How to avoid buying sick chickens

One way around bringing home sick chickens is to only bring in day old chicks from a hatchery or reputable breeder that you brood and raise yourself. You can never completely eradicate risk of bringing home disease but that cuts it down quite a bit. I don't ever bring in new, adult birds at all anymore.

 

X2! We get ours from local feed stores when they are just a couple of days old. Make sure they are active, eyes are bright and clear and that their little vents are clean and you are off to the best start you can have. Of course there is no guarantee that they will all make it, but you have a pretty good chance. Another benefit to raising them from chicks is that it is easy to get them to trust you. This makes checking them over much easier when they are grown. Raising them is really easy and fun!

 

You could also try hatching your own. It's fun and you know exactly where they have been from day one.
I know a lot of people aren't allow roosters but it's not hard to find fertile eggs locally. If you can't have roosters, you can easily give them away when they are a couple months old. Just know that you will have a hard time selling them and the people who will take them for free are going to eat them more than likely.