Can you still get local free range chicken?

AJ Temple

AJ Temple

Location
Kent & Köln
I'm talking about proper free range, not supermarket "let's pretend". I'm wondering if we are seeing the end approaching. Our quality butchers (he's also a farmer) tell me that no one is producing genuine free range, slow grown chicken any more in Kent - the garden of England and a big county. The other top nothch butcher we use says the same. The reason being too many outbreaks of bird flu, followed by culling. We used to get almost all of ours (maybe three or four birds a week so not a lot) from an old lady farmer just a couple of miles away who kept a small flock, pasture raised, no antibiotics, slow grown and a very reasonable price. She's now stopped because she says the DEFRA / APHA constant bureaucracy makes it too much trouble.

We have started buying the eye wateringly expensive Sutton Hoos as an alternative and they are very good but double the cost.

Prices just seem to continue to shoot up for top quality produce. Lamb is on a sharp upward curve as Easter approaches and grass fed beef wholesale is now what it was retail two and a half years ago. One butcher in Tunbridge Wells who shall remain nameless has fillet beef priced at retail £98 kg. :oops:
 
There is a bird flu lockdown for chickens at the moment, even affects our 3 in the back garden... could explain the lack of true free range.
 
AJ Temple said:
I'm talking about proper free range, not supermarket "let's pretend". I'm wondering if we are seeing the end approaching. Our quality butchers (he's also a farmer) tell me that no one is producing genuine free range, slow grown chicken any more in Kent - the garden of England and a big county. The other top nothch butcher we use says the same. The reason being too many outbreaks of bird flu, followed by culling. We used to get almost all of ours (maybe three or four birds a week so not a lot) from an old lady farmer just a couple of miles away who kept a small flock, pasture raised, no antibiotics, slow grown and a very reasonable price. She's now stopped because she says the DEFRA / APHA constant bureaucracy makes it too much trouble.

We have started buying the eye wateringly expensive Sutton Hoos as an alternative and they are very good but double the cost.

Prices just seem to continue to shoot up for top quality produce. Lamb is on a sharp upward curve as Easter approaches and grass fed beef wholesale is now what it was retail two and a half years ago. One butcher in Tunbridge Wells who shall remain nameless has fillet beef priced at retail £98 kg. :oops:
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Meat that's worth eating has become very expensive indeed and fish even more so. It is at least arguable that it should be though one hopes that the money is going to the right people. It's also not particularly easy to buy so we are quite vegetarian much of the time.
I only like really good chicken and that's become a treat; I don't know any good UK raised bird now(Sutton Hoo I'd call barely adequate, they seem not to raise the right breeds) and formerly easily obtainable French chickens are very hard to find, fearsomely expensive and usually not fresh enough having been compelled to spend too long in the import system. Do you know Gourmet Supplies? they bring the good stuff in but won't sell to private customers.
 
Nope, but I do now, so thank you. I see they do Bresse chickens. I've tried twice in the past year to get them elsewhere - for a French customer actually - and been let down a bit on quality and freshness, which Is why I ended up with Sutton Hoo. Frankly, just finding really good high welfare birds is a challenge at the moment. This customer has good taste and brings some exquisite wines.
 
We got an avian flu crisis in 2023 and the French government introduced compulsory vaccination in 2024. So many poultry de Bresse from 2023 were taken indoors which did affect the quality (many were dumped at 11€a kg in France)… they are back to their glory and one can go to Farms (15/kg) or in Chambery (20/ kg) at top butcher. We bought an imperial Guinea fowl from Bresse for Xmas which was out of this world (bye weighed 3 kg so was consumed over a few days varying recipes for left overs. We also have local producers chicken and Guinea fowls which are almost as good at a producer’s shop who also supplies milk, cheese, meet vegetables and local smoked fish.
 
Antoine Singer said:
We got an avian flu crisis in 2023 and the French government introduced compulsory vaccination in 2024. So many poultry de Bresse from 2023 were taken indoors which did affect the quality (many were dumped at 11€a kg in France)… they are back to their glory and one can go to Farms (15/kg) or in Chambery (20/ kg) at top butcher. We bought an imperial Guinea fowl from Bresse for Xmas which was out of this world (bye weighed 3 kg so was consumed over a few days varying recipes for left overs. We also have local producers chicken and Guinea fowls which are almost as good at a producer’s shop who also supplies milk, cheese, meet vegetables and local smoked fish.
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Unfortunately the UK government is against vaccination and prefers the compulsory culling of flocks.
 
Yes. It is very odd and there is no chance they would do this in France (for example) and destroy the Bresse chicken industry. DEFRA is presiding over the gradual destruction of this aspect of UK farming. I come from farming stock and am concerned.
 
AJ Temple said:
Yes. It is very odd and there is no chance they would do this in France (for example) and destroy the Bresse chicken industry. DEFRA is presiding over the gradual destruction of this aspect of UK farming. I come from farming stock and am concerned.
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The destruction of the poultry sector has huge implications for the arable sector too, the latter is somewhat dependent on the former.
 
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