Somethng made me flip over to Chris Evans on Radio 2 this afternoon and there was an interview with a lady saying about chicken rustling amongst other stuff.
It seems that the interest in keeping chickens has risen along with the price of pedigrees? (my word sorry) Where as this time last year hens could be fetching around £20 they are now reaching over £30. The lady being interviewed also said, that as this isn't a good time of the year for availability, entire flocks are being stolen by possibly organised gangs. Sometimes opportunists are popping over fences and nicking random ones. She added that if you have been breeding birds for many years it is quite heartbreaking to find you have been cleaned out of all your birds. Does this mean we need to get geese to guard the chickens? I guess folks will have to think about their chooks safety beyond the obvious animal predators at this rate
She says that adverts for chickens for sale are meaning that these organised gangs can locate flocks.
Concern was also raised that it wouldn't just be a fad and we find that in the winter we are left with lots of abandoned birds.
That was the gist of the interview but you should, if you are interested find it available to listen to again on the website for about a week. I am sorry I didn't take note of the time of the interview but there is a fast forward button you can use to flick through the show. It will presumably be available later today after the show?
BBC - Radio 2 - Chris Evans
Listen again feature in right hand column
30-06-2008, 06:55 PM
Chicken Rustling - Interview on Chris Evans Show Monday 30th June 
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