Whre did you get your chickens?

[jonc]

Hello

I'm looking to get some chickens soon :)

The housing is under control, and although not built yet I have plenty of information on how to sort this out. What I'm having more difficulty with is finding out where to buy the chickens from! I've done some searches on the internet and checked yellow pages etc, but no leads yet. Those of you with chickens, where is the best place to buy them?

Jon

[Shirley]

We bought our first lot at the Builth Wells show.... probably not the cheapest way to buy. We then bought some at the Ross poultry auction... not sure when the next one is...

Have you thought about ex-battery hens???

[hedgewizard]

I rang one of the local farms that sells free range eggs, and they gave me a ring the next time they had a batch at point of lay. Vaccinated and all, £6 each. Three years on and they don't lay quite so well but otherwise they're just peachy!

[Chickpea]

What a good idea. I looked everywhere trying to find a source of chickens, and ended up driving about an hour away to get ours for £10 each which I knew at the time was a rip-off. It seemed like a conspiracy - I knew there had to be somewhere you could buy chickens, but I looked in the yellow pages, on the internet, I asked people, but nobody could tell me. Phoning a free range egg producer is such an obvious solution. Doh!

[jonc]

I've found some :) Went to a local farm to buy some eggs (leave the money in a box typer of shop!) and the farmer was there. Asked, and he sells chickens. Can't remember the breeds off the top of my head, but he was very enthusiastic, and about £4 each. He also runs a retirement home, so when they get old rather than kill them you can give them back to live with the other old chickens when you buy some more - kind of like a part exchange ;)

[Shirley]

Jon

That's brilliant... love the idea of his retirement home for old chooks 8)

[Tensing]

Thats lovely, just goes to show not all poultry farms are mean annd nasty killing off old birds.

[Chickpea]

What's mean and nasty about it? When our hens stop laying we're going to eat them.

[Tensing]

Nothing wrong with eating them, I'm thinking more of our local farmer who I know for a fact juat kills them off and burns them, he thinks no one knows.

[hedgewizard]

We're going to eat ours (Toni says I have to pluck and draw them though!) - I refer you to Stoney's sig!

[diver]

you can sometimes get chickens from the local animal rescue centre....my friend got hers there and that's where I shall get mine...50p each...rescued from the battery farm

[Shirley]

Nothing wrong with eating them at all - they've had a happy life

[ina]

There was a good thing on radio 4 this morning (6:30), all about rescue hens - I bet if they'd sent that at a rather more civilised time of day, they'd get a lot more interest in their hens after that!

[diver]

thanks, Ina, I'll get on the bbc website and try and find the item as I am looking to get hens as soon as I sell this house and buy my small holding ( house going on the market tomorrow)