Importing birds.

[houndit]

I was just curious if any one knew about laws on importing birds into the united states? I already know one thing, and that is I will have to have lots of money to do this. Obviously this will not be for a long time!!!! Meanwhile it does not hurt to know ahead of time what I will have to do. I am not even sure that I will do this I am just thinking about it. I was told that the customs officials might impound fertile eggs. Plus I have been told that Shipping them by air mail lowers your hatch rate. So would it be better to get live birds? Or might they impound them to? Would I have to meet them at the border so if they were not aloud in, I could send them back to where they came from. What happens if they are impounded? Do they reimberse me? Do they send them back where they came from, or do they just die?
Like I said just curious and thinking about it.
Thank's

 

[Heather J]

I know if you want to bring a dog or cat from overseas it has to be kenneled somewhere for like six weeks to make sure it isn't sick or bring anything in with it. I haven' heard anything about chickens.

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
Well, I have no experience with this at all, although I suspect the USDA, in addition to US Customs, might be another federal agency that regulates at least a portion of this type of thing.

I did find a web site for a farm where the ownerrs pretty recently (in 2003) imported fertile eggs from Iceland with the intent of breeding the Icelandic chickens in the US, so perhaps you could contact them to see if they could offer some insights into the process:

Sweet Gaia Farm

~Phyllis