickens they will sell 6 eggs at £6
Growers @ £15 and then POL @ £25. would some one please tell this old git what a grower is please .
Is it that the chicken has still got a long way before it's ready to lay ????
Or am I totally wrong :suspect:

I would guess that's what it means, yes. Ludicrous money IMO.

We pay around £15-16 for hybrid layers.
There are adverts around here (FoD) for £8 POL

The best places for 'purebreeds' is either a dedicated poultry supplier or the first day of an agricultural show. They always have some for sale but they do go quite quickly.

BY comparison I paid £2 each for my Light Sussex cockerels, and £1 each for hatching eggs - I bought LS and Ixworth this time round. The incubator cost IIRC about £60, brooder lamp £13.

So if you are planning to have regular chickens it pays for itself quite quickly to hatch your own.

I have been thinking about hatching our own. Will wait and see if any of our hens go broody then stick some under her.

If you are after a broody machine you should try a silky. They lay reasonable smallish eggs and will sit on anything that is egg shaped: hen, duck, or even goose!

BTW we pay 8euros for point of lay over here in France.

Wood Troll wrote:If you are after a broody machine you should try a silky. They lay reasonable smallish eggs and will sit on anything that is egg shaped: hen, duck, or even goose!

BTW we pay 8euros for point of lay over here in France.

As it so happens, one of our Speckled stars has gone into brood . It is day 1 (maybe 2) so I will see what she is like tomorrow then go and get some eggs for her from the Poultry Park.