Purchasing Chickens on Craigslist?

There are many ways to purchase chickens in the US, in fact over 13% of American households raise their own chickens… which means many platforms on the internet have chicken classified ads, including Craigslist.

Now, obviously not everyone on Craigslist are scammers- there are even very good poultry breeders who post their extra birds on Craigslist from time to time. But how do we determine a trustworthy Craigslist ad from an untrustworthy one.

Before you consider purchasing chickens on Craigslist, keep the following in mind.

Disease

Craigslist is a great place to find diseased birds. In fact, many healthy looking birds carry diseases and can pass them on to non-infected birds at home. Many diseases will never leave your coop, so be sure you’re ready to take that risk.

Non-NPIP

The vast majority of chickens on Craigslist haven’t been tested for salmonella or avian influenza. If the ad says the birds are “NPIP” this means they have been, or their parents have been tested by the National Poultry Improvement Plan for diseases.

Age

Unfortunately, it’s very easy for a seller to tell you the wrong age of the chickens being sold. If a chicken is over a year old, it can be quite difficult to confirm its age. This is another thing to watch out for, since a 1 year old hen is much more productive than a 2+ year old.

Gender

Purchasing chicks off of Craigslist is slightly less risky than older birds, but there are many myths about successfully determining the sex of a day-old chick that you have to watch out for, so unfortunately it’s typical for day-old “pullets” to end up as cockerels.

Breed

Although, you have to give people some grace since there are hundreds of chicken breeds, mixing up breed names is somewhat common. A $20 Black Star pullet can get mixed up with a $50 Black Copper Marans pullet, as an example.

Temperaments

This can obviously vary greatly but remember, if you intend to have calm backyard chickens, you can’t expect every other farm to have those docile little pets that you know and love.

Egg-eaters

And last but not least, egg-eating chickens can spread a terrible habit onto your hens. This is another thing to watch out for when purchasing hens of of Craigslist.

What to look for in an ad

Photos

Pictures are worth a thousand words. A picture of clean, healthy, consistent birds in someone’s well-kept coop is a good sign. A stock photo from a hatchery or screenshot puts the ad at risk. A photo of dirty, unhealthy birds obviously isn’t attractive for a customer, and no picture at all makes the ad very vague.

Descriptions

It’s very promising when a seller mentions the age, feed they’ve had, breed, chick-source, and other details in the ad. The lack of mentioning these things might show less openness to how the birds were raised.

Farm name

It should give you confidence in a seller when they have a website or farm name on the ad. This means they are likely thinking about their farm’s reputation when they sell products and animals. You can also google their farm name and look for reviews.

Price

On Craigslist, there is a full spectrum of sellers- some will overprice their birds and some will give chickens away for free. Price really varies and doesn’t always give a clear picture on how they were raised, but typically ads with a large group of mixed age chickens for cheap are more prone to disease than an ad with a group of young pullets at a higher price.

NPIP

And last but certainly not least, an ad stating NPIP, like I wrote above is the most promising seller to buy from. NPIP certified farms participate in testing for disease and are required to keep clean facilities and keep track of their purchases and sales. This gives confidence to the buyer that their birds are at minimal risk of disease.

Now you know— keep all the above in mind when looking through Craigslist for chickens. Thanks for reading!