Hughs Chicken run

MOB said:
Most older suburban gardens are big enough to keep a few chickens. I have often thought about doing it, but never got around to it. (We are in a detached bungalow on about a quarter acre or maybe a little more, which was out in the country but which has now been swallowed up by housing estates.) Anybody out there who has done this (specifically in a suburban setting)?
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Couldn't live with the smell.
 
MandaC said:
Last week, Superquinn had an offer on chicken, medium SQ chicken €4.49 and Silean Or chicken (Corn Fed) €3.39.

The Superquinn free range chicken smaller than the Silean Or chicken was €10.99. Thats a big price difference.

Big difference.
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Very expensive for a free range chicken. Are you sure it wasn't organic??
 
I buy organic free-ranging chickens more or less direct from the farmer (I buy from the farmer at Ranelagh market on Sundays, who doesn't raise chickens himself but sells them for a neighbouring farm). I buy less meat so I can afford to buy meat and chicken from him and the taste and quality of the meat is definitely worth it in my opinion. An organic chicken normally costs around €17 - I'm not sure you'd get one anywhere for less than €15. They are generally bigger birds though and I'll get at least a week's worth of food out of one (just feeding myself, no kids to worry about), with stock used to make soup making another few meals as well. Am tempted to try my hand at risotto now too.

The following forums are useful resources for anyone considering keeping their own chickens although most of them are UK-based so regulations etc. will be different here and you'll need to check with your own council to see what's allowed.





http://selfsufficientish.com/forum/

This is an Irish off-shoot of the River Cottage forum, more useful for asking questions of people living in Ireland:
http://countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org/

This blog is by a woman who only started keeping chickens last year, in the small-ish garden of her ex-council house, you can click the category "chickens" on the right-hand side of the page to go to posts on her experiences with raising chickens : http://bean-sprouts.blogspot.com/
 
How did the last episode end?
My Sky+ box fecked up.
Just as Hugh was about to announce the result to the town at the chicken market thing the recording ended!
Did they get 50% free range?
 
I didn't pick up that it was only based on Tesco sales and would be surprised at that. It was only based on sales of whole chickens, a point he made when reading out the results - it didn't include sales of ready meals or breaded fillets and that kind of thing.
 
Some surprising news today that the US is going to allow cloned animals to enter the foodchain. That is a surprising step forward - I wonder where it will lead. As the article says, cloning is an expensive technique, but I wonder if there is now the incentive to develop and improve it so it can ramp up meat production on a larger scale...?
 
Following on from my horror at this programme, I happened to be in Dunnes on Sat eve and out of curiosity I looked for an organic chicken. There was only about 4 on the shelf. Whilst I didn't notice the weight, they appeared to be very small. Cost came in at €22.99. I thought this really was expensive for it. Is there anywhere else to look for an organic chicken other than supermarkets? do any of the farmers markets sell chicken?
 
Newbie! said:
Following on from my horror at this programme, I happened to be in Dunnes on Sat eve and out of curiosity I looked for an organic chicken. There was only about 4 on the shelf. Whilst I didn't notice the weight, they appeared to be very small. Cost came in at €22.99. I thought this really was expensive for it. Is there anywhere else to look for an organic chicken other than supermarkets? do any of the farmers markets sell chicken?
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A few butchers do organic chicken as well - there are a couple in Terenure village, and one in Glasthule I think. I got an organic chicken in Nolan's in Clontarf before Xmas which I think cost about €17. They can be smaller, but you'll find the meat is a lot more dense so you end up eating less of it. The carcass makes great chicken stock too. I think I've also seen organic chickens in the Temple Bar market - but you'll probably pay through the nose there. You might be able to find mail order organic meat like they have in the UK.
 
Dunnes had an offer during the week on free range chicken, 2 packs of oyster things/drumsticks for €5.
 
I bought my first free-range chicken product today :eek:

2 chicken breast fillets for 5.55 in Tesco. 2 of the boggo-standard fillets were 3.29.

Don't eat as much fresh chicken anymore but I think I can say that I'll be aiming for the free-range in future.


Watching "Eat to save your life" at the mo and the chances of eating KFC etc anymore is probably 1%

Ignorance was bliss !
 
That butcher mention above in Glasthule sells them for €14.99 - complete with ankles (which you never see on supermarket chickens).
Yummy - so much more texture & the bones were really hard unlike the mushy ones you normally get.

Bought one yesterday in M&S for €10 - Oakham is the brand - it was mentioned on the Jamie's Fowl Dinners program.
Haven't cooked it yet.
 
frash said:
Bought one yesterday in M&S for €10 - Oakham is the brand - it was mentioned on the Jamie's Fowl Dinners program.
Haven't cooked it yet.
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Are the oakham chickens free range? Have eaten a couple of times and they were nice.
 
Newbie! said:
Are the oakham chickens free range? Have eaten a couple of times and they were nice.
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According to this there are various types of Oakham chicken sold by M&S.

Was in Supervalu and they were charging €7.22 for two small(ish) chicken fillets or €25.39 per kilo :eek: This seems to be the price some people are paying for fillet steak on the other meat/poultry thread...
 
I would say that 15/17 euro for a chicken is too exepnsive for the majority of people on an average wage.
I think it will remain as something for people on a higher wage to differentiate themselves from the people who cannot afford it.
Status symbol chicken if you will.
 
Niallers said:
I would say that 15/17 euro for a chicken is too exepnsive for the majority of people on an average wage.
I think it will remain as something for people on a higher wage to differentiate themselves from the people who cannot afford it.
Status symbol chicken if you will.
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Possibly and I do agree that there is a certain snobbery with regards to organic food but these days you can get a chicken that feeds 4-5 people for less than a pint. That can't be right either. Free range chickens should only cost 1-2 euro extra.
 
Sunny said:
these days you can get a chicken that feeds 4-5 people for less than a pint. That can't be right either.
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Or maybe the pint should be cheaper?
Sunny said:
Free-range chickens should only cost 1-2 euro extra.
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Do you know the cost base differential between free-range chicken production and the cheaper than a pint variety?
 
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