Chicken math strikes!

So, I ordered 11 chicks for the spring. Then I lost one of my EE girls. I called the hatchery to order 2 more EE, and the lady helping me says that if I order two more chicks, I will reduce my shipping by 1/2!

Well ok! One more blue ameraucauna and black copper please! And it only ended up costing me $12 overall.

Now...how to tell my husband...

"Look, honey, the hatchery sent these cute extra chicks! How nice of them!" And last spring we ordered forty from Cackle, and got seven extra, and all lived. Mary

Yeah, what Folly said. Hatcheries can be very generous with those free chicks....

what place allows you to order 11 chicks and do they deliver to MN? Everyone I have looked at has a 26 chick limit and I don't need that many. o.o

LadyVictorian said:

what place allows you to order 11 chicks and do they deliver to MN? Everyone I have looked at has a 26 chick limit and I don't need that many. o.o

Click to expand...

You need to check different hatcheries. Each is an independent company run by different individual and have their own rules and limits. Some have inflexible limits, some can vary depending on the time of the year. MyPetChicken looks at your zip code for their limits, if you are at a major Post Office destination where overnight delivery is pretty much guaranteed, they may ship as few as three. For people in the middle of not a lot like me, that limit may be 11 or even higher.

Ideal did not have a minimum number of chickens the last time I checked, they had a minimum dollar order. Cackle has different limits at different time soft the year and used to have a special “small order” offer. They will ship smaller numbers but charge you a lot more because they put artificial heat sources with the chicks. People like to think all hatcheries are exactly the same in every way but they really aren’t.

The reason most hatcheries have limits is that they need a certain number of chicks in the box at certain times of the year to provide enough warmth. Something else to be aware of is “packing peanuts”. If your number of birds is fairly low and cold weather is forecast, they might add several additional chicks to provide extra warmth, almost always excess males. They won’t charge you for them but if you order 15 and a really cold snap is forecast you might open the box and see over 20 chicks. I know Ideal does this but so do several of the others. You can call them and talk to them about this, let them know what you do or don’t want as far as packing peanuts.

I assume they can't put in ducks for packing peanuts. That would save me the conversation of getting ducks. If they just show up it's not my fault.

I ordered from Meyer- It depends on the time of year. They will do as few as 3 I think... ? This time of year it is 15 for full sized and 25 for bantams.

Yep Meyer will ship as few as 3 starting in April I think, right now it's 15 but I split an order with a another local. Although frankly I'd take 15 if I had the extra coop space..

I think we might have to build a second coop...

Although I had 13 in my coop before and they had a lot of room, so maybe not. Right now I only have 4, but I'm able to put their food and water in there with them, which is nice. They have a very large run 20x25?

My coop is 4x8, raised without adding in the nesting boxes. They have a lot of vertical space, and my old flock never used the floor, they just roosted. 24' of roosts.

I'm going to get this for the newbies in June to play pen them in the coop:


I figure I will have some time to expand my coop or add a second one if needed.