The cost of Fowl!.

Selling eggs at the Mart has increased so much that I need more birds, both ducks and hens. I am happy to buy commercials but I am quoted 15-20 euro's a for a point of lay bird. Thats a bit steep me thinks.

I agree - 20 euros is a bit steep, moreover as a lot of so-called point-of-lay pullets don't actually lay for months.  I could do with a few more ducks myself, but I need to extend the duck house first. Where hens are concerned, I have never yet bought fowls without regretting it.  They languish around the henhouse, skulking under hedges, generally looking miserable and running for shelter at the first drop of rain - a result, I think, of being hatched in incubators, reared under lamps and generally molly-coddled. My own hen-hatched birds, on the other hand,  which are running outside free-range with their mother from three days old,  are tough, independent, fearless and impervious to anything the weather can throw at them.  So for years now, I just raise my own.