I want to encourage breeders to become N.P.I.P. certified.

I just got tested today and I am very exited. Here are a couple thoughts.

To clarify, I am talking more to people who make a business of selling eggs and chicks.

I think the biggest reason is this. If you are N.P.I.P. certified you can ship Birds and eggs LEGALLY. It is actually illegal as best I can tell to ship birds or eggs outside of your state without being N.P.I.P. certified. I did last year because, first I did not know, than when I found out I did not know if I wanted to get certified. It would be better to be safe, than get in trouble for shipping your birds illegally.


If you are N.P.I.P. certified you can sell to other people who are. Otherwise they can not buy from you. This would be especially beneficial to you if you have quality birds lots of fancy breeders want to buy.

If you are N.P.I.P. certified some places (shows, auctions, etc.) will not have to test you. That is just some places.

N.P.I.P. certification seems to vary from state to state. Here I paid nothing for it. Some states charge you to do it. For the most part it seems that all you have to do is keep records for them of where you sell birds, and buy from N.P.I.P. certified breeders. It means a little bit more paperwork, but I do not think it is that bad. This will also help to insure that your birds are free of some really bad diseases. It will also hopefully help protect you from buying birds with pullorum.

Objections I have heard/had.

What if my birds test positive? They might kill my whole flock.

Again, it varies from state to state. Here they said if they did test positive they would try to help them recover before they killed any of them. This bothered me for a little while. Than when I really started thinking about it I realized that if my birds had these diseases it would not be worth having them anyway. I could not sell them to anyone with a good consience. If I did sell some of them I would ruin my reputation. I would have to put them down myself probably.

I do not want the governement keeping tabs on my farm.

This is the one that still bothers me a little bit. Some people are not bothered by this, but I personally have a great distrust of our government right now. I feel like they are minding to much of our business for us. The U.S.D.A. is particularly detrimental to the small farms. However, as much as our government keep records and asks questions now, they probably already know what we raise. As it stands right now you can opt out of the plan at any time you want.

I hope I got all my facts right. Does anyone have any corrections/comments? I am not always a very elloquent writer so I hope what I said makes sense.

My issue with NPIP, besides being a gov't program, is that it was set up to protect the food supply , not to help the backyard flock owner, and the basic tests are for Pullorum and Typhoid only; in some places they test for Influenza, but not the main diseases most backyard flocks may contract. Folks are starting to get the idea that an NPIP number means that the flock is healthy with no disease carriers, which is just not so. And the test is valid only for the day of testing. A bird from an NPIP flock could come down with something like Chronic Respiratory Disease a few days after a clean test, which is a carrier disease that can pass through the egg, as well as horizontally.

NPIP, to me, gives a false sense of security to you and to the buyer of your birds/eggs. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it if it makes you feel better, but let's not give it credit for more than it was intended to do. I myself will not be participating in NPIP.

Congrats on a clean test, houndit.


ETA: I do not show, have no intention or interest in showing and do not ship live birds.

Good point speckledhen. You really have to know the seller and their standards. Our N.P.I.P. offers testing for Exotic Newcastle, Ms, MG, and Avian Influenza. There are special charges for all of those. You do make an excellent point, and I thank you for it!

I dont mean to be abtuse or unfriendly in any way but I am of the oppnion that I dont need permission to be a farmer from any one but mother nature god how ever you see that is ok with me

I agree that some folks are given a false sense of security and those that don't understand what it means should spend some time and become familiar with it. I find it of value for a few reasons.

In many cases you can go to a show with the NPIP cert and wont need a vet cert every time you go to a show. Secondly in my case it created a relationship with the folks at the vet college and that is helpful. Finally most states wont let you ship chicks without being NPIP.

And even more finally I do believe that in some cases those folks that take the time and effort to become certified may be the ones that look over their flocks with a more critical way. I know that is not true in nearly all the cases. Maybe more accurately someone that cares nothing about the flock would likely not get NPIP certified

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Not sure what this has to do with getting permission to be a farmer. It has more to do with whether or not you choose to participate in a testing program for you flock. This is a very very old program.

I dont agree with shipping chicks and eggs too stressfull you get better birds if you buy local try craigslist / farm and garden or a feed store

I've been thinking about it, but I will only have 5 birds, and they will technically be illegal, as we are allowed to have chickens and roosters, but they have to be kept 75 feet away from a door or Window, and they are not, so I don't think inviting and inspection is a good idea?

I've debated about it, but have decided against it. One of the reasons is I dont want the government knowing more about me than they already do,

Another HUGE turn off for me is, which I did not even know till now, is that I can only buy birds from other NPIP breeders. So, If I wanted to buy the lovely blue orps say, speckledhen here has, I could not, and that is BS!