[neil9797]

I've found a great deal of variation locally (Hants) from £8 to £25+. Thing is I don't know what is normal. Will the £8ers be skanky or is it that the £25ers are rip-offs? While we're at it, how does one justify £20 a bird? Eggs are free, feed is minimal though I don't know how much vaccinations cost. N

[viettaclark]

I paid £12 for a Bluebelle but £20 each for my Magpie and White Star from a place near Southampton. I thought I might have been ripped off to start but all three were vaccinated and wormed and obviously healthy stock. Two laid straight away at 18 weeks but I had to wait till 30 weeks for Phyllis.
I know Longdown were doing pol for £8 but they're the normal brown hens and I wanted different colours so I could tell who was laying.
I've since written to the farm thanking them. My chooks are eggsellent layers, are good and strong (even in this cold weather) and have lovely characters.
You gets what you pays for!

[francais]

Mine were £14 each from Moorland Poultry & they had about three or four different types to pick from.

[bee]

I paid £5 each for two hybrids, from  a local farmer, but they came unwormed or vaccinated. They're warrens, and have lovely characters, very docile and tame, but with hindsight I realise I should have paid more and got them from somebody who'd done all the necessary health stuff.

Nearby I could buy similar for £6, having had all vaccinations, but this is a big commercial place rather than a local breeder. Having spent a lot of time reading posts on here, I now reckon I'd always go with a small, local breeder to whom I could go back  for advice and support.

Also I'm talking your plain brown here - I, of course, love them, but there is such a variety out there and you pay more for the pretty colours, it seems. Also, you're paying for all the feed, time etc up to the point of sale - which I appreciate much more now I have to do my own daily poo-picking and weekly cleans. Cleaning and care costs time and money!

[Big Bird]

We paid £15 each for ours, vaccinated and good healthy birds and also came with lots of good advice

BB

[meterman]

eggs are never free?last year i set 12 eggs 11 hatched 6 cocks so only 5 hens cost of feed till18 weeks was £25 the eggs cost £18(ebay)electricity for inc 20w 21days heat lamp 100w 5weeks but biggest cost is time spent. But still great fun hatching your own. In general the lower the price the more comercial the hybrid.

[neil9797]

Thanks folks.

Vietta - I'm in Basingstoke; where in So'ton did you get your hens?

Anyone - how much do the vaccinations cost to get done?
N

[Foxy]

Thanks folks.

Vietta - I'm in Basingstoke; where in So'ton did you get your hens?

Anyone - how much do the vaccinations cost to get done?
N

You don't need to get birds vaccinated, most commercial hybrid suppliers will have already done this for you. Poultry suppliers tend to buy in hybrids as chicks or growers in their hundreds. Commerical hatcheries will be hatching weekly thousands of chicks to meet the demand of suppliers to the public, so any infection in their flocks would be a disaster as you can imagine!

Pure breeds dont tend to be vaccinated -as they are usually hatched in small numbers(usually in 20's/40's/60's)  by hobby specialist breeders, this method of careful selection and breeding, plus they are harder to source is why pure bred are more expensive than hybrids.

It is not necesary to vaccinate your birds, just make sure you practise good husbandry and are extremely careful where you buy your birds from as infected carriers of a disease are not always easy to detect and then can infect a healthy flock with tragic results.

Good luck with hunting down healthy birds!

[Flowerpower136]

£20 donation for 8 ex batts.
Very lucky with mine, all strong and healthy, and still laying well.  Think the farm they came from must have been one of the better ones.

[beulah59]

POL birds locally are £12-15 for breeds like Light Sussex or Black Rock.

[dizzylizzie]

well i paid £30 for a wernlas olive, and the same for a barnebar, we also bought an 18mth old marren for 6qiud( bargin). They were all bought from Wernlas poultry, expensive, but very nice birds, no problems with them at all, and im going to get some welsummers from the same place , i dont mind paying a bit more , but getting good stock

[robinson]

I bought my 5 girls from a place at Ower near Romsey back in the summer for £15 each. We wanted to have different coloured girls so that each of the children could name their chicken (and so could I!) and easily recognise their own girl.  They havent stopped laying and I am getting 4 or 5 eggs a day despite the snow.  They are on an allotment so I have to carry water to them everyday at the moment and even the water in the coop is freezing but my lovely girls are still giving us lovely eggs.

The older guys with chickens constantly tell me what lovely birds I have got, and that I have done well.  Between them they have several 100 years of experience so I believe I did well.

Hope this helps
Paula

[viettaclark]

Rooksbridge Poultry Farm Burridge. You can Google it.

[neil9797]

Fab, thanks Vietta. N

[Sassy]

Thanks folks.

Vietta - I'm in Basingstoke; where in So'ton did you get your hens?

Anyone - how much do the vaccinations cost to get done?
N

You don't need to get birds vaccinated, most commercial hybrid suppliers will have already done this for you. Poultry suppliers tend to buy in hybrids as chicks or growers in their hundreds. Commerical hatcheries will be hatching weekly thousands of chicks to meet the demand of suppliers to the public, so any infection in their flocks would be a disaster as you can imagine!

Pure breeds dont tend to be vaccinated -as they are usually hatched in small numbers(usually in 20's/40's/60's)  by hobby specialist breeders, this method of careful selection and breeding, plus they are harder to source is why pure bred are more expensive than hybrids.

It is not necesary to vaccinate your birds, just make sure you practise good husbandry and are extremely careful where you buy your birds from as infected carriers of a disease are not always easy to detect and then can infect a healthy flock with tragic results.

Good luck with hunting down healthy birds!

Very much agree with Foxy. Also you cannot just buy birds and get them vaccinated as most need to be done within a few days of hatching. There are also health risks with mixing non- vaccinated and vacaccinated stock.

Perhaps I have been lucky but I have never paid more than £10 for hybrids (unvaccinated, but i prefer that) or for pure bred Light Sussex. Whilst I have no doubt they are not show quality that is not what I am looking for. They have been healthy, laid well and are coping well with the cold weather. I also got from a small breeder who I could call at any time for advice.

I have no doubt that there is a difference in price as to how far south you are!!