Hen Price

🐔 How hens are priced in India

The band above runs wider than any other animal here, and for a good reason: a commercial broiler sold by the kilo, a country desi bird sold by the piece, a point-of-lay layer, and a named breed like Kadaknath are four completely different buys. Read the band knowing you first have to decide which of those you are actually shopping for.

What moves the price

• Type — broiler, desi or layer. Commercial broilers are priced on live weight and rise and fall with the daily broiler rate and feed cost. Desi / country chicken (naati koli, desi murga) sells by the bird at a clear premium for its firmer meat and taste. Spent layers, sold once they stop laying well, go cheap.
• Breed and purpose. A hybrid broiler (Cobb, Ross), an egg-layer strain (BV-300, Lohmann, the older White Leghorn), a hardy backyard dual-purpose bird (Giriraja, Vanaraja, Gramapriya) and a game bird (Aseel) are bought by different people at very different prices. Kadaknath — black-meat, GI-tagged to Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh — and a well-bred Aseel sit at the top.
• Age and stage. A day-old chick, a grown bird ready for the pot, a point-of-lay pullet and a proven breeding cock or hen are priced very differently. Pullets about to lay and proven breeders cost the most.
• Vaccination and health. A bird from a properly vaccinated batch — Ranikhet (Newcastle), Marek's, Gumboro (IBD), fowl pox — is worth paying for. An unvaccinated bird out of a mixed flock is a gamble.

The kinds of bird you will actually see

On the commercial side it is broilers (Cobb and Ross hybrids) for meat and layers (BV-300, Lohmann Brown, White Leghorn) for eggs. From the government and KVK backyard lines come the coloured, free-ranging Giriraja, Vanaraja and Gramapriya, hardy and bought for both meat and eggs. At the premium end are the desi and heritage birds — plain naati country chicken, the black-meat Kadaknath, and the tall, game-bred Aseel, which is priced on lineage and kept for breeding as much as for the table. Most listings are either broilers by weight or desi birds by the piece.

Before you pay

• Decide the purpose first — meat by weight, eggs (buy a point-of-lay pullet), breeding, or a desi bird for taste — because the fair price is completely different for each.
• Handle the bird: a bright red comb and wattles, clear eyes and nostrils, no rattling or open-mouthed breathing (respiratory disease / CRD is common), a clean vent with no pasting, smooth legs, and a full breast (feel the keel).
• Ask the vaccination history — especially Ranikhet (Newcastle) and Marek's — and the exact age; for a layer ask whether she has started laying, for broilers ask the batch's age and weight.
• Be wary of birds dumped cheap after a disease scare and of day-old chicks of unknown sex sold as future layers, and never send the full amount in advance for birds you have not seen.

A hen's price turns first on what it is for — a broiler by the kilo, a desi bird by the piece, a pullet about to lay, or a named breed like Kadaknath or Aseel. Use the band at the top of this page as your starting point, then judge each bird on its type, health and vaccination, not on the listing's label.