Poorly chicken

[Busybird]

We plan to get a couple of new girlies next month. We want hybrids - a typical little brown hen would be fine. How much should I expect to pay for a POL chook?

[WarrensWorld]

We paid €7.60 or £6.57, inoculated and tested, but then this is Ireland. Chooks and feed are much cheaper. One of the few things that are........

[chick wiggle]

If i remember rightly, it was around £12 vaccinated etc.

[Guest]

Hi

 

I would try to get POL via recommendation & good breeder reputation etc mine came from a local breeder vaccinated etc POL £10+ I think my Bluebelle?was a bit more £12.50?

The omlet chickens were I think£12.50 ?? or there abouts with my Nice birds too good layers friendly

 

I know nearer to me was £17 upwards which now I have my hybirds would not pay that much.

 

If you go on the internet am sure you will find somewhere near to you

 

good luck indie

[moochoo]

Anywhere from £7 to £12 around here.

[-sarahjayne]

I paid £20 for my ISA Brown

[ubereglu]

We saw some today on sale at the Mid Somerset Show for £12, but if I bought one from the usual breeder we go to I would have expected to have paid less.

 

We paid £9.50 each for our bluebelles and £8.50 for the black rock we had.

[Space Chick]

Mine was £7.50, the cheapest of my girls, my original hybrids were between £7.50 and £15.

 

Now my Wernlas girls, were just a little more expensive

[ubereglu]

Mine was £7.50, the cheapest of my girls, my original hybrids were between £7.50 and £15.

 

Now my Wernlas girls, were just a little more expensive

 

You could say that yes! When we went someone was buying eight chickens and it cost them over £200!

[Raina]

Hi paid £ 12 (each) for my girls

 

I bought them from Steve (Chicken Steve on here)

[Tink]

We paid £9 for ours a month ago - our Sussex and Columbine were £12 and our Bluebelle £15...all in the Yorkshire area!

[Hen Watch]

2 years ago we paid £9 for an Amber Star hybrid from a Meadow Sweet agent. But now the price has shot up, and they are now selling for £15 each. That's a huge jump in 2 years.

 

Are you definately getting hybrids? Of my 4 hybrid girls (age 2 and a half) only 2 are laying (and not every day). So personally if I ever get more I will consider pure breeds in the hope that whilst they lay less eggs, they may go on for longer.

[Busybird]

A breeder local to us, and listed by Omlet, is advertising POL hybrids for £20 each. We were expecting to pay about £10. It sounds as if there is a huge price range so I will keep looking.

 

I want hybrids because they lay all year and, I believe, are cheaper to buy. Although our girlies are as close to pets as we are ever likely to have we keep them for their eggs.

[ubereglu]

2 years ago we paid £9 for an Amber Star hybrid from a Meadow Sweet agent. But now the price has shot up, and they are now selling for £15 each. That's a huge jump in 2 years.

 

Are you definately getting hybrids? Of my 4 hybrid girls (age 2 and a half) only 2 are laying (and not every day). So personally if I ever get more I will consider pure breeds in the hope that whilst they lay less eggs, they may go on for longer.

 

That's interesting. My two bluebelles are now over four years old and are still laying-not everyday or over winter, but they still both lay. The pure breeds lay 4-5 eggs a week in summer when the days are longer and they stop laying in October and don't lay again until March. Whereas the bluebelles stop in late October and come back into lay mid-feb.

[Chicken Licken]

I paid £12.50 for my speckledy and Bovans Nera - having said that I saw Warrens (brown hens) at the garden centre for £20 at the week end and they had pekin bantams for £29 each - OUCH!! I fed them some leaves off my purple sprouting broccoli and walked away!!

[Yolky]

Don't pure breeds go broody more often? I have a hybrid who goes broody and it can take her weeks to get out of it, even when isolated, she is a swine! She has gone 4 times this year so far, if I had all pure breeds who were going broody all the time I would be going nutty. I am half wondering if I should see if my broody hybrid can find a new home, she is a lovely chook but she blocks the nest and also stinks because of her broody poos.

[batcatz]

Wow, I must have been overcharged. I paid £20 for a hybid speckeldy and £40 for 2 silkies.

Amanda

[Redwing]

The rise in chicken keeping is probably to blame for some pricing, Bluebelles and Speckaldys may be seen as prettier, different and so therefore be more desirable hence the higher price

 

I would say that to the average person the difference of a few pounds wouldnt cause them too much monetry strife and that the place where you get the hens from is much more important. I can probably get an ISA brown hen locally for £8 or so or drive 25 minutes to a stockist who has a better cleaning regime and better knowledge and pay £14 and for the sake of £6 I know what I would rather do

 

I am not saying that cheap stock are looked after worse but do your homework and see the stock for yourself, that £6 saved may be the difference between a trip to the vet or a healthy hen

 

Hens live for a few years at least normally so its all quite a small outlay really

[chickencam]

We paid £16.50 each for our 5 new hybrids from Cotswold chickens and Poultry Park in Newent.

 

We bought a pure breed 2 years ago and paid £25 for her.

[Steph101]

I get mine from www.oakmeadowfarm.co.uk

They were £12 to begin with, then they went up to £14 when the cost of feed went up last year, and now they are £15

[ajayb]

We bought 6 Hy-Lines (little brown hybrids) for £10 each as starter hens last year and they have been excellent. They are friendly, inquisitive and easy to handle plus they are prodigious layers of quite large medium brown eggs.

We have since bought some pure breeds (Welsummer, Cream Legbar, Silver-pencilled Wyandotte) which don't lay as regularly, aren't so friendly or easily handled and seem to have a tendency towards broodiness ... The plus with them as that the Welsummer and Legbar produce stunningly coloured eggs but these hens cost £25 each!

I wholeheartedly recommend the Hy-lines, my only caveat being that they are so friendly that they are easier prey to foxes if they are free-ranging.

 

PS Our supplier (Deanbank in Lanarkshire, Scotland, listed on this site) is still selling the Hy-Lines at the same price as last year.

[Egluntyne]

Warrens cost nine quid at Storrs Poultry near Sheffield.

[Janty]

Hybrids are about £12 here.

[Fur 'n' Feathers]

£12 last year, £14 this year - from Churchman's.

[ubereglu]

Pure breeds are more expensive, but don't necessarily always go broody. My cream legbar and Barnevelder haven't and we've had them for nearly two years.