Hi I'm Michele and I live on the border of NY,NJ and PA on the Delaware River. Does anyone have any young adult hens for sale? I am looking for Giants, Araucanas, Austrolorps, BuffLaced Polish, Partridge Rock, Dominiques . I'm also looking for 2 Porcelain young hens. Oh and Dark Brahmas!! I'd like to be able todrive and pick them up but if shipping isnt too much, I guess I'd look into that. I dont eat them but enjoy their company on my farm and love their eggs. Thanks all!

-- Michele Rae Padgett (michelesmelodyfarm@Yahoo.com), May 23, 2001

Answers

Come September, I will have a flock of 24 three year old Buff Orpington hens and 7 roosters to sell, as by that time the new batch will be ready to start laying (Black Australorps). Every three years it's all the "old" hens and roosters sold, and new batch in!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), May 24, 2001.

Annie, what is the going rate for a three-year-old hen, or a rooster, in your area? My hens must have the best life out here in the county. They live out their existence in a nice run and eat the best rations. When they stop laying I just go to the feed store and bring home 6 new chicks and wait for the eggs to start 6 months later. Once the old hens go to their reward, I bury them somewhere in the grove in a place of respect. The truth is, I did once try to butcher and cook a bird. It was those two dang noisy roosters. And they were 3 or 4 years old. Well, it took 2 or 3 attempts to catch each and carry him over to the chopping block where I had to close my eyes during the final coop. I had to call my mother and ask how to open him up and remove the innerds. And after plucking them I placed them in a bucket of cold water. Well, I could tell who was who by the feet sticking out of the top of the bucket! How could we eat Rusty? But after all that effort, he got cooked. Even after an hour in a pressure cooker the meat was so tough and gamey I had to throw it out. I swore to never suffer that experience again. But if I sell the old birds, I don't have to know what happen, right? So what do folks pay for an old, non- laying hen?

-- Dwight (summit1762@aol.com), May 24, 2001.

Have you considered getting ex-battery hens? Providing they haven't been de-beaked, they can do OK; and the commercial battery-hen places get rid of them while there's still a lot of life and eggs in them, just because they're slowing down a little. Can take a couple of months for them to learn how to handle things like dirt, and sun, and dust-baths, and freedom, and so forth; but you'll still be getting eggs from them a lot quicker than raising your own, and they'll be high-producing strains (provided the production you want is eggs - meat they won't be good at).

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 25, 2001.

Dwight, we don't butcher our birds either, just can't do it!!! Thats why I sell 'em! I usually get 2.50 each for them, but they still lay LARGE eggs, just not as often, usually 3 or 4 times a week.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), May 28, 2001.

== Have you considered getting ex-battery hens? Providing they haven't been de-beaked, they can do OK ==

Campbells Soup raises their birds until they are 18 months old. Then it's into their soups. A neighbor periodically gets some of these birds before they go for soup. He gave me a bunch of them. Like any of the big company birds, they're not de-beaked per se; the upper beak is cut back a bit. They can still eat/drink/free range and have a full life.

I wound up giving all the Leghorns to a friend. Setting on nests has pretty much been bred out of the Leghorn. The problem I had is these hens wouldn't let any of my other hens set, either! -LOL- I don't know if this is typical. I have heard from others that they're pretty bossy tho.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), May 29, 2001.

Michele, you might try

http://www.eggbay.com/

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), May 31, 2001.

Hey, I need a chicken too. I have no idea where to go, to tell some one that, or to get ideas, so this is where I stopped. I need a grey one year old hen. It doesn't have to be laying yet, but normal chickens of the age of one will start already. Thanks.

-- Megan schwartz (MegSchwartz@cinci.rr.com), December 03, 2001.