One thing people invariably ask is why I would attempt to move abroad with a ton of animals, and it’s a fair question. The simple answer is that when I get there, I want to have a ton of animals, and the places I’m looking at moving to don’t have the same diversity of livestock breeds that we have in the US (or in Europe, for that matter). So if I’m going to have to import animals anyway, why not import the ones I already have?

The more complicated answer is that in the case of my pets, I have a responsibility to them, which includes not dumping them when they become inconvenient. And in the case of my poultry, while I also have a responsibility there, they are much easier to find suitable homes for than my dogs, however, I would be throwing away all the genetics work I’ve already done and starting over.

The good news is that there are a lot of different ways to move a large number of animals to another country if you’re willing to take your time and do it right. Another piece of good news is that when it comes to all of my birds except my pigeons, I don’t have to deal with the import/export process at all — I can simply take eggs. If something goes wrong and I lose a bunch of hatching eggs, it’s not the end of the world and I can just have my birds back in the States lay more.

I recently scored a top of the line incubator on eBay for a fraction of its actual value. Google Grumbach incubators if you’re curious. I won’t be able to hatch a thousand eggs at a time, but I can do 80 or so, and that’s not bad. And between now and then I may manage to get another incubator or two.

Unless I want to hand raise pigeons, and I’d really rather not, they’re a little bit different story, since baby pigeons can’t feed themselves. So pigeons will have to be transported. Fortunately you can typically do that on any commercial flight, so long as your paperwork is in order. I would almost certainly sell off my surplus pigeons prior to the move, and probably make enough to pay for the transport of the remaining birds. That’s assuming I don’t just put all my animals on one big cargo jet. You know, with all the millions of dollars I’ll magically have…

So that’s the gist of it. If all I wanted was to lie around on a beach for the rest of my days, I’d already be doing it. But I’m looking to do something more complicated, and that means a more complicated, and expensive, move.