Nacktschnecken omlet Cube

[Lorax]

I have read some posts on here about the price of hens, but none that I've seen answers my Q so I hope you don't mind me asking it.

 

I've got two suppliers that I'm considering. One has a Bluebell which I really want. She is £20, but the other hybrids are no less than £18. This means that, more or less, for 3 chickens I'm going to be paying £60.

 

The other supplier has hybrids for £10.

 

Is one likely to be giving me a better chicken? Is it worth paying the extra? I mean, forgetting for the moment that I really want a Bluebell!

 

I want a Bluebell but not so much that I want to fork out £60 for three chickens (because I feel it would be more sensible to get them all from one place).

 

Any advice?

[chicken bark]

I wouldn't have thought the more expensive hybrid would be that much 'better'. In March I paid £12.50 each for my hybrids (I think). £15 seems to be the going rate - you would pay more maybe for Columbines and more again for some pure breeds.

 

I want a bluebelle too.

[Redwing]

Hybrids are much of a muchness - go with the breeder that lets you have a look around and whose hens live in the better conditions and that look good and healthy

 

Its a false economy always to go with the cheaper - you dont get more hen for your money but you may well get a healthier one for your money!

[bevmatt]

This is a really difficult one to answer.

A breeder I know breeds 'garden hens' on a very small scale and charge £25 a bird.

I have no idea how breeders can rear the birds to POL and only charge £10 - £15. She keeps her accounts very carefully and there is no way she could do it!

I can only imagine that the birds are raised en masse to try and keep costs down.

My advice as well would be to ask if the breeder has raised the birds them selves or have they been bought in only a week ago? I know many sellers work as agents for big hatcheries and buy their birds at point of lay and then they are sold on within a week to the new owners.

This can be very stressful for the birds and not really recommended.

When I started keeping poultry I bought from an agent and had 6 hens - 2 died within a year 3 died after 2-3 years and 1 is still going strong 6 years on!

A lot of people that come to my friend are happy to pay £25 a bird as they know they have literally been hand reared in clean environments and birds are happy and healthy.

I suppose you don't always get what you pay for and just paying more guarantees nothing - go for instinct - is it a passionate breeder you are dealing with or someone just wanting to sell birds.

 

GOOD LUCK...

Bev

[the bradley bunch]

Hybrids are much of a muchness - go with the breeder that lets you have a look around and whose hens live in the better conditions and that look good and healthy

 

Its a false economy always to go with the cheaper - you dont get more hen for your money but you may well get a healthier one for your money!

 

i think bevmatt & redwing have pretty much summed it up - obviously everybody's financial circumstances are different, but you should really base your decision on the conditions you see and also whether the seller has hatched & raised the chicks at their farm or whether they are an agent.

if the cheaper birds come from not-so-good conditions and you really can't justify spending £60 then maybe you could just get the bluebell + 1 other from the more expensive breeder?

i've never bought from a breeder so i have no idea the implications of buying a potential flock from different breeders, so if the conditions of the cheaper one are actually just as good then maybe somebody with experience of this could advise on buying the bluebell from 1 breeder and the other 2 hybrids from another breeder ...

[Mercedes55]

The only hybrids we have are ex batts so we have no experience of what the price for POL hybrids are locally. However we got 4 pure breeds a couple of weeks ago and they were between £25 and £30 each and I thought that was quite a good price

 

When I work out how much money we've spent out on coops, runs, food and all the other stuff it seemed like a drop in the ocean in comparison

[Lorax]

When I work out how much money we've spent out on coops, runs, food and all the other stuff it seemed like a drop in the ocean in comparison

 

This is the conclusion I've come to! The fact is, I really want a Bluebell and have done for two years.

 

I'd love to visit both places before making up my mind, but won't be able to. The Hen House (which is one of the places) has come highly recommended on here, plus my friend has got all hers from there. So I've just put an email through to reserve the Bluebell and will buy 2-3 others when we go, too. That's if we can go one afternoon as we're not free at weekends for months. I think it's simplest if they just come from the same place.

 

Going forward, if I need to get any more I will also visit the other place (where a friend of mine has got hers and she recommends it too), where they raise them from day old chicks.

 

I hope I've made the right decision..

[Mercedes55]

I think it's always good to buy from somewhere that is recommended, so I'm sure you are making the right decision.

 

We had no idea where to get our pure breeds so I just had a look at the places recommended on here, found the nearest one that sold the breeds we wanted and asked my OH to go up and buy them

[Olly]

Bluebelles are gorgeous!

 

The advice above is good - I'd just add that, whatever you spend, chickens don't come with guarantees! Obviously if they fell ill shortly after purchase then you'd go back to the breeder, but in the longer term they are just as vulnerable as any other hen. I paid £14 for my Bluebelle and Maran Cuivre in February, and £18 for a Skyline - I specially wanted blue eggs, and so I was willing to pay a bit more. She keeled over and died for no apparent reason about 3 months after purchase, having only laid about six eggs (at a net cost of around £3 each!). I don't think I would pay more than £20 for any chicken, on the basis that they are not the most robust of creatures.