Central Missouri Hatchery- Griffith Poultry Farm

I went to the Griffith Open house yesterday. My 3 year old son had a blast petting all the animals, and we went on a horse drawn wagon ride. He LOVED petting the baby goats and the big shetland ram. I was proud of him for being more careful with the chicks and ducklings than most of the kids there.

I ended up coming home with a silkie rooster, a houdan 4 week old, a 1-2 week old crested (polish?), and a tiny buff bearded silkie chick that looked newly hatched. I hope the 2 youngest make it. They were a bit weak when I bought them. I put my older silkie chick in with them to be 'mama' and so far mama is doing her job.

My husband said 'NO MORE!' Especially since I have 14 polish/polish mix in the incubator!

I saw the list and seen those White Faverolles and wondered what they look like and where they came from.

Quote:
Me too. I'd like some "other color" faverolles (white, black, blue). Though I'm having a tough enough time just finding standard salmons.

-Cindy in MA

We got our red sex linked and black sexed linked chickens from griffith's. We ordered 50 and didn't lose any to sickness. They are great egg layers. Good birds, not super friendly, but they will lay eggs. We were very pleased.

I heard from a guy from Hannibal that bought my extra chicks from Ideal, that Griffiths Poultry Farm is NO MORE. As you know, Frank Pooley passed away over a year ago. I'd gotten some of my first chicks from him. Apparently the couple that purchased the hatchery last year is going their separate ways and the birds and hatchery equipment have been bought up by some fellas from Santa Fe MO. I am so bummed. That means I can't just drive 30 minutes to get my chick fix in the Spring. I guess I'll just drive 5 min to the local Orschelns and see what turns up. My chicks from Ideal did okay, maybe I'll be more likely to order chicks in the mail again.

So on that note, I guess that I should END THIS THREAD, unless someone tells me I heard wrong.

The wife and I bought a batch of chicks from Griffith's in June, and had the same problem you reported in our chicks. We bought 16 Buff Orpingtons, 30 barred rocks, 3 buff cochins, and 3 cayuga ducklings. After getting them home I had many who had toes curling up, a couple that only had one eye developed, a couple with missing toes,

Out of them, 5 buff orpingtons survived, 1 buff cochin survived, and 20 barred rocks survived. From the time we got them, til about 4 weeks of age, we kept losing one or two a day to the same thing you had problems with - mucus bubbling out of the beak, gurgling, limp and gasping. It never struck en masse, just one or two every day or two... chicks who had been vigorous and running around the day before suddenly sickening and dying. I finally got fed up and saw a Vet and he said it was bacterial pneumonia, gave me some meds, and it cleared up with no further losses.

This was not caused by anything environmental here, nor by the care of the chicks. I also purchased a dozen chicks from an old farmer near Calumet. Those chicks thrived, I had not one single loss (or even a sniffle) from any of them, and you could probably have hitched them up to my Silverado and pulled it with them... with the exact same feed, conditions, heat, water, and care they absolutely thrived. Meanwhile my Griffith chicks, who I kept separate from those 12, seemed like Europe during the plague. I was very unhappy.

I heard through the grapevine that the ppl running Griffith's weren't giving their breeding stock the proper nutrition, and weren't operating their incubators correctly. I don't know for sure if that's true or not, but I was definitely planning to try somebody else this spring if I shop for more chicks.

Btw, I am very happy with most of the birds that survived, I do need to add that. I just think I can definitely find healthier, better chicks with less problems elsewhere.

Today is 2/22/2012...I just called that telephone number and the recording said it has been disconnected and is no longer in service. Darn!