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Advice on chickens please


Pauline
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Chicks? I guess you mean hens. How old are you thinking of buying them? as after 1 day old you will be hard pushed to tell the difference between cocks and hens. Hens sort themselves out in a pecking order, more than 1 cock will cause you problems, and you really don't want them near kids. Is there a local "local" market near you? It's sometimes the best place to pick up different breeds. We got a couple of fluffy feathered feet type chickens that way. Silkies might be a good start.

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From our experience all chickens are friendly [:)]

Are you anywhere near Trie sur Baise? They have a market on a Tuesday, and that's where we bought some of ours. Most of the chickens around here are the same brown barenecks, but the Trie market sometimes have more interesting breeds. We bought some white ones with black neck feathers, and some speckled grey and black. You need to get there early.

We used to buy young ones (? 2 months+) but now get them a bit bigger.

I  don't think it's a very good time to buy at the moment, better to wait a couple of months. Now we get ours from a farming neighbour but they're just the old barenecks, which are very friendly but not so attractive.

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My own experience is that good old what I call "warrens" are as good as anything and I've yet to meet one which wasn't really friendly.  They are a hybrid which was created for high egg production but don't write them off just because they're not a "pedigree" breed, as it were!  Cheep (sorry) and cheerful, a hen equivalent of a mongrel dog.

http://www.breezybreak.com/chickens.htm

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Another place to find chicks is your local farmer co-operative shop or similar. We have a couple of local places where you can order day old chicks and they arrive on a certain date every month or six weeks. Otherwise most local markets will have chickens for sale, and if you ask the seller I'm sure they would be willing to sell some chicks.
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[quote user="Rob Roy"]You shouldn't pay more than 10-15 € per adult bird, if that.[/quote]€7.50 ir €8.50 at our market; usually for warrens (medium sized good layers), marans or light sussex (both larger sized dual purpose birds).

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