I have been told that your facility, pens, bedding, feeders, fences, records of sales, incubation, hatching, everything will be inspected. Mine was much more laid back, but then again, everything was pretty much right in front of them. All birds over 4 months of age on the property will be tested, Mine were wing banded at the same time, but if your birds already have permanent leg ID bands, I think that will work.
All birds under 4 months of age MUST be out of your breeding stock. That was the hardest part for me, not buying eggs or chicks for a few months~LOL Your incubator will be swabbed (up to 4 swabs).
It sounds like a lot, but 103 birds only took us two hours. The fact that it was 23 degrees probably helped move things along. I also had ALL birds in small pet kennels, stacking rabbit cages or small metal cages, not in coops or pens where it took time to catch them. This took about 2 hours on it's own before the tester's arrived.
It was a case of take a bird out, hand it to the testing agents, put the one they just tested back and have one waiting to hand off as soon as they finished the one they had. There were two of us helping ferry birds for 2 testers. The only birds they had to wait ANY time for were my 3 turkeys, since I had to get them myself and put them away. My 8 year old daughter was my helper
All in all, we made sure everything was clean, a few hours of prep time, 2 hours of fast paced testing, $53.00 (so cheap!) and we were done.
Now, after you are tested & certified, you must keep meticulous records of sales, incubations and ALL birds, eggs & chicks you purchase MUST come from an NPIP breeder. I haven't really been able to get a straight answer yet, but I assume you can buy older un-tested birds, *if* you are a certified private tester and test them before they come onto your property, but I haven't been able to figure that part out yet. I am attending private testing school here in Arkansas in April just in case
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