[princesspiggy]

when buying pedigree hens, if they arent registered or anything, how do u know they are what the breeders says they are, and how does the breeder know that they are really that breed. especially with rare breeds as u cant always compare with other stock if theres none nearby.

[Castle Farm]

Ah! thats where knowing what a breed should look like is important.

Before you even go looking to buy birds research on the internet the standard of the breed your interested in.

There are thousands of totally rubbish birds out there pretending to be pure breeds, bred by people that just bought a breed that was near enough and bred from them.
The country is drowning in substandard birds, so have a good look at what your buying before you spend your money.

There are some respectable breeders out there that will not rip you off, but a hell of a lot of chancers looking for a mug to buy their rubbish off them.

[darkbrowneggs]

Unfortunately you have just missed th two main poultry shows of the year which would have given you the opportunity to look at all the breeds and a comparison of the breeders birds also.

Maybe get some books form the library, look though, read about them, then perhaps a bit of internet research.  Having decided which breed/breeds suit you best then I think it would be wise to join the relevant breed club, which generally doesn't cost all that much, and from the club you should be able to source reliable breeders of quality stock.

All the best
Sue

[cluckingnuts]

Ditto CF reply.
I know someone who has never bred any birds, she buys + hatches the eggs then sells the birds.
I will only buy from people who have bred several generations of their own.

[princesspiggy]

you could actually buy breeding stock, breed them sell them for years all in good faith that they were a certain breed, or indeed buy hatching eggs and start your own flock and keep breeding with geniune belief that you knew they were a certain breed. and if you sold them to novice bredders/owners they would carry it on also.

is there a reason why birds dont carry rings etc like pedigree rabbits?
just curious thats all.

[cluckingnuts]

Whenever I have bought birds in, I do not breed them into mine until I have raised a couple of generations.
When I kept finches + canaries I used to closed ring them, by law British finches had to be rung in order to sell. But like anything some people still had ways of cheating.