Fred Langan

Perhaps it’s the rising cost of food, or maybe just the joy of keeping chickens, but more and more local people have taken to raising them for eggs and meat. But if you want to buy a backyard chicken this year, you are out of luck. The two big local outlets, Coderre in Knowlton and FG Edwards in West Brome, are sold out.

“We sell about 800 to 1,000 ready-to-lay hens every year and 60,000 day-old chicks to be raised as meat birds,” says Ross Clarkson of Coderre. “The laying hens are sold locally, but some of the meat birds are sold well outside our area.”

Who buys chickens?

“Small hobby farmers and those who keep backyard chickens for eggs or meat. Because of the rules for chicken and egg marketing boards, people without quota can own up to 100 laying hens and 300 meat birds.

This year at Edwards, we had 1,500 layer hens that were a mix of Plymouth Rock, Bovan Noire, and Lohmann Brown. Orders really vary from one single hen to replace a lost or elderly bird or 12 to 15 to start a good-sized flock,” says Charles Benjamin, owner of FG Edwards. “Our hens were all 17-19 weeks old and from feedback from customers they stated laying shortly after they found their new homes.”

The hens are bred to be prodigious egg-layers and lay as many as five eggs per week each. The day-old chicks take about two months or so to mature and are then taken to local abattoirs to be turned into meat, which in many cases will last until the next spring.