Selling hens

[DaveJ]

I read in the paper last night that Dobbies are going to start to sell hens in their garden centres. Apparently a trial run in some of their outlets proved very successful. If it gets more people keeping poultry then that's a good thing, but I just wonder on welfare issues, how qualified are the staff in providing specialist advice and prices charged. What does anybody else think?

[Hans Mum]

personally I'm against it, its a bandwagon that the big groups seem to be jumping on scenting a profit no doubt
the housing these places are selling is not adequate, and if people buy hens on a whim without seriously considering the implications are they just going to dump them when they need to go on holiday and cant get a hen sitter or when the novelty wears off, think of the ninja turtle fad a few years ago then dumped them in ponds & rivers. I thought long and hard for over a year before i made the decision to get my girls as I knew it would be a big committment.

[di]

Sorry Dave,I agree with Hansmum.
There's plenty of poultry suppliers about,yes some of them require quite a bit of hunting down but maybe that's a good thing and stops people buying on a whim.I'd also be a little worried,like you pointed out,about how much info/advice they'd be able to give,both at the time and following on.

That said,I've just remembered a nursery fairly local to us that sells chicks...but it's more a sublet part of the shop and the staff there are actually very well informed.

[OverWyreGrower]

Hhhmmm, I'm dubious!

Some of my best friends have just got hens, and ended up getting some week old chicks. They've never kept hens before and were fairly out of their depth, despite plenty of advice being given by the seller and myself.

It's turning into a bit of a fad I think - great if you've got the room and the time and motivation to look after chickens properly; but I still think they should be sold by reputable people with experience in chicken-keeping.

Let's face it, sometimes the staff in garden centres don't know about the plants they're selling, how qualified are they to give advice on live animals?

[Bramble-Poultry]

i am more concerned about the staff. i used to work in the pet trade many years ago, and i went on several college courses and even did an OATA (ornamental aquatic traders association) diploma to work in the shop. this put my qualifications and knowledge above that of the rival pet stores - however - when dealing with Joe Public, the truth that you tell them and the advice you give will not sink home if its not what the punter wants to hear. he will ignore you and your expert advice and go for the advice of teh 16 year old school kid who works a weekend in the local pet shop as he told the punter what he wanted to hear.

unfortunately, the garden centres employ the saturday kids as they are cheap and staff the store with these kind of kids. The advice they will give out will in all fairness likely to be dubious and downright reckless at times. seen it a million and one times.

No matter how well the set up and the stock is, these large corporations will be let down by the (un)knowledgable staff that front the shop.

I feel that if they want to go down this route, then they need to ensure that all staff working with the animals have a recognised qualification in the subject and are suitably trained.

Ignorance breeds ingnorance.

Rant Over

[RichmondHens]

It's turning into a bit of a fad I think - great if you've got the room and the time and motivation to look after chickens properly; but I still think they should be sold by reputable people with experience in chicken-keeping.

Let's face it, sometimes the staff in garden centres don't know about the plants they're selling, how qualified are they to give advice on live animals?

Totally agree OWG.

[matthew2riches]

I am against anything about putting chickens 'on the high street'. Hens should be bought from a local breeder or a farm - not a shop...

It will encourage people to buy them in the Spring & summer and then when all the good weather's over and winter arrives - suddenly there is no grass and mud everywhere with a chicken poop smell = they'll be discarded!!

Bad idea in my books!!

[sheena]

Our local garden centre also sells hen's and I have to say that upon my visit the hen's were all huddled up in a corner and not foraging around alot if at all.
They have been selling other animals for years but chooks was bought in last year I do believe. I wouldn't buy them from there myself as I cannot understand why you would want to pay £23 for a single chook.

On the other hand we have the farmers market once a month in town and there is a lady who sells chooks there, from what I understand is that she is a breeder and the chooks are never sold from the market itself. You have to go their chooky place to get them.
Again the price of these were pretty steep in my book, £20 a chook for standard breeds more exotic were more expensive as you can imagine.

In all it's a good idea to encourage people to have their own, but when they realise the time and effort needed to look after them it can go terribly wrong.
I've already taken in my neighbours hen's cos she didn't think of them when she decided to move home.

[Bramble-Poultry]

those prices seem about right for good quality birds to be honest. Pet grade birds are usually around the 10 - 15 quid mark, but if you go to the Wernlas Collection for example, a good show / utility strain of LIght Sussex will set you back £39.

sounds daft doesnt it, but it must be acceptable as whilst we were there browsing the pens, the chap sold approx 15 birds in the hour we were there!

i suppose there are arguements for and against. sell them too cheap, any muppet will buy them and give them care in relationship to the price they paid. If they are a disposable price then they are treated as disposable. Price them high, they are classed as a luxury item and will be treated as such.

you need to know your clientel and pitch accordingly.

[RichmondHens]

It costs the same amount of money, time and effort to raise a crossbreed as it does a pure breed. No hen should be cheap. I agree with Bramble's comment about disposable price = disposable hen. That is unfortunately how a lot of people think.

[Glutton4...]

If you sit down and work out how much its costs to produce and feed a bird up to point of lay/sale time, those that sell cheaply are probably doing so at very little profit.

[Pumpkin Becki]

No hen should be cheap. I agree with Bramble's comment about disposable price = disposable hen. That is unfortunately how a lot of people think.

When I worked at Forsham, I had a customer who wanted to buy a coop from us, a very nice one, at a discounted rate (for no real reason), and he wanted chooks for free. I said I wouldn't give him free chickens. When he asked why, I said 'I liken it to a gym membership, if I give you them for free, you won't appreciate them.'

[HayleyB]

I pay £20-25 for cross breeds POL and for 8 week olds last year were £8 each. I don't agree with Garden Centres selling though.

[sheena]

I see what you're saying about selling them too cheap, but i'm pretty tight with my dosh and trying to do everything as cheap as possible.
When I got my ex-batts they cost me about £2 each but it was a 40 mile round trip to get them. When I found the breeder up the road from me who was selling them for £5 I grabbed 4 of the little beauties.
I didn't feel quite so bad when one them died unexpectedly. But when I had to put one of my ex-batts out of her misery it was heart breaking - no amount of money paid or lost can compensate for how I feel about them now.

Before I first got the girl's I had all plans of letting them run their lives of eggs and when they were finished laying they would become dinner. But as you all know, it is too hard to separate your emotions from these lovely girl's no matter how we came to get them... they seem to worm their way into our hearts and when I found the 2nd one dead in the run - oh how I cried!

If I hadn't of eaten chicken for the many years of my life, it would of probably put me off for the rest of it.