The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: farmers wife on July 13, 2016, 02:49:49 pm
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The option is try and fatten - is it possible? What are the other options - if any. Realistically Ive got images of a boney bird on the table. I know you could prob sell as soup/stock chickens. I have around 65 hens but getting 42 eggs which is proving an issue and cant keep hens for the fun of it. I need to replace these birds asap.
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Local poultry auction? Pens of five over a couple of weeks should get something for them.
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there are a number of end of lay hen rehoming groups across the UK if this is going to be a regular thing for you.
I dont know how the process works eggs-actly but my first hens came from one.
Do these people cover your area?
http://www.rhruk.org.uk/wales/ (http://www.rhruk.org.uk/wales/)
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I agree. If they're Warren high egg production types (Lohmann/ISA Brown, etc.) they'll never fatten up to a worthwhile degree. If they're utility breeds (Dorking/Sussex, etc.) they may do. Start selling now before the moult gets going and they look distinctly unappealing.
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My mistake - Its probably moult but next year I will need to shift them. I should plan now best route so replacements come at the right time.
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Spoken to other people with similar numbers and they sell on at poultry auction as others have said.
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Are you on any poultry facebook groups? Put them on there for a couple quid each and they'll probably fly out (sic).
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Put them for sale on preloved and Gumtree. People usually sell them for £2-6.
The taste really nice in a chicken soup! Much more flavour than young broiler
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If they're not worth the eating why kill them? I still have a 7 year old from a cage, laying an egg about every 7 or 8 days - she is very happy. Give other people like her and me the fun of having a few hens - garden hen keeping is making a comeback - advertise them on Facebook and local papers
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We're going to use ours for raw dog food this year.
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If they're not worth the eating why kill them? I still have a 7 year old from a cage, laying an egg about every 7 or 8 days - she is very happy. Give other people like her and me the fun of having a few hens - garden hen keeping is making a comeback - advertise them on Facebook and local papers
because its a business that has to pay not a hobby - I started with around 75. We are on a busy farm and costs and low inputs are essential.
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I didn't question that! All i said was why kill them if they don't make good eating. I can see Rosie's reasoning - my dogs get raw chicken wings occasionally. I made suggestions - you asked for options and got them!
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All i said was why kill them if they don't make good eating.
Because if they're deid, ye dinnae need tae feed them ;)
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That's not what I meant and you know it! <grrrr> ;D
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When you have redundant hens all you can do is give them the best chance. The idea of selling them for £2 each is that probably anyone who pays is going to look after them. But you can't ever tell. I did give away a load in desperation once as they were mad egg eaters. A guy picked them up within an hour and said he was going to raise them in his garden. From the smell of spice in his van, I suspect he had a takeaway. But no matter, good luck to him.
At the end of the day there are just too many hens out there as we all want as many eggs as we want so they have to go somewhere.
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Most people I know that need to keep their poultry on a business footing only keep them a year in lay at most and resell while they've a decent laying future for the next home to be worth paying for. They get £5-6 a bird at that stage and if they are genuine free range of particular breed then they make a real effort to say so and get the backyard eglu kind of lifestyle buyer that will have 3 more as pets for the kids and a few eggs than a business.
Big commercial units cull at a year too, so that's obviously the peak of lay after which it will always ease off. Those are the bald birds you get through BHWT and other rehoming organisations, still 2-3 years of declining lay but worth a few quid rather than nothing.
Laying birds aren't raised to be meat birds, they have other breeds for that, so you're not going to get a good layer to 3 years on full lay and then a decent meal aswell, just not how farming works now - there may be some more trad 'dual purpose' breeds about but if you've gone for high production layers it's not likely you'll have those.
So really if you're going to be business minded, think about a second batch coming into lay before your older birds go into moult and advertise/sell what you have while they still have value to the next in line, rather than keep til they're laid out and then expect sales or meals out of them. They'll be scrawny picking by then on either job at a guess. Folk I buy day olds from have two sheds, one August and one February, changed annually and birds sell at £6 (central belt Scotland) at that stage with no problem.
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Most people I know that need to keep their poultry on a business footing only keep them a year in lay at most and resell while they've a decent laying future for the next home to be worth paying for. They get £5-6 a bird at that stage and if they are genuine free range of particular breed then they make a real effort to say so and get the backyard eglu kind of lifestyle buyer that will have 3 more as pets for the kids and a few eggs than a business.
Big commercial units cull at a year too, so that's obviously the peak of lay after which it will always ease off. Those are the bald birds you get through BHWT and other rehoming organisations, still 2-3 years of declining lay but worth a few quid rather than nothing.
Laying birds aren't raised to be meat birds, they have other breeds for that, so you're not going to get a good layer to 3 years on full lay and then a decent meal aswell, just not how farming works now - there may be some more trad 'dual purpose' breeds about but if you've gone for high production layers it's not likely you'll have those.
So really if you're going to be business minded, think about a second batch coming into lay before your older birds go into moult and advertise/sell what you have while they still have value to the next in line, rather than keep til they're laid out and then expect sales or meals out of them. They'll be scrawny picking by then on either job at a guess. Folk I buy day olds from have two sheds, one August and one February, changed annually and birds sell at £6 (central belt Scotland) at that stage with no problem.
I think £6/bird is steep- you can buy POL brown hybrids for £6 each round here from a commercial rearer. I paid £6 for POL white Leghorns too. One of our friends is a chicken farmer, they sell theirs for £2/bird (used to be £1, went up last year) which is more realistic. I have a few each time, they go on for another couple of years.
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Most people I know that need to keep their poultry on a business footing only keep them a year in lay at most and resell while they've a decent laying future for the next home to be worth paying for. They get £5-6 a bird at that stage and if they are genuine free range of particular breed then they make a real effort to say so and get the backyard eglu kind of lifestyle buyer that will have 3 more as pets for the kids and a few eggs than a business.
Big commercial units cull at a year too, so that's obviously the peak of lay after which it will always ease off. Those are the bald birds you get through BHWT and other rehoming organisations, still 2-3 years of declining lay but worth a few quid rather than nothing.
Laying birds aren't raised to be meat birds, they have other breeds for that, so you're not going to get a good layer to 3 years on full lay and then a decent meal aswell, just not how farming works now - there may be some more trad 'dual purpose' breeds about but if you've gone for high production layers it's not likely you'll have those.
So really if you're going to be business minded, think about a second batch coming into lay before your older birds go into moult and advertise/sell what you have while they still have value to the next in line, rather than keep til they're laid out and then expect sales or meals out of them. They'll be scrawny picking by then on either job at a guess. Folk I buy day olds from have two sheds, one August and one February, changed annually and birds sell at £6 (central belt Scotland) at that stage with no problem.
I think £6/bird is steep- you can buy POL brown hybrids for £6 each round here from a commercial rearer. I paid £6 for POL white Leghorns too. One of our friends is a chicken farmer, they sell theirs for £2/bird (used to be £1, went up last year) which is more realistic. I have a few each time, they go on for another couple of years.
Not sure where you are but this is just what my supplier of day olds told me she gets for her birds at that point, over near Loch Lomond. And I've seen similar prices, around £5 from a local (Falkland) organic farm shop selling off layers around the same age. The first has a mix of marans, sussex, bluebells, rhode rocks, blacktails, speckledy and welsummers, the latter is mostly some kind of commercial brown hybrid as far as I can see, maybe they get more because of the organic label and the reputation of the shop. No idea, but that's what the woman said she gets and I have no reason to challenge her.
For comparison the many local spent hen welfare groups ask for 'donations' of £4 a bird at the same age from large commercial flocks with hardly any feathers, even/especially the commercial free range birds. I had 4 via doganjo a few years ago and wouldn't refuse more at some point but they really had no laying capacity like the ones that have been genuinely free range for that year. No recovery time, no thin shells or shell-free eggs..
Up to the OP what she charges of course, I've no idea where anyone else is or what the norm is there, but it would be odd if the birds cost £2 at POL and £4 a year later in that condition..
My own birds die here of old age, always have, usually with their head in the feeder or else still clinging to the perch in the coop but tipped over. I'm
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My own birds die here of old age, always have, usually with their head in the feeder or else still clinging to the perch in the coop but tipped over. I'm
Mine too, lost two old girls last week. But the eggs are just for me and friends so I probably won't replace them.
The chap who delivers my henfood sells Hyline POLs at £10!
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Most people I know that need to keep their poultry on a business footing only keep them a year in lay at most and resell while they've a decent laying future for the next home to be worth paying for. They get £5-6 a bird at that stage and if they are genuine free range of particular breed then they make a real effort to say so and get the backyard eglu kind of lifestyle buyer that will have 3 more as pets for the kids and a few eggs than a business.
Big commercial units cull at a year too, so that's obviously the peak of lay after which it will always ease off. Those are the bald birds you get through BHWT and other rehoming organisations, still 2-3 years of declining lay but worth a few quid rather than nothing.
Laying birds aren't raised to be meat birds, they have other breeds for that, so you're not going to get a good layer to 3 years on full lay and then a decent meal aswell, just not how farming works now - there may be some more trad 'dual purpose' breeds about but if you've gone for high production layers it's not likely you'll have those.
So really if you're going to be business minded, think about a second batch coming into lay before your older birds go into moult and advertise/sell what you have while they still have value to the next in line, rather than keep til they're laid out and then expect sales or meals out of them. They'll be scrawny picking by then on either job at a guess. Folk I buy day olds from have two sheds, one August and one February, changed annually and birds sell at £6 (central belt Scotland) at that stage with no problem.
I think £6/bird is steep- you can buy POL brown hybrids for £6 each round here from a commercial rearer. I paid £6 for POL white Leghorns too. One of our friends is a chicken farmer, they sell theirs for £2/bird (used to be £1, went up last year) which is more realistic. I have a few each time, they go on for another couple of years.
Not sure where you are but this is just what my supplier of day olds told me she gets for her birds at that point, over near Loch Lomond. And I've seen similar prices, around £5 from a local (Falkland) organic farm shop selling off layers around the same age. The first has a mix of marans, sussex, bluebells, rhode rocks, blacktails, speckledy and welsummers, the latter is mostly some kind of commercial brown hybrid as far as I can see, maybe they get more because of the organic label and the reputation of the shop. No idea, but that's what the woman said she gets and I have no reason to challenge her.
For comparison the many local spent hen welfare groups ask for 'donations' of £4 a bird at the same age from large commercial flocks with hardly any feathers, even/especially the commercial free range birds. I had 4 via doganjo a few years ago and wouldn't refuse more at some point but they really had no laying capacity like the ones that have been genuinely free range for that year. No recovery time, no thin shells or shell-free eggs..
Up to the OP what she charges of course, I've no idea where anyone else is or what the norm is there, but it would be odd if the birds cost £2 at POL and £4 a year later in that condition..
My own birds die here of old age, always have, usually with their head in the feeder or else still clinging to the perch in the coop but tipped over. I'm
I'm in Cornwall. £6/POL brown hybrid, £2 for over year hens direct from a free range chicken farm. Seen BHWT advertising hens for £4-6 donation each, sorry but they are not worth that even if they lay for 12 months after. Most need complete time out, a good moult etc before they even think about laying. The majority of my hens also live out their years with me, every few years I might cull a few that are looking old before winter sets in but apart from that they are here to stay and I don't move them on anymore.
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I put a small ad in the local paper. Sell mine off at two years old and get £4 for them. They go very quickly.