Pullets / young Hens
Photo sent in by Lisa Jackson of her pullets using the chooketeria
A Pullet is a young female hen under the age of one year old..
Our birds are all reared on quality medicated feeds, with multitudes of clean shavings and lashings of love & care! All are hatched and reared indoors until they are feathered and ready to go outdoors, and to their new homes. This all costs extra to do in many smaller batches, with continually rising feed & electricity costs, plus many other materials, such as shavings, health care.
Our quality breeding birds are all kept in their own separate pens to insure we can supply pullets of high purebred standards.
We have a minimum purchase of at least two pullets or more because chickens are flock animals and require company of their own kind. Also introducing two or more pullets to an existing flock is preferable to prevent one young bird being bullied by the original flock. Please see here for more tips on introducing new birds to existing flocks.
Our birds are all reared on quality medicated feeds, with multitudes of clean shavings and lashings of love & care! All are hatched and reared indoors until they are feathered and ready to go outdoors, and to their new homes. This all costs extra to do in many smaller batches, with continually rising feed & electricity costs, plus many other materials, such as shavings, health care.
Our quality breeding birds are all kept in their own separate pens to insure we can supply pullets of high purebred standards.
We have a minimum purchase of at least two pullets or more because chickens are flock animals and require company of their own kind. Also introducing two or more pullets to an existing flock is preferable to prevent one young bird being bullied by the original flock. Please see here for more tips on introducing new birds to existing flocks.
Our Pullets are priced from $60 - $70 per pullet (young female chicken) from 10- 12 weeks old, including GST.
Our Pullets are usually sold at a minimum of 10 weeks old with a preference of 12 weeks - we do not usually take them through to POL (point of lay) which costs extra to keep and we often don't have the pen space to do so AND we very rarely have any LEFT to take through to this age.
All our birds are from our own top quality purebred foundation breeding stock, and all include GST in the price per bird.
Orders for purebred pullets are taken from September and pullets START to become available from late November - We recommend getting your order in early to avoid lengthy wait times and or missing out altogether - some breeds are completely booked out for the season within a a month or two. Priced from just $60.00 per bird for purebred quality stock, no deposit is required until the birds are sexed and allocated to you.
We recommend purchasing at least a small amount of the quality feed the birds are currently being fed to reduce the stress of the change of environment. Stress can cause young birds to become susceptible to disease. Young growing birds should never be fed layer feed products as the higher calcium content in layer feed can cause damage to their kidneys.
Once your pullets are close to laying or have produced their first egg they should be moved to a commercial layer pellet. We recommend a complete layer pellet over mixed grains as the girls can become very picky and only eat a few of their favourite grains (especially maize!) to the exclusion of everything else which will cause them to become deficient in calcium and other important vitamins and minerals. We recommend keeping mixed whole grain feeds as treats.
When collecting your new birds - please remember to bring suitable carriers to transport your new birds home in - Cat cages are ideal or a dog crate or good strong cardboard boxes with a closing top will suffice and we can cut suitable ventilation holes in any boxes when you arrive. Please do not bring plastic boxes - they are not suitable as birds get overheated.
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We also have available beautiful strong healthy day old chicks.. See here about our chicks. Our newly hatched chicks are hatched out every week - these are sold as unsexed, Mareks vaccinated chicks @ 2 - 5 days old. Alternately, you may wish to hatch your own chicks, in which case please see here for our fertile hatching eggs. |
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Please do not compare the price of our quality purebred birds with the price of commercial Hybrids, which we do not keep here. We do not recommend putting our heritage breeds in with commercial breeds such as Shavers & or Hylines. This is because shavers and hylines can be quite aggressive and cause damage to more gentle heritage breeds - however it is usually possible to get them to co-exist - it just may take a bit of time and effort.
While the commercial 'red' hens maybe very prolific layers in their first year or two, their laying will then drop dramatically or come to an abrupt stop. Unfortunately they have been bred to produce large quantities of eggs in a very short space of time which impacts dramatically on their health. Quality heritage breeds generally live longer and usually continue to lay for many more years to come.
All our breeds have separate housing / breeding pens here so that we can ensure that we provide the best quality purebred birds we can for all, both for laying ability, utility - dual purpose as well as the 'looks to boot' for showing as desired.
It costs us much more to rear and supply our quality heritage breeds, much more in fact than it costs for any back yard breeder to rear a few chickens under a broody hen, with no effort or real work at all, and much more than the hybrid commercial layers that can be sexed at hatching to take the boys early (thus meaning much less feed used). Please think of incubators and broodlamps running 24/7, brooders full of chicks that need feeding and watering several times a day and cleaning often etc. We therefore ask that you do not compare our prices to any back yard breeder birds or Shavers/Hylines you may see advertised elsewhere.
We are a business and as such pay GST to the IRD, unlike most other poultry sellers. Our poultry, poultry accessories, hatching eggs & postage all include GST.
While the commercial 'red' hens maybe very prolific layers in their first year or two, their laying will then drop dramatically or come to an abrupt stop. Unfortunately they have been bred to produce large quantities of eggs in a very short space of time which impacts dramatically on their health. Quality heritage breeds generally live longer and usually continue to lay for many more years to come.
All our breeds have separate housing / breeding pens here so that we can ensure that we provide the best quality purebred birds we can for all, both for laying ability, utility - dual purpose as well as the 'looks to boot' for showing as desired.
It costs us much more to rear and supply our quality heritage breeds, much more in fact than it costs for any back yard breeder to rear a few chickens under a broody hen, with no effort or real work at all, and much more than the hybrid commercial layers that can be sexed at hatching to take the boys early (thus meaning much less feed used). Please think of incubators and broodlamps running 24/7, brooders full of chicks that need feeding and watering several times a day and cleaning often etc. We therefore ask that you do not compare our prices to any back yard breeder birds or Shavers/Hylines you may see advertised elsewhere.
We are a business and as such pay GST to the IRD, unlike most other poultry sellers. Our poultry, poultry accessories, hatching eggs & postage all include GST.
Collection and Transport
We would like to encourage you to come & pick your pullets up directly yourself, and many people do travel from far & wide to do so.
For all wishing to see where we are located to pick up yourself, please see here for our Address and a Map!
All birds ordered will require a deposit paid once birds are 2-3 weeks away from collection with remainder of payment on collection. We do not have EFTPOS or credit card facilities - Cash or Internet banking please.
If required we can organise transport of birds throughout NZ - we use PT Pet Transport as our preferred carrier, however they do have a standard route they follow and you will be required to meet them at a predetermined stop somewhere along this route. Please either check with us or them to determine if transport will work for you - as unfortunately they can't get to all corners of the country. Gisborne, New Plymouth and the West Coast of the South Island are all areas that they don't get very close to and you may have a fairly reasonable drive to meet them. Pricing for within the North Island is $70 per box of 3 birds and to the South Island is $90 per box of 3 birds.
Booking, supplying a suitable transport box (with ventilation panels and food and water receptacles plus food for the journey) and getting the birds to the collection point incurs a $25 fee per box.
We would like to encourage you to come & pick your pullets up directly yourself, and many people do travel from far & wide to do so.
For all wishing to see where we are located to pick up yourself, please see here for our Address and a Map!
All birds ordered will require a deposit paid once birds are 2-3 weeks away from collection with remainder of payment on collection. We do not have EFTPOS or credit card facilities - Cash or Internet banking please.
If required we can organise transport of birds throughout NZ - we use PT Pet Transport as our preferred carrier, however they do have a standard route they follow and you will be required to meet them at a predetermined stop somewhere along this route. Please either check with us or them to determine if transport will work for you - as unfortunately they can't get to all corners of the country. Gisborne, New Plymouth and the West Coast of the South Island are all areas that they don't get very close to and you may have a fairly reasonable drive to meet them. Pricing for within the North Island is $70 per box of 3 birds and to the South Island is $90 per box of 3 birds.
Booking, supplying a suitable transport box (with ventilation panels and food and water receptacles plus food for the journey) and getting the birds to the collection point incurs a $25 fee per box.
PT Pet Transport - Interisland
Pete and Trish Andrews
0214866467
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/groups/169830577639650
Swift Animal Couriers
027 311 8574
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/Swift-Small-Animal-Courier-113757076650063