You guys in the US are SO lucky! (Comparing prices to what we have here)

[cluckcluckluke]

Well, as our neighboring countries are Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, and they are all rather hostile (and/or in the middle of civil war)... I guess you get the idea.

I think the daredevils who shipped pure-bred chickens/eggs into Israel got their stock from the US. Again, not something I'd do.

My husband just spoke with someone who has absolutely gorgeous Silkies, but who flat out refuses to sell eggs for hatching. 20$ per chick?! I want Silkies very much, but... this is more than I can pay in good conscience (also keep in mind salaries here are lower than in the US).

Oh, I should have thought about, I don't think there would be any chickens in the Civil war that you go and rescue.lol.
Yeah I thought maybe you could still get stock from the U.S, guess not.
Why would he refuse? Maybe they cost him quite a bit himself. I think then if you really want chickens you going to have to bit the bullet and pay $20 for a chick, which is absolutely ridiculous I think, unless they are pure Show quality and he can prove that.

 

[Flock Leader]

Oh, I should have thought about, I don't think there would be any chickens in the Civil war that you go and rescue.lol.
Yeah I thought maybe you could still get stock from the U.S, guess not.
Why would he refuse? Maybe they cost him quite a bit himself. I think then if you really want chickens you going to have to bit the bullet and pay $20 for a chick, which is absolutely ridiculous I think, unless they are pure Show quality and he can prove that.

I guess we might do that; I have expressed the wish for a pair of Silkies for my birthday (which is in about a month). If we spend 40$ or even 80$ on chicks and manage to raise them and breed from them, it will be a worthy investment.

It is rather annoying to support exorbitant prices by paying them, though, but hopefully in the future we will be able to provide quality hatching eggs for a reasonable fee.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I guess we might do that; I have expressed the wish for a pair of Silkies for my birthday (which is in about a month). If we spend 40$ or even 80$ on chicks and manage to raise them and breed from them, it will be a worthy investment.

It is rather annoying to support exorbitant prices by paying them, though, but hopefully in the future we will be able to provide quality hatching eggs for a reasonable fee.

I think that is the way you will have to go. That is what I thought when I got my Marans, if I breed them, then I get my money and get more in. Even if you sell your silkies for just less than your competitors, it will force them to drop their prices. So they you can afford more and sell more.LOL.
Good luck! Hope you get them!

 

[Flock Leader]

Good luck! Hope you get them!

 

[GardenerGal]

Biting the bullet and investing, is probably your only option right now. Are you going to insist on vent-sexing the chicks, if/when you go to buy them? When you're paying that kind of money, you'll want to make sure you're getting the ratio of pullets and cockerels that you want!

Things may change in time, especially if you become a stock provider once your flock is large enough to support selling chicks and fertile eggs.

When I wanted to raise Nankin bantams, years ago, it was very difficult to find breeders who would part with any of their birds, and harder still to get birds of breeding quality. Back then, we expected to pay a lot for a chick, and crazy money for adults. Somehow, in recent years more Nankins have shown up as available for sale and breeding, and the breed is no longer considered to be in danger of extinction. I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect some "watering down" of stock by using Old English Game cross-breeding...
Even so, the interesting point is that from a handful of U.S. breeders 15 years ago, now you can easily get Nankin chicks for the same cost as the most common breeds.

Good luck!

 

[Flock Leader]

Biting the bullet and investing, is probably your only option right now. Are you going to insist on vent-sexing the chicks, if/when you go to buy them? When you're paying that kind of money, you'll want to make sure you're getting the ratio of pullets and cockerels that you want!

Things may change in time, especially if you become a stock provider once your flock is large enough to support selling chicks and fertile eggs.

When I wanted to raise Nankin bantams, years ago, it was very difficult to find breeders who would part with any of their birds, and harder still to get birds of breeding quality. Back then, we expected to pay a lot for a chick, and crazy money for adults. Somehow, in recent years more Nankins have shown up as available for sale and breeding, and the breed is no longer considered to be in danger of extinction. I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect some "watering down" of stock by using Old English Game cross-breeding...
Even so, the interesting point is that from a handful of U.S. breeders 15 years ago, now you can easily get Nankin chicks for the same cost as the most common breeds.

Good luck!

I am ashamed to say I haven't even heard about Nankins until now; I just read your review of this breed, and I must say that I saw the rooster helping with the older chicks in my flock as well; it was really cute. He's a "local", which isn't a recognized breed really, but very handsome and sweet.

To be honest I've never done vent sexing before, I ought to look into that. I'm pretty good with sexing by wing feathers, but it doesn't work with every breed.

 

[GardenerGal]

I have to admit, vent sexing chicks is not a simple thing! The cockerel chicks have a tiny (tiny!!) little nodule just inside the outer rim of the cloaca. That nodule is the penis. I've seen it with a magnifying lense. The big commercial hatcheries here hire professional chicken sexers, and that's what I was thinking... not that you would have to do the sexing yourself!

An interesting aside: For some reason, Japan has produced a tradition of chicken sexing, a skill handed down generation to generation, though it seems to be fading out somewhat. I think that there's still a group of Japanese professional chicken sexers who are hired by a number of commercial hatcheries here. They travel to the U.S. and sex chickens, then they go home!

 

[Flock Leader]

I have to admit, vent sexing chicks is not a simple thing! The cockerel chicks have a tiny (tiny!!) little nodule just inside the outer rim of the cloaca. That nodule is the penis. I've seen it with a magnifying lense. The big commercial hatcheries here hire professional chicken sexers, and that's what I was thinking... not that you would have to do the sexing yourself!

An interesting aside: For some reason, Japan has produced a tradition of chicken sexing, a skill handed down generation to generation, though it seems to be fading out somewhat. I think that there's still a group of Japanese professional chicken sexers who are hired by a number of commercial hatcheries here. They travel to the U.S. and sex chickens, then they go home!

Oh no, we definitely have no professional sexers here. In commercial hatcheries they do it by feather-sexing. So, perhaps our best bet would be to buy older chicks who can be sexed by comb size, general shape, etc, even though that would be slightly more expensive.

 

[Flock Leader]

There is also another point which I hesitated to bring up here, but perhaps I should, in the gentlest terms. We are Orthodox Jews, and therefore feel it is our duty to support Jewish breeders; this isn't only true in this case, but in any case (shopping, house repairs, gardening services, etc).

I hope people don't take it as "discrimination"; I know many Christians prefer to support Christian businesses as well.

The problem is, here in Israel non-Jews (OK, let's for simplicity's sake say Muslim Arabs, as that is the largest non-Jewish minority) often have much lower prices (again... with everything, not just chickens... house&car repairs, etc), so we're always in this dilemma: do we buy from those we want to support, or from those who have better prices?

I also often encounter this dilemma when having to choose between local business vs. chain store, hand-made vs. factory-made. Do I support "socially beneficial" local economy, and can I afford it? (But I digress...)

 

[GardenerGal]

Oh no, we definitely have no professional sexers here. In commercial hatcheries they do it by feather-sexing. So, perhaps our best bet would be to buy older chicks who can be sexed by comb size, general shape, etc, even though that would be slightly more expensive.

I think that's your best approach, for sure. It doesn't take long for cockerels to start growing combs. Single-comb types are easier to do this with than breeds with rose- or pea combs, in my experience, but by the time the chicks are a month old you definitely can see the cockerels. Combs and tail feathers.

If you have only day-old chicks to choose from, bring a good magnifying glass along.

I have found it's good experience to see if you can find the penis in a chick, a fledged juvenile and an adult. Once you know what to look for it gets less difficult. Professional sexers are really more relevant in large poultry operations, where a lot of chicks have to be sexed quickly. I've seen photos of Japanese chicken sexers working. They were wearing a special optical lens over one eye, held there with a strap around their head, sort of like a pirate eye patch! There was very good lighting, too, with lamps like the kind old-fashioned jewelers and watch-makers use to illuminate their detail work.