Choosing chickens help !

[chickchickchickenkeeper]

Hiya

I need help I am too busy doing the "possible chicken dance" to think logically

I have struggled to find sensibly priced chickens locally, and had found 2 acceptable options - £10 POL "brown layers" end of September, or £13-16 POL Lowman Browns end of June. Both were longer then I wanted to wait, but I didn't want to pay £25-30 a head for hybrids (purebred was £30-45..!!)

I've just had one of the people I contacted but not heard get back to me. They have some pretty hybrids in "stock", POL right now, for £23 a head - with these I have the options for rhode rock, ballerina, calder ranger, sussex ranger, speckledy, commerical brown, pied ranger and beechwood blue.

The decision I need to make is go for chickens now (presuming these are hybrids who will suit my set up) which isn't ideal timing as I'm in the middle of moving house!! or wait for the June or September chickens, which might be better timing wise, although aren't as pretty

I have an eglu with a standard run currently, and the girls can/could free range all day safely. I will order a run extension end of May, and eventually move onto a Cube (woop :D) and I'm looking at 2-3 girlies.

I really like the look of the speckledy and beechwood blue - would these sound oki for the set up, or are any of the others better suited?

Thank you

Hybrids should be freely available atm; you can expect to pay about £15-18 generally.

The 'blue' hybrids are usually quite big - might be a little cramped in an eglu? The speckeldy hybrid is a fab chicken, and the rangers are v friendly (though not all that long lived). Anything based on a leghorn (which I think your 'ballerina' is) will give lovely white eggs.

What general part of the country are you in?

Where are you? Thornes at Letchworth have fabulous birds, delivered everyweek and people queue at the weekend! They have a bird of the week and most cost between £14 and £18.

They are very healthy, I have had 12 from them, the last lot lasted 5 years until the fox got them

www.thornespoultrycentre.co.uk/

I'm in Essex/Suffolk borders, hybrid POL prices here range from £6.50/7 for standard brown hen to £14-£20 for fancier hybrids e.g those that lay white or blue eggs.

I personally wouldn't go for another speckeldy/maran cross type - have had two, aggro eg attacking other hens and bad health.

You don't have to stick to hybrids BTW - you could go for pure-breeds or a mix/match which is what I currently have.

Don't think that you can free-range your girls safely during the day, you can't truly unless its in a fox proof enclosure or behind electric fencing / netting. I lost my first two in broad daylight to a fox.

Hope you get some new ladies soon :-)

Currently I have,

Redco hen/Rhode ranger (boss hen and lays brown eggs)
Exchequer leghorn (pure breed lays white eggs)
Araucana (pure breed lays green eggs)
2 x Heritage Skyline (POL should lay blue eggs)
Silver link (POL should lay brown eggs)
White leghorn (POL should lay large white eggs)

Hello chickckickchickenkeeper

Hey I was reading your post and noticed that you liked the look of the beechwood blues. Ive actually been raising some (44 to be precise) there 17 weeks old. I'm currently selling them at £13.99 each at the moment and £19.99 at POL. I can also drop off nation wide within a couple of days feel free o give me a ring on 07880319822.