moving to France

Has anyone had any experience of taking chickens from the UK to France ?

Hello Hen Maiden,

We brought our hens to France. DEFRA gave us a real runaround and really are not the right authority as they only care about imports! Eventually, after our vet trying to get blood 3 times, I'd had enough and was almost as upset as the girls, so we contacted the French Embassy and eventually got a contact in Customs who advised us. As we moved over 5 years ago, things may have changed but we had to get a letter from our vet to say all were healthy, a declaration written by us re-how long we'd had them, where we were coming from and going to. They travelled in their henhouse from Yorkshire, on to St Malo on the ferry and then to our house in Brittany so quite a long trip for them! Fortunately we're not far from St Malo so, once off the boat, they were soon free again!

Your best bet is to contact the Embassy and get a contact in Customs as it is they who will stop you so they are best to advise! We didn't have to see a vet once we'd arrived and as it was during the bird flu scare, when we brought our birds over, you'd have thought things would be quite tight. We also brought some doves with us and had a similar procedure for them.