Originally Posted by
chicken danz 
Yes Tweety all licensed hatcheries are required to NPIP test their breeding stock regardless of what state they are in. As long as you don't bring in other birds from untested stock your birds will be fine. Testing is required after 4 months old however, so if you were to take them to 4H or someplace they would have to be tested again. You won't get any papers with your chicks but can get their official state testing number if you request it. If you are just going to keep them at home and not do chicken math I wouldn't bother getting the testing done.
Hawkeye,some states recognize out of state testing forms and some don't. If you received an official VS Form 9-3 signed by the official NPIP representative in the state of origin or by a health certificate that had been issued within the previous 90 days of when your chicks were shipped in addition to a "Permit to Ship Poultry or Hatching Eggs" that has been issued by the KAHD within the previous year, or a permit number that has been issued by the KAHD office within the previous 15 days you are legal for out of state birds.
That is how the official statute reads. I think maybe some 4-H people would accept an out of state form as it was without the Kansas shipping stuff. Kansas is one of the strictest states for these regulations. It's no big deal to get the testing done and worth it if you are going to use them for 4H or sell chicks from them.
Where the big problems come in is buying hatching eggs from Ebay or someplace where you have no evidence of tested birds. You could unknowingly bring in diseased birds by hatching infected eggs. I do know that Kansas has had a very very low instance of positive tests. But pullorum does exist and it's pretty scary. My uncle just died this past year from Salmonella poisoning and they don't know if it came from vegetables or eggs. They didn't get it tracked down. He lived in Houston.
Yeah my GQF's are the big electricity eating cabinet ones. I bought two used ones, the hatcher and an incubator, and two new ones. My last new one cost me over $700 but they are worth every penny if you need to hatch a lot. The two I use the most have run constantly for at least 18 months.
Today so far I hatched 13 LF chicks, and 28 bantam size chicks. I am up to 190 live chicks for the year so far.
The Kansas Department of Animal Health will give you the names of testers in your county or surrounding counties. (785) 296-2326
As I said I sure would be willing to do the testing if we had a swap as long as I had a helper.
The leg bands don't have any significance other than for tracking so you know when to test again.
Honestly I'm not trying to be a know it all. I have trouble remembering all this stuff and was lucky to pass the licensing test. They had some pretty vague questions that were easy to miss.
