Chooks at Dobbies!

[Snadger]

.....at 30 squid a knock!!!!!!!!!!!!

They had ISA browns,Speckledys and a supposed Light Sussex that looked very much like my LS/ISA brown cross.

£30 each at point of lay and £22 for 6/10 week olds (Supposedly needing heat?)

Its enough to make you want to fire up the incy again!

[pdblake]

Crikey, my ISAs were £5.50 each!

[rustylady]

My son bought three chickens (POL) at £35 each a couple of weeks ago. Still no eggs!!!

[walldanzig]

that is so expensive. I would always fire the incy up but you can kind of see the time/effort put into them and the cost involved

[BUFFS]

well snadger,if the birds cost that much,buying a coop from them would need a mortgage,i got a speckled hen and a plymouth rock for that price,how can they justify those kind of prices..

[moola]

what a rip off. These hybird hens cost no more then £7-£8 usually. £20-5 for a pure breed.

[Snadger]

I pay £3 to £4.50 at a local hen farm for a POL ISA Browns and think I've been robbed!

[OverWyreGrower]

I'd happily pay £30 for a pure breed (Welsummer, CL, LS etc) but for a ISABrown, Speckeldy etc, think that £30 is a bit much...

Plus - presumably, Dobbies are marketing this at first time hen owners, rather than more experienced people, who would either already have a source for their birds, or an incy/broody set up? In that case - how experienced/knowledgable are their staff on chicken husbandry? Can you take a bird back to them if something happens? What sort of bio-security are they practising?

[Gro-Bag]

Madness! Yes, I do hope they give good advice. However, I see it as a good thing in general if chicken keeping is getting more popular - more eggs from garden chooks in circulation = less income for the battery farms.

[Flummery]

They are having a larf! However, if people pay more there's a chance they'll look after them better?

[OverWyreGrower]

They are having a larf! However, if people pay more there's a chance they'll look after them better?

You'd think so, wouldn't you! I'd like to be that optimistic, but having done some work recently for a dog rescue, I'm not that sure.

People pay hundreds for a dog and mistreat them, neglect them and dump them in public places to be tidied up by someone else.

The lake on the campus where I work has had over 25 birds (ducks and chickens) dumped there in the last 6 months, as it has a colony of wild birds already. People seem to think that leaving them there (because our grounds team is based there) is OK. There are some lovely looking birds there, I suspect dumped because they are cockerels, or because they are unwanted

[snakeshack]

They are having a larf! However, if people pay more there's a chance they'll look after them better?

If you're stupid enough to pay that much it suggests that you've got more money than sense and that don't bode well........but it does bode

[Suechooks]

If you're stupid enough to pay that much it suggests that you've got more money than sense and that don't bode well........but it does bode

It's also more likely that they will "impulse buy" if they're able to get everything in one place, without any research, with the likelihood of more and more unwanted chooks when the kids get bored or they stop laying or are more messy than they thought!

[petal]

I think £30 for a good pure breed is money well spent but it sounds like this place is catching first time chicken buyers out.

[petal]

Oh by the way, if anyone lives in my area and wants reasonably priced chickens, pm me.