Prices were very poor for those selling and lots of people taking birds home that hadn't sold ( even with no reserve - Scary).
I sold some of my better end birds for about half the price i got this time last year.
Rather than waste the day i bought 6 top end birds 3 would probably take 1 st prize in classes at local shows and at least one would be challenging for top row.
I paid £8 for one trio which had a good old cock and reasonable young hens, £20 for a pair with the cock having the potential for champion row and hen being good and £15 for a single hen who was covered in mud but underneath is a rough diamond.
The birds will be going straight in the breeding pens after quarantine.
I guess the economy is biting and people don't have the cash? - Any other suggestions!
I was already planning on breeding less this year but might curb that a bit more as if you don't have a market able to pay ( or willing to take them away for pennies) then the food costs make it almost non viable
I have to point out we do it for a hobby / showing and any returns take some of the sting out of the feed cost and nothing more. Some folk are trying to make a living or boost their finances and I'm not sure how they will cope
Really just posting this to give folks ideas of one market that is usually pretty vibrant at this particular sale when people should be looking at breeding stock for the year ahead.
Another example of the poor prices was a pair of Toulouse geese that were not to bad and would have been £100 plus normally - they went for a tenner.
I personally didn't see any sales over £100 and there are usually quite a few. Eggs prices were depressed also i saw nice dark copper marran eggs making at best about £20 a dozen, they are usually much more
Anyway happy hatching ( but i would think about hatching to many)
BL