There are a lot of variables, both with chickens, and with people. On another forum, there are people that go to auctions and buy birds, those birds have been exposed to who knows what - I would quarantine.
I would not buy birds from people that do auctions or bird shows.
I do and have boughten birds from people like myself, that I know, who bought up chicks and raised them, or hatched out and raised them. In away if a person has a flock several miles away. Well those birds are in quarantine to your flock. I would not quarantine them.
Do NOT buy anything you feel sorry for, for any reason. I am heartless, but if I think your birds are abused, sick and infected I am not buying them. I look for good feathers, bright eyes, red combs and active birds.
Do not add birds if you have a high quality, genetics that you have worked on for years, expensive flock. I have seen prices for chicks that flabbergast me for special breeds of chickens. If I had that flock, I would not risk it.
DO not add birds if when you loose a bird you go into a mental decline. If you keep pet birds instead of a chicken flock where birds do come into the flock and go out of it. Or if it would cause you extreme distress to put a bird down.
Also understand quarantine: it really is nearly impossible to do in a traditional back yard set up. The flocks need to be completely separate, shoes and clothing need to changed between working on each group, separate feed bins, and a great deal of space between them, as a lot of diseases are wind born disease. If you can't quarantine correctly - well you are wasting your time.
Mrs K
