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Starting Chicken Keeping - Where to Buy Your First Chickens

25 16:35:24

It is often difficult for new chicken keepers to know where to go to get their first birds. As chicken keeping becomes more popular again there seems to be an ever-growing source of birds. However it is important that you are careful when choosing a chicken supplier if you are to avoid expensive vet bills or heartache from the early demise of a bird that was not healthy. This is even more important if you already have birds and are looking to introduce more, as health problems spread quickly from bird to bird in a flock.

Like everything else now you can order birds online and have them delivered to your door within hours. However unless you know the supplier well I would not advise this. Apart from the risks of being delivered a bird that is less than perfect physically to start with, there is also potential for the birds to suffer a lot of stress in transit especially if a non specialist carrier has been used.

I would recommend that you always choose your new chickens in person and inspect them thoroughly yourself before purchasing them. You do not have to have a great deal of experience to spot a bird that is in less than tip-top condition.

The following are a list of places where you can purchase your new chickens.

Recognised Breeder

You will probably have a good idea what type or breed of chicken you would like to keep. If so I suggest you contact your local breed club who will be able to put you in contact with one of their recommended breeders. These breeders will likely be experts and show winners in a particular breed of chicken and will be keen to ensure that the birds they sell are only the best.This is probably the best place to go to ensure you buy a high quality bird, but of course it will not be the cheapest. However you may more than make up for that with what you save down the line in vet bills etc.

Poultry shows

 

A lot of top breeders go to these shows and sell their birds. Birds are usually in pens so you can take your time and examine them. In addition there is usually lots of experienced chicken keepers on hand who will be only too glad to answer any questions you may have. If the show is a well organised one the likelihood of sick birds being allowed in the sale pens by the show staff is minimal. These shows are also a great place for you to get to see a range of different breeds in one place.

One word of caution remember you only wanted a couple of chickens (or maximum four) to start with.. it is easy to get carried away, when faced with so many lovely birds!

From a classified ad .

A lot of these adverts will be placed by reputable experienced breeders. If you contact someone get their details and you can always check with the breed club to see if they are on their list. However there will be are a lot of adverts placed by relatively inexperienced chicken keepers selling some birds that they have hatched themselves. This is not necessarily a problem if you visit their premises and check it and their birds carefully out before buying.

Poultry Auctions.

These can be a good cheap source of birds, but it is maybe not a good place for a novice to start. Auctions are a good place for breeders to get rid of less than top quality stock and you do really need to know what you are looking for. Very often also as with most auctions, buying decisions have to be made quickly.

Hatch your own eggs

This is an attractive option especially if you have children. There is nothing nicer than seeing your chickens being hatched and then watching them grow up. Many new chicken keepers do start this way and there are plenty sources of hatching eggs (even eBay advertises them now). My advice to a new chicken keeper would be to start with older birds and maybe look to increase your flock numbers by hatching your own eggs. If nothing else you will not have to deal with the problems of unwanted roosters from day one, as there is obviously no way of telling the sex of an unhatched egg.