Preparing your birds for the June sale.

We may be new at all this, but we learn fast.

One of the reasons we started the sales and seminars and other events for was to support and promote heritage birds amongst other things. Healthy, happy, heritage birds. The market sale is an alternative to auctions or mass importations from commercial hatcheries. With the market sale we hoped to put the buyer and the seller face to face and to to offer education with the sale. Part of the education is about breeding with a goal and ideal in mind, another part is producing and buying healthy birds.

Every time we attend or host an event, we watch, and we learn. In the past we have concentrated on proper presentation and transport, then we looked at breeding for a goal (both SOP and production). This time, our focus is healthy birds.

Three Old Hens and CHB want to be known not only for the quality of presentation and breeding, but also as a safe place to buy from. We regularly read posts about taking home birds and finding that they are not well, be it due to disease or parasitic load. We have all seen the posts with a plea for help because not only are the new birds not well, but now the home flock is ill and or dieing! We have come up with some reccomendation that we are seriously hoping people follow before they bring thier birds to the sale.


1. 2 weeks or so before the sale check over your birds. Look for mites, lice and scalley legs. Treat for parasites
2. Deworm and delouse your birds again just before the sale if need be.
3. Check for weight and general health. Body and feather condition. Trim nails, beaks and spurs, de-poop butt feathers and toes.
4. We highly reccomend a round of Super Booster or something similar for a few days before the sale. A few extra vitamins, minerals will help with the upcomming stress.
5. We also reccomend, if possible, to isolate birds a week or two before the sale to lower the risk of last minute disease outbreak and increasing your ability to assess them.

How you treat your birds and such is YOUR decision. Vaccines, parasite control,chemicals, natural remedies etc, that is your personal protocol. Bring a list of when you did and when. Not only do people want to now, they need to know. Make a little sign and post it! I would rather buy a bird from the booth with "Dewormed with Piperazine May 23rd, deloused with free access DE" than from a booth with no information at all.

Transporting birds to and from a sale is stressful for the animals. Subclinical issues can flair with the stress. You want to present the best birds you can, you have poured your heart and soul into the birds. Show your pride, develop a reputation for healthy, robuse, disease and parasite free birds.


Any insight, comments or suggestions are welcome.

When prepping your chicks for travel and sale we reccomend superbooster for a few days before the trip. Chicks need extra protection for cold and draft as chilling is very serious. Have food and water ready for them. A little fruit, banana, melon, apple can be a life saver for chicks in transport and sitting at a sale. It offers not only nutrition but also moisture.

When buying chicks watch for bright clear eyed happy chicks. If there are any that look rough, lethargic, not well or are doing any gasping, think twice about buying from that group. It can be difficult to get an idea about the health of a group of chicks, especially if there are lots of them. Another indicator that you should think twice is if although the cluster of chicks you are looking at is healthy, the seller has other clusters of chicks, and they are not looking all that well. Diseases can be easily transmitted. Coccidia is a chick killer. Watch for bloody poops or dots or streaks on blood. It is highly contagious and can spread quickly.

I think this is a great reminder for buyers and sellers alike. Clay Botkin also posted an excellent write up on what to look for - or what to be wary of - when buying birds.

The only suggestion I'm not quite sure about is treating birds with super booster prior to the sale. Super Booster is not only a mix of vitamins, it also contains 2 antibiotics. I feel that if your stock is good and healthy, a round of antibiotics should not be necessary to help them deal with the stresses of being at the sale and going to new homes. I worry that it could actually cover or delay symptoms of illness.
I definitely agree a vitamin premix with electrolytes is a great idea, and you can buy this to add to their water for a few days prior to the sale, but I would choose a product like Poul-Vite that does not have the antibiotic component.

i dont like to use antibiotics unless necessary...but thats me, if birds look like they need superbooster i will give it to them, but no sense giving it to healthy birds that i take to a sale or bring home... or when they realy do need it it wont work thats my thought anyways..not that anyone cares...

All thoughts and suggestions are welcome of course.

We just want to make sure that we have the healthiest and most prepared for the stress birds possible at the sale. Bluntly after the sales we end up feilding emails and calls from people who have bought birds only to find them ill when they get home. They didnt buy them from us, but they did buy them at our sale, and we are easy to contact, so they contact us. It is disheartening to hear people trying to describe the illness, or yelling because thir birds are sick, especially when they did not come from us. Extra especially when there seems to be patterns. Thus our little list of reccomendations and suggestions.

I prefer my birds to be as chemical free as possible also. The Superbooster or something similar is just a good idea.

I understand the challenges there must be for those who organize shows and sales. We always hope that no one will knowingly bring birds or animals that are currently sick, or have been treated recently for illness. But there is that possibility that the birds seemed healthy at home, then become distressed and appear unwell later.

One other thing buyers should do is take note of the seller's name and contact info. I know this sounds obvious, but it's easy to buy from several vendors and then not be sure later what bird came from which table. That way if there are concerns later you can contact the seller directly rather than trying to find out through the sale organizers. Vendors should have business cards to hand out with any birds they sell. Having to sort through messages and calls from disgruntled buyers shouldn't be part of the deal for the organizers. And if someone had concerns about a bird I sold, I would want to know about it so I could work it out directly with the customer.

I agree with Kathy there.
I think all sellers should consider taping business cards, or writing their information on the boxes the birds go home in.
I also as a seller try to encourage my buyers not to mix my birds in the same box as some other vendors birds. I do know they are going home and getting put together but always nice to keep them apart till proper introductions are made. And also then they can make a mental note when they put the birds in their coops who came from who.
I don't think we should encourage people to put birds on antibiotics prior to the sale when selling, or after they get home from buying. Poultry vitamins are a good idea, helps their immune systems, but antibiotics no.

I also agree that everything should be noted. So if you vaccinated make sure the buyer has that in writting what they were vaccinated for and when and if a booster is reccomended.
Same with antibiotic use.

Absolutely!

I cant fathom anyone being so money grubbing low as to intentionally sell ill animals, however an animal that seems healthy can be stressed into illness. This is why we suggest to please prep your animals for the up coming stress, just in case. It certainly wont hurt!

And labling any birds that have been vaccinated etc would be really important!!!