Your thoughts on buyers

Have you had this happen on craigslist? If it makes you feel any better, we got a response like that for a violin we were selling. They were coming from far away and wondered if we had other violins to sell, too. It's most likely just a scammer of some sort, especially if you've had it happen more than once.

 

I just don't waste my time with them. I've sold several birds on craigslist in the past. I never just give a bird to someone because they have the money on hand. I ask questions about their intentions, their set up, their other birds, etc. If they don't answer the questions or I don't like the answers then I just move onto the next buyer.

 

I have had a few sketchy ones reply and if they don't sound right in their first inquiry, I don't even respond (or I have set up an email account to use just for those ones in case they start repeatedly sending me things or hack my account---I'll just close that email account then).

 

It sounds like those are scam emails. I would probably just disregard anything that doesn't sit right in the gut.

 

Rest assured, despite what certain animal rights groups claim, the vast majority of research animals are purpose bred. While there certainly are some corrupt animal dealers out here, cosmetic and product testers are not interested in chickens, military testing applications for chickens are likely to be limited, and pure research testing uses chickens mostly for genetic, ag, and social/behavioral work and is generally interested in obtaining genetically similar birds free of disease (so not backyard flock birds). Ie. a large pigeon genetic study used mostly feathers provided by breeders from birds with known lineages...not Craigslist pigeons!

Much more common on classified sites are money scammers, people scoping out homes for theft or other reasons, and people interested in free or cheap animals for reasons such as snake food. For the latter, simply setting an asking price that is above prices for shelter dogs and cats, feeder rats, pet store rabbits, etc. solves many a problem. When Class B dealers go bad, they go bad for cheap, and usually in the area of cats and dogs rather than chickens.

 

I've never had someone do that to me yet. I've sold multiple birds on CL and some I really did not care about where they went, and some I was looking for pet homes. Found a nice woman who took my two Silkies for her little girl, another woman bought all my roosters to protect her free range flock (They probably ate them after a while) and I had a man pick up a few hens to start his chicken adventures (most likely ate them too at some point). If the person can't spell and put together a coherent sentence, I do not respond back to them. I mostly just sell eggs now, but am getting ready to downsize my laying flock. Most of them are 3ish yrs old, so I'm pretty sure they'll become part of some stew pot, but I can't personally do that to them. I keep my favorite ones and they stay for life, while the others are sold off. I have a separate email account for CL people, and require them to put a specific line in the heading. I will also not give them my phone number until I am sure that they are serious, and I don't give them my address until the day of pickup and have already made it to a little town about 5 minutes from my house.

 

Yep, has happened to me before.