Uneducated

[DonnaFreak]

Is it just me, or are chicken owners/sellers a lot less likely to put any effort into educating themselves about how to raise chickens?

We have a local chicken swap 2 weekends per month that used to be one of the biggest in the US. People were knowledgeable and they were really nice to everyone. Then came the pandemic. Now the swap is less than half the size it was before. Many of the sellers don't even know what kind of birds they're selling. I've heard people say that they don't know what breed they're selling because they didn't know which pen they came out of. At the last swap I went to, I saw a small chicken that was just too beautiful to pass by. I wasn't familiar with the breed so I asked the seller what kind of chicken she was. She said that it was a bantam. When I asked what kind of bantam, she looked at me like I had 2 heads with another one sprouting and said, "Ummm... it's a bantam chicken!". I searched online after I got back home and found out that she is a Silver Duckwing OEGB.

This isn't just one or two people saying things like that. I would say it was well over half of the sellers who were there who were unknowledgeable about chickens. I just don't understand it. I put in over 3 years of reading everything I could get my hands on to learn as much as possible about chickens before buying my first chick. This group was one of my top sources.

So is it just me, or have any of you noticed the same thing? Maybe it's just the area I live in.

Donna

 

[Evadig]

I was a perfect idiot buying my first chickens. I knew nothing and did not have access to the library or the internet. But that wouldn’t be the case for most people…

I see the same thing with rabbits though. Nobody puts any thought into how to keep them.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

Not just you. I bought my 2nd and 3rd group of bantams from Rural King, and the guy who got them for me also thought bantam was a whole breed of its own, not just a small chicken.

I'm VERY new to chickens, and I know that I have so much to learn. But like you, I read so many books and so much online. I have friends who keep chickens that I would learn from and go help to get actual experience with the birds.

I don't expect everyone in the stores to be experts or even be able to tell me anything about the breed. They just work in the store and might not care at all about chickens. But if you're an individual selling your birds, you should be knowledgeable. It's only fair to the buyer and the birds, honestly.

 

[MROO]

Many of the people selling today are the same ones who panic-bought chicks either during the pandemic or when egg prices sky-rocketed. They're finally realizing that there is no such thing as "free eggs" and are selling off their mistake. Others are simply capitalizing on the egg panic by buying chicks and selling the "started" youngsters, thinking to make a profit.
In either case, the birds lose!

 

[AnneGirlGG]

Many of the people selling today are the same ones who panic-bought chicks either during the pandemic or when egg prices sky-rocketed. They're finally realizing that there is no such thing as "free eggs" and are selling off their mistake. Others are simply capitalizing on the egg panic by buying chicks and selling the "started" youngsters, thinking to make a profit.
In either case, the birds lose!

"Free eggs" makes me giggle. These will be the most expensive eggs I've ever had by the time mine start laying. And they're worth every cent.