Greenfire Farms Chick Survival Rate

Fancycochin27 · Mar 27, 2016

realsis said:
Congratulations!! oooh I wish I had some Buff Orpingtons!!♡♡♡♡ They didn't have any females for my hatch date which is April 11th. I pre-Ordered in January. This year's chicks I ordered are 7 Female Barred Rock chicks, 1 free production layer Suprise breed, and 1 Female Golden Cuckoo Maran. That's a total of 9. I have Silkie females at home. They are about 3 to 3 1/2 years old. Such sweet girls! Please post pictures of your cutie pies when they get here! can't wait to see them!

Hello just to give you a quick update. I finally got the chicks I wanted. I originally bought 8 English Buff Orpingtons which were from Green Fire lines and Marc Scare lines. I was very please with the seller who shipped the birds. They were very healthy and he was nice enough to ship an extra one, so I got nine in total which is very cool. They were shipped when they were a week old. They are doing so well and are continuing to thrive. I love them so much. I have two males, and the rest are females. I can't say enough about how the chicks were properly shipped. I will take a photo of them soon and post it.
That is so awesome I half a mix cochin and silkie hen which I have two in my flock. They look very identical. I have some pure cochin bantams and the rest are mixed with cochin bantams and Amercuana bantams (hoped i got close to spelling the right lol). Barred rocks are awesome. Great coloring and fabulous layers. Good luck with your birds! Thanks for giving me the site. I also got five American Buff Orpingtons from the nearest feed store they were ordered from Privett hatchery. They are all pullets because that's how I bought them. I am so eager to breed them with the English Buff and see what I get.

cutipatooti · Apr 11, 2016

I have recieved many shipments from GFF. Most of the time I have 95 to 100% survival rate from them. I have had a few that seem to be a weaker breed in general in the beginning... Like niederrheiner sand loose them in a few days. I have had a chick with his head stuck in the grow gel DOA and a few chicks that had grow gel on them that passed in a few days. I love GFF and josette. The grow gel can cause losses IMO but i have not tried it without the grow gel. GFF has always taken care of me as a customer no matter the price I pay. Also I mostly end up with pullets. Must be some good luck. It's to the point I had to order more just to try for more males.

BWArtist · May 17, 2016

I don't understand all that grogel in the box pictured. I got an order of dorkings this year There always seems to be a percentage of chicks will overeat grogel to the point of death. And others eat in moderation. That few a chicks pictured and that much grogel. I see that as the problem.

After using grogel over 5 times now, I'm tired of the last loss in long awaited dorkings. I lost 15 out of 50. So in a small group the number would be?

No more grogel for me. Especially if I decide to pay Greenfire prices.

Rock Sister · May 25, 2016

All of my Greenfire chicks are doing great on day 2. I am writing because I received 3 small grow gel cups, that were crisscrossed with tape to provide small holes for them to drink from. None were stained. Now Greenfire is about 3 hrs from me so I really think it is shipping people too. My birds traveled small distance, even going all the way to Tallahassee then back to Jacksonville. I do not understand why something from Midland has to go to Tallehassee, passing Jax then back... But I only had one chick exhausted and I gave him pedialyte and it bounced right back. It's only day 2 for the fuzzy ping pong balls but hopefully it will be fine.

Today, I got my shipment from Metzer and same way... Priority express, beautiful box, undented, tracked and all 6 geese and 5 ducks beautiful, happy and out of grow gel. They put a bunch but water fowl do love some water! Lol

Rare Birds.... What I think is missed is that these birds have to be acclimated to our weather. It could take a couple yrs for them to do this is breeder you bought from hasnt worked this out in their stock.

USPS - Now, with them having text and email updates, I knew exactly where mine were, what time they would be at post office and I always request Priority EXPRESS. It is about time regarding express and priority but the MOST IMPORTANT reason: they sit up front in passenger seat instead of the cargo. I always have the best looking boxes because they know I am receiving updates and watching. I think it gets worse the smaller your post office is unfortunately.

I know older post but wanted to share my experience with Greenfire. They were very gracious to me, turning my 6 chickens into a doz. That was very kind. The Beilefelders are beautiful as well.

ChickenMatchmaker · Apr 24, 2020

I have been very sick for many days. I got swabbed for covid-19 but didn't get results until today. I sent green fire farms an email saying that I have 102 fever and was exposed to someone that tested positive for corona virus. I told them I felt too sick to go to the post office next week to pick up my chicks, and even if I could drive there I am afraid to spread the virus. They didn't even bother to wish me well with my health. They simply said they would charge me $600 for the cancellation. Meanwhile, this is my second $1,200.00 order from them in a year. They are such greedy slime that they dont care if I spread the virus and kill people, and they dont care how sick I am. They want their money no matter who they hurt. In a world wide pandemic I think it is a good Idea to be considerate of people who could be dying. I really do not need this stress right now. I cant work because of the pandemic and lost my job and health care because I am sick. But these slime balls who generally cant even fill any order that you place, and send you very weak chicks that die of Mareks even when you pay to vaccinate, couldn't care less if their customers drop dead as long as they get their money. I used to speak highly of them but now I think they are scum. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE UNAMERICAN MONSTERS!

ChickenMatchmaker · Apr 24, 2020

elkinsacres said:
Update:

I am now down to five Twentse chicks. No obvious issues, just failure/refusal to thrive. What's worse is that these birds had no GroGel staining whatsoever. I fully expected these more vigorous in the lot to have better survivability, but, alas, they just don't.

Greenfire chicks are the ONLY chicks that have exhibited this behavior for me. ALL of my birds were raised here on our farm. Eggs incubated in-house from a few sources. Chicks came in from a few sources. ALL chicks raised the same - same brooders, same feed, same water, etc.

I'm really hoping to here from others that have purchased chicks from Greenfire to see if my problems are unique or is there is some 'secret ingredient' I am missing. Needless to say, I am incredibly disappointed. At this point, I figure these Twentse chicks will be a total loss. Greenfire has offered a refund for all dead chicks after 72 hours, but I want living, healthy chicks that will become vigorous, productive birds. I'd also like to erase this experience as it has been totally demoralizing.

I have had this problem with their crevocoeur and polish and cream legbar. Eggs hatched from eBay are even more healthy and vigorous that GFF chicks! They are scam artists! I think they inbreed excessively. They are not decent people so I wouldn't expect decent breeding or health practices from them. The cream legbar I ordered all died fro Mareks even though they were supposedly vaccinated against Mareks! Dont waste your money for a heart break like I did. I regret giving them thousands or my hard earned money.

FARMminiature · Aug 4, 2021

elkinsacres said:
I'll admit straight off that I am beyond frustrated here... I have won two separate auctions over on Rare Breed Auctions for two different breeds of chicks, both from Greenfire Farms. Needless to say, the price was significantly reduced from the standard on the Greenfire site. I only mention this as a potential factor.

The first was about a month ago or so for ten Niederrheiners. I'm in Arkansas, Greenfire is in Florida. They shipped out on a Monday, arrived on Wednesday or Thursday morning (can't seem to find the tracking info to confirm). They shipped twelve, so as to have two extras. All chicks were alive on delivery, but they seemed VERY small compared to every other chick I've seen (RIRs, Plymouth Barred Rock, Marans, Cream Legbars, Olive Eggers, Swedish Flower Hens, Bielefelders, Barbezieux, etc - just indicating here that I've raised some chicks...). GroGel was included in the shipment, and many of the chicks had blue-green staining on their feet and feathers from this. Within a few days, they started dropping. They never seemed to thrive, didn't see them aggressively going for food or water, just weak chicks. As of today, I have a total of three that have survived. These three seem to be in good shape, but I would like to see them a bit larger at this point.

Flash forward to this week to the second auction win, this time for ten Twentse. Same shipping timetable. Chicks were VERY loud in the box, so I was much more excited to open up the box and see them. Well, my optimism was immediately extinguished when I clipped the tie-wraps... They shipped thirteen, so as to have three extras. Three dead upon arrival - one trampled to death, two apparently 'drowned' in the included GroGel cups (heads still in the cups). Three more covered in GroGel and trampled to the point they were not moving and barely breathing. The other seven seemed OK, but many had blue-green spots on them from GroGel. I rushed home from the Post Office, about a 25-minute drive, and put the 'survivors' in the brooder I had prepared for them (two lamps, pine shavings, 20% non-medicated chick starter and water). The three that were in rough shape, I brought them inside and got them washed off and back up to temp using warm water. They started to perk back up enough for me to shift them to the bathroom to put under a hair dryer. Unbelievably, they looked like they might just make it, albeit HEAVILY stained from GroGel contact (one of them was about half blue-green, feather down really absorbs that GroGel...). Into the brooder they went with the rest. I have had them for about 36 hours now and have lost two more with an additional chick currently circling the drain. There are some pine shavings in the water (I clean this out every time I see this happen, of course) which would indicate to me they are actively scratching around by the waterer and drinking water. Feed, on the other hand, barely shows any signs of activity.

Now I have raised a lot of chicks this year; hundreds, in fact. The losses would be on VERY rare occasions. One chick drowned in a waterer, one chick got stuck in a feeder near a heat lamp, one I recall was weak from the start and eventually died several weeks later (although I just knew it wouldn't make it, I gave it the opportunity). I have raised ten different breeds of chicks this year. I have used a variety of different bedding material - pine shavings, hay, grass clippings. I have consistently used 20% non-medicated chick starter from Powell's Feed. Water is changed at least daily, but usually two or three times daily. I check on my chicks, on average, four times a day. Until they start to get feathers, I run two separate lamps - one closer to the brooder floor than the other. I can provide any other details upon request. I want to be completely transparent here as this is a problem I really want to solve.

So...I guess I have a few questions here...

1. What is your experience with Greenfire Farms chicks? Out of two separate shipments, I have two absolutely abysmal survival rates - and Shipment Number Two is still in flux.

2. What is your opinion/experience with GroGel? It seems like this stuff might as well be rat poison as every chick that ended up contacting it eventually died. My three surviving Niederrheiners were, maybe not coincidentally, completely clean with no blue-green staining at all. It seems that, in theory, this is a great thing for chicks - nourishment and hydration that doesn't 'spill'. However... Why is it dyed at all? Why is it placed in a shipping box in such a manner that small chicks can (and do) walk through it, getting it stuck to them? In the future, I plan to specifically request that it NOT be used. I'll just take my chances. After all, for day-old chicks, they should still be absorbing their internal yolk sacs for up to 72 hours anyway.

3. What the heck can I do to increase my survival rate here? I have basically resigned myself to the same rate of loss for these Twentse chicks over the next week or two, but it just kills me. You go from beyond excited to win an auction for rare chicks at an awesome discount only to have that crushed on an epic scale by death after death so quickly.

Thanks for any help or guidance or stories you can share.

First off, I am sorry for your horrible experiences. I live in Oklahoma, and I have had a 100% survival rate from 4 shipments. I have purchased from the greenfirefarms website and the Rarebreed auctions website. In my opinion, I consider them to be the best. I have bought from numerous hatcheries and small farms. I do believe they send the best out to those who paid full price, which seems fair to me. I was beyond extactic with all of my purchases, though. As always, there are so many factors that can play part. An employee could unknowingly mess something up. Rough postal service from yet another bad employee. Weather. I’m assuming you have experience since you’ve raised several chicks. Ideas just in case.... Because I do not know the size of the area that you have your chicks, do you have a large enough area that they are not being trampled? An area that has enough airflow? An area for them to play that’s not getting them too hot if they don’t want to be under the lamps (think of a vehicle turned off sitting in the sun during summer how it can get too hot and be unsafe)? Has the area been deep cleaned since the previous poultry was there? Just because one place works excellent for chicks in winter, it might be a different situation in summer. Do you have young kids “helping” accidentally causing harm? I’m throwing out several variables even common sense ones, because I feel so many factors can play part. I’m sure I went overboard. I just wanted to let you know that I have had an exceptional experience from Greenfire Farms. Again, sorry for your bad luck, and I hope everything works out for you.

Greenfire Farms Chick Survival Rate

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Fancycochin27

In the Brooder

cutipatooti

Songster

BWArtist

In the Brooder

Rock Sister

In the Brooder

ChickenMatchmaker

In the Brooder

ChickenMatchmaker

In the Brooder

FARMminiature

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