Hatchery/farm store vs breeder

[cmom]

Is that the one in February at the Coweta fairgrounds? That's a four hour drive...but I will probably make it. But if I find anything I like....what do you do about transporting chickens in mid winter? Oh, that was dumb. They live outside. If I can stand it I'm sure the chickens would be fine.

Yes that's the show. I haven't been the last couple of years. Dog crates work well for transport.

 

[cmom]

Many people sell birds there. I have in the past.

 

[333113]

Be sure to check out the birds that the Juniors are showing. Some of them sell their birds at the end of the show because they want to move on to another breed. I bought one of my best-ever d'Uccles because the owner was heading off to college after the state fair.

 

[Criticalicious]

Xerocles, if you are looking for a colorful egg basket from a good source in S.C., have you looked into Egg Well Farm? She has beautiful birds at a reasonable price, NPIP. She even has a few endangered breeds like the white-faced Spanish. She's in Greer - not too far from you. She has a chick sale going on right now but she also sells adults.

 

[townchicks]

That's a four hour drive...but I will probably make it. But if I find anything I like....what do you do about transporting chickens in mid winter?

I just drove a two hour drive with 3 pullets in a dog crate on my back seat.No problem at all. 4 hrs would be doable, I'd imagine. Frankly, you may be tempted, but I would not buy from 2 (or more) different sources at one show. You need to quarantine any new birds coming in (especially from a show) and introductions will need to be slow. You most likely will not have the space and/or the willingness to have multiple quarantine coops. Besides, if you buy them all at once, you won't have the anticipation and planning stage to look forward to. When choosing breeds, remember, like dogs, different breeds have different temperaments and requirements. Talk to the seller about space, do they take confinement well, do they free range well. heat/cold tolerance, etc. Get contact info for later sourcing. Above all, enjoy the eye candy!

 

[Xerocles]

Xerocles, if you are looking for a colorful egg basket from a good source in S.C., have you looked into Egg Well Farm? She has beautiful birds at a reasonable price, NPIP. She even has a few endangered breeds like the white-faced Spanish. She's in Greer - not too far from you. She has a chick sale going on right now but she also sells adults.

 

[Xerocles]

Xerocles, if you are looking for a colorful egg basket from a good source in S.C., have you looked into Egg Well Farm? She has beautiful birds at a reasonable price, NPIP. She even has a few endangered breeds like the white-faced Spanish. She's in Greer - not too far from you. She has a chick sale going on right now but she also sells adults.

Thank you so much for that info. I had briefly looked at that website before but somehow it didn't light my interest. But of course I care a lot more about the chickens than the webpage. I see they have regular visiting hours also. They're in Wellford, not Greer. Even closer to me! About 40 miles. And its nice to have someone on BYC mention them. It really makes me nervous dealing with someone that I know nothing about nor even heard anybody mention. I'll be going for a visit upcoming week. Again, thank yoi.

 

[Xerocles]

Frankly, you may be tempted, but I would not buy from 2 (or more) different sources at one show. You need to quarantine any new birds coming in (especially from a show) and introductions will !

 

[Xerocles]

You are absolutely correct of course. But so much of life is a calculated risk. I figure by purchasing from a reputable breeder, npip certified, especially one who shows Birds, I am vastly improving my chances at getting healthy Birds. Not so much if I was buying from Billy Bob down the road. If anything shows up in the first 30 days, I could potentially lose two birds. If they do make it through the quarantine and still introduce problems to my flock, that would have happened with one bird. If it's the one that had a problem. The 30-day quarantine will give those two birds a chance to acclimatize to each other. Then when they go to the main flock, that gives a chance to spread the newcomer abuse a little bit. Yes, I recognize I am not taking the safest route, but then so many things in life are just a Gamble. All we can do is mitigate the risk as much as possible and reasonable. But thank you for your concern.

 

[Criticalicious]

I lived around the corner from Egg Well for almost two years and visited her every few weeks to buy "eating eggs". I had many opportunities to observe how she, her family, and her staff interact with and handle the birds. Talk to her, even if you buy elsewhere. She loves chickens! I agree that Egg Well could use a better website - check out her posts and articles on Facebook. You'll get a better sense of the operations from those. After I moved to Virginia and bought farm land, I drove back and bought 5 BCM chicks from her. That was March 2018. One of the 2 pullets in that batch went broody on me this summer and she's been doing an amazing job raising 3 babies.