Rare hens are being stolen to order by gangs of chicken rustlers as prices for these birds soar
Anestimated 1,500 birds have been stolen this year to meet the demand forrare breeds, such as the Orpington, Marans and Welsummer, according to a report in The Independant newspaper. The increaseddemand has been put down to recent popular programmes promoting freerange poultry.The report says that birds are being taken largely from peoplekeeping poultry for the first time, often in their back garden.Prices for rare breed birds have increase to asmuch as £250 for a chocolate Orpington, and Buff Orpintons are fetching10 times the price paid the same time last year.href=”http://adserver.adtech.de/adlink|3.0|289|1428410|0|277|ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=[group]”target=”_blank”>src=”http://adserver.adtech.de/adserv|3.0|289|1428410|0|277|ADTECH;loc=300;key=key1+key2+key3+key4;grp=[group]”border=”0″ width=”2″ height=”2″>
