Live Animal Purchase Policies, Terms & Conditions (Ayam Cemanis & Bees)

All orders from Gypsy Shoals Farm are subject to the following terms and conditions and any purchaser of birds, bees or hatching eggs from Gypsy Shoals Farm agrees to these terms and conditions by ordering.

Please read our entire Terms & Conditions before purchasing, bee colonies, bee nucs, live poultry or hatching eggs. Due to the nature of “live products”, our guarantees have limitations.

Hatching Eggs

We offer 100% pure bred ayam cemani hatching eggs for sale. Our 100% pure bred ayam cemani breeding flock is of the highest quality (because I am a perfectionist) and we guarantee that all ayam cemani hatching eggs are from this elite, highly selected flock.

Your ayam cemani fertilized eggs will be collected after your payment has cleared. That means that your eggs may not ship for a few days. Why is that important? Because it guarantees you that your eggs are at their healthiest when they are shipped. Fertilized eggs have a distinct bell curve in their hatching success rate, and this drops dramatically after 10 days.

Your ayam cemani eggs will be marked on the top and include clear instructions on what to do when you receive them, before placing them in the incubator. Your hatching eggs will be packed with the utmost care and properly labelled with care labels for USPS Priority Mail transportation.

However, there is an inherent risk in hatching your own eggs that we cannot guarantee. Due to the fact that we have no control over the hatching process, we do not guarantee a hatch rate. We do guarantee them for delivery and will refund the cost of any broken eggs by the USPS shipping process. We do not reship replacement eggs. We do not refund postage.

We must receive an email notification (with photo) from you within 24 hours of delivery for a refund. Delivery date and time are determined by USPS tracking # records for this purpose. We do not refund shipping costs.

  • To receive a refund on broken eggs, you must email us at gypsyshoalsfarm@gmail.com the day you receive your eggs with a photo of all losses and your order#.

Live Arrival Guarantee

Please pick up your chicks the same day that you receive a call from the post office.

We will not ship any less than 6 ayam cemani chicks because it is not healthy or safe for the baby chicks. If you place an order for 6 or more chicks, Gypsy Shoals Farm guarantees you will receive the number of chicks you ordered alive the day you receive them. If you have fewer chicks alive than you ordered, you will be asked to send us a photo of the deceased chick and you will be promptly refunded the cost of the lost chick. We must receive an email notification (with photo) from you within 24 hours of delivery for a refund. Delivery date and time are determined by USPS tracking # records for this purpose. We do not refund shipping costs. We do not ship replacement chicks because it is not healthy or safe for the chicks to ship any less than six.

  • To receive a refund on lost chicks, you must email us at gypsyshoalsfarm@gmail.com the day you receive your chicks with a photo of all losses your order#.

Flock Health and Vaccinations

All of our adult ayam cemani chickens as well as our family flock on the farm are vaccinated with all of the necessary vaccines to keep our flocks healthy. Remember, we are a boutique hatchery, so we keep things extra clean and extra organized around here. We don’t deal in huge volumes, but rather choose to be a limited and selective breeder for the health and quality of our flock and the ayam cemani breed overall.  Our fowl are tested by the state of Alabama every 6 months and we are certified by the National Poultry Improvement Program (NPIP # 64-1859). Day old ayam cemani chicks ordered are not vaccinated before sending because the general consensus from our customers has been that they prefer to do this, with the use of medicated chick starter, so that they feel confident in their personal bird’s immunization coverage.

Shipping Live Animals

After you have received your email with the tracking info, this means that your order has in fact shipped. It should take 1-3 business days to get to your post office after they have left our farm. Answer the phone when the post office calls and go pick up your new kids. They’ve had a long and stressful journey.

It is extremely important that you provide an accurate phone number and email address at checkout. The post office will be calling you to pick up your ayam cemani order. The USPS (or any other carrier) will not deliver live chickens to your home. You will have to pick them up at the post office. These are live, vulnerable and beautiful creatures that just went through an airline flight, an 18-wheeler ride or two, down several conveyer belts and some waiting at postal facilities.

Please pick up your ayam cemanis as soon as you receive the phone call for their health, happiness and safety!

Orders for fertilized ayam cemani eggs will be delivered to your home via USPS Priority Shipping.

Shipping of Live Bees

Gypsy Shoals Farm can only guarantee that the bees are delivered to the USPS post office packaged safely and in good condition. We do not guarantee that the USPS will deliver the bees to you in good condition. Gypsy Shoals Farm is no longer liable for the bees once they are accepted by the carrier; our only liability is to deliver the bees to the USPS in good condition. We insure all of our bee packages with the carrier. In the event that your bees arrive dead or damaged, refunds will be processed by the USPS, not Gypsy Shoals Farm. For USPS delivery, please check your bees before accepting the package and do not accept them if they are dead. You must file a claim immediately with the postmaster directly. Fun fact to relieve any concerns: Out of 10,000 packages of live bees shipped through the USPS, 99.5% were shipped successfully without damage. The Post Office also insures the packages and processes any claims in a timely manner.

Due to the limited quantity of bees available, all live bee purchases are non-refundable. You may cancel your order, but no refund will be issued. Once you select a shipping date for live bees, it cannot be altered without the permission of Gypsy Shoals Farm.

Pick up of Bees

Because we take bio-security very seriously for our ayam cemani hatchery as well as our apiary, we unfortunately cannot allow pick up of bees on the farm. It is often the unbeknownst micro-organisms on the bottom of someone’s shoes that destroyed a flock and we simply can’t take that chance. We hope you understand.

Incorrect Shipping Address

If your order is returned to us because it is “undeliverable” based on the shipping information that you entered at checkout, you will not receive a refund and your order will not be re-shipped. These are live animals! They cannot possibly survive going all way from our farm, to an incorrect address, and back to our farm.

Gypsy Shoals Farm Tours & Local Pickup

We take biosecurity very seriously. We are NPIP certified in the state of Alabama which means NPIP officials come to our farm every 6 months to test our flocks for various diseases. Having guests on our farm would expose our highly protected flocks to potentially various diseases and we simply can't take that risk. Therefore, we can't schedule farm tours and all orders must ship, even if you live close to our farm. 

Cancellations|Refunds|Returns Hatchery & Apiary

We do not offer returns on any bees, ayam cemani chicks, juveniles or adult purchases. Period. We do not offer refunds to cancel orders that have been placed before they ship. Our hens and bees don’t begin preparing your order until it is placed, so we must keep the schedule regular and without hiccups. The only exception to this policy is: If we do not ship your order on or before the estimated ship date, then and only then, you may cancel your order and immediately receive a full refund. There are no exceptions to this policy so please consider this before ordering. 

We only offer refunds for ayam cemani chicks, juveniles and adult ayam cemanis that do not survive shipment. We do not offer refunds for bees. More details can be found in the section titled Live Arrival Guarantee.

Payment

Payment is due at time order is placed via our website checkout.

Sexing Ayam Cemani Chicks

We do not sex our ayam cemani chicks and all purchases of baby ayam cemani chicks are straight run. The process of sexing chicks is extremely painful and traumatic to them, and often inaccurate anyways. Therefore, we choose to not put our chicks through the additional trauma. This means it is entirely possible that you could receive a cockerel (male/baby rooster) in your order. Please be sure to check your local ordinances to be sure that you are permitted to have a rooster on property, or make sure that you have arrangements in place to rehome a rooster if you cannot keep one. We do not offer refunds or returns on any live animals. Please refer to our Live Arrival Guarantee for more details.

Our Position on The Humane Treatment of Animals

We are animal lovers, protectors and guardians! Gypsy Shoals Farm is a sprawling and picture perfect 9 acres on Weiss Lake with a 2,500 square foot electric and plumbed barn where our flocks live in what would be considered “poultry estates”. Even our ayam cemanis free range in their own separated VIP yards.

We are extremely selective of the ayam cemanis that are included in our breeding program. If an ayam cemani is deemed to not meet our standards of excellence, he or she is moved over to one of the farm family flocks. We do not “cull” in the traditional sense of killing. We relocate them to the “island of misfit toys” (the family flock) to live happy healthy and long lives here on the farm.

The only time that we “cull” in the traditional sense of killing a bird is if the bird is sick, suffering and dying. Euthanizing the bird is the humane and responsible thing to do.

Important Info to Understand About the Ayam Cemani Breed

First, there aren’t enough words to tell you how much we love our ayam cemanis. Our greatest hope is that you will fall in love with this highly exotic breed and become a champion for the breed as well. We are members of the Ayam Cemani Breeders Association (ACBA) and strongly encourage you to join and take advantage of the many opportunities available to connect with fellow Ayam Cemani Owners and Breeders. As a member, you will be able to also network with all the ACBA members in the Facebook group, where you will find a wealth of knowledge and experience from other ayam cemani lovers.

Our Ayam Cemani breeding stock is unlike any other here in the US because we’ve done things a little differently at Gypsy Shoals Farm. As a micro farm, we really wanted to breed for the highest quality, not just to make a quick buck. As a result of much research, we diligently sought and procured two entirely different 100% pure ayam cemani bloodlines to be the foundation of our breeding program.

There are many challenges that come with trying to breed the perfect bird, but one of the largest in the US is the fact that so many people have bought a 6-pack of ayam cemani chicks, then bred them to each, then to each other and their offspring, again and again. Good and bad traits passing down. The goal at Gypsy Shoals Farm was to avoid that perpetuation. Inbreeding inherently always presents the defects multiplied down the line.

In procuring two entirely different bloodlines, we are able to focus on lifting up the best qualities in each bloodline and avoid inbreeding in our ayam cemani program. The ayam cemanis that qualify into our breeding program are 100% all black. Skin, mouths, tongues, beaks, toe nails. We adhere to the Ayam Cemani Breeders Association guidelines for the Standard of Perfection as well as the ACBA’s Code of Ethics.

With that being said, the ayam cemani has its’ challenges in any breeding program. The ayam cemanis black color occurs as a result of excess pigmentation of the tissues, caused by a genetic condition known as fibro melanosis. A genetic mutation. The genetic mutation which causes ayam cemanis to “throw” all black, is completely healthy for the chicken. However, because it is a mutation, there is always that random chance that an ayam cemani can “throw” a random colored feather, white toe nail, etc. from their genetic makeup. It’s important for anyone purchasing ayam cemanis to understand this and consider how it fits their personal circumstance. If you are starting a breeding program, you will probably not get 6 perfect chicks. I never even get 6 perfect chicks. This is where that old adage “chicken math” applies. We cannot guarantee the distribution of black pigment in the offspring you receive as each chick will turn out different. It’s important to wait until your chicks have at least feathered in before judging on color, toe nails, tongue. And then, they can even change again after their first molt. You can judge on quality of black skin and eye color at chick age.

The quest for the perfect bird is a passion we have that some might even say is unattainable, but yet we keep striving. #cemani♥