How to be happy with your purchase

[sheila3935]

my first time into getting chickens I was lucky. I was new and hadnt found BYC yet. I bought 6 from an auction and didnt quarentine. Luckly all was ok. 2nd time went to a farm to buy chicks. The lady told me barred rocks and pullets. Came home with 5 males and 1 pullet and 4 were black sex link. I'm not really worried about SQ they are my pets that give me eggs, but yes do your homework. Like I said I was very lucky.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

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I don't agree with this at all. I do NOT let anybody go near or into my pens/brooder area/etc. I will not risk my birds health or risk having somebody bring in diseases into my flock. If they don't like that I won't let them near my birds/coops, fine with me. Then don't purchase anything. If your smart, I don't think you should allow any people you don't know/other chicken owners to go near your birds or into your coops.

Also, in some states, if you are a NPIP certified breeder, you are not allowed to have any non-npip chicken owners near your flock or it voids your npip clean status.

Obviously anytime you purchase a bird you should quarantine it, and look it over before you purchase it.

I fully agree Sundown.

Everything else is spot on and great advice, but no, I dont allow anyone into my pens and yes I am in one of those places where if you are not NPIP certified, you actually arent even supposed to get out of your car on my property. I do allow folks to walk near the pens though and see all the birds, but no, my NPIP man doesnt even go into the pens. People tote disease just as well as chickens do, so no like you said, I'm not getting sick off some ones else poor care of their home stock broght in off their shoes or clothes been there done that years ago, never again.

 

[onthespot]

Learn to cull.

Once you get the birds or hatch the eggs and grow them out, do yourself a HUGE favor and cull (rehome, sell, place, eat) any birds that are just not what you wanted to have in your breeding flock, or that are too small, too big, wrong color, too small of a crest, wrong color eyes, goofy comb, light colored legs, (or too dark) or don't look like the breed standard. Even if you never plan to show, it is a good idea to breed as close to the standard if you are keeping purebred flocks.

I have nothing against mixes, and keep a couple of intentional mixes myself. Right now I have a small batch of eggs in my incubtor that are English type Orpington rooster crossed with a few mottled java hens. I will hatch them in a separate container, and mark them, and house them separately so that no one ever buys one from me thinking it is a pure orpington. I would hate to get yellow legged orpingtons show up in someone else's flock. It will take at least two generations to breed out the yellow legs genes, and keep the mottling. None of the black hybrids will leave here as anything other than "mixed layers" to their new, non-breeding homes.

Another project I have just penned together is this EE roo over two coronation sussex hens, to make HUGE, gorgeous dual purpose EE's. That project will take a few more generations to get right, and it will just be "easter eggers" when I sell the offspring. Like I said, nothing against crossbreeds, but give correct info to the buyers, not as in the example above, "coronation ameraucanas" since that gene causes white legs, which can never be an ameraucana, since the breed standard is for slate legs. Here's a peek at my EE project roo.

and one of my coronation hens.

Only you can decide how close to the standard you want to breed, or how much you want to spend to obtain good breeding stock. Even "good breeding stock" produces a high number of culls if you are very picky about how you want your birds to look, or their eggs.

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

Quote:
I don't agree with this at all. I do NOT let anybody go near or into my pens/brooder area/etc. I will not risk my birds health or risk having somebody bring in diseases into my flock. If they don't like that I won't let them near my birds/coops, fine with me. Then don't purchase anything. If your smart, I don't think you should allow any people you don't know/other chicken owners to go near your birds or into your coops.

Also, in some states, if you are a NPIP certified breeder, you are not allowed to have any non-npip chicken owners near your flock or it voids your npip clean status.

Obviously anytime you purchase a bird you should quarantine it, and look it over before you purchase it.

I fully agree Sundown.

Everything else is spot on and great advice, but no, I dont allow anyone into my pens and yes I am in one of those places where if you are not NPIP certified, you actually arent even supposed to get out of your car on my property. I do allow folks to walk near the pens though and see all the birds, but no, my NPIP man doesnt even go into the pens. People tote disease just as well as chickens do, so no like you said, I'm not getting sick off some ones else poor care of their home stock broght in off their shoes or clothes been there done that years ago, never again.

I couldn't agree more. I have years worth of work and more money than you could believe in my birds. I will bring out the birds that I have for sale but not my breeders and show birds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This goes back to knowing what you want. Talk to the breeder about what he/she is breeding for. Not all breeders are breeding to the SOP. I met one that was working on a strain of six-toed birds. Some breed to the SOP but also select for good egg laying. Some ignore egg laying but have birds very close to the SOP. Some strains of any breed are much more likely to go broody than other strains of the same breed. Just know what you want as far as traits go and discuss your goals with the breeder.

 

[catwalk]

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Of course, if you bought that first one instead, you'd be okay with the transaction, I imagine......