Chicken SCratch poultry? - Page 2

they are a breeder,  i've been to their farm i bought from them because they were the only ones even halfway close to me that had what i wanted and i was able to pick out my own chicks and they are super healthy and i didn't have to buy a set amount anywho i'm a touch it feel it type of person i like to see what i'm buying

Yes they are Breeders and seem very nice and caring. I've spoken with them and they seemed extremely honest. I would recommend them!

Just received a batch of chicks from Chicken Scratch this morning. I ordered 4 black copper marans chicks, 4 rumpless Araucanas, and 4 of their proprietary olive egg-laying hybrids (ameraucana x black copper marans). I received an extra baby of each variety, and all seem to be doing well as of moving into the brooder in my sunroom a couple hours ago. Only two of the Araucanas look like they might be duckwing patterned. I had asked if I could get golden duckwing babies, but evidently their breeders are not segregated by colors. Even though the duckwing chicks are pretty distinctively colored, they would not pick 4 out for me. Also, none of their Araucana chicks this season have been hatching with tufts, oddly, even though I was told that their breeders display some tufting. With such high prices for chicks, I was hoping for some stock that I could breed from, but if I can't get tufts to come through, I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble that hatching rumpless Araucanas always presents. Does anyone know if these clean-faced chicks might accidentally be able to pass on a tufted gene, without displaying tufts themselves? If not, I guess I'm going to try to track down a decently tufted rooster for fertilizing the clean-faced hens, and hope for more successful hatches that way. The breeding stock that is called "Wade Jeane" did, after some pointed questions, turn out to be second-hand, so probably the eggs these babies will lay will not be the deep chocolate brown that Jeane strove for, but that other breeders so often allow to fall be the wayside in favor of hatching and SELLING as many "Marans" chicks as possible, regardless of the increasingly pale and red eggs they lay. The olive egger chicks are super cute and fluffy, a couple have Ameraucana bearding evident already. Overall, the shipping was very high, given that I am only a day away from their farm, but the packaging was very sturdy and all the babies arrived in good health. The prices for the chicks themselves really were outrageous, especially given that the "Rumpless, Tufted Araucanas" turned out, after my paypal payment cleared, to not be tufted at all. Even the hybrids were $8 a chick, and while olive eggs are cool, I could very well have bred my own quite easily. 15 chicks ran me $120 or so, after shipping and handling. Hopefully the cost will result in some decently dark Marans eggs, and some decently blue Araucana eggs, but as I said, I am still in the market for a nice tufted rumpless roo. Anyone?

X3!  I think if your lookin foe good quality birds and are going to pay that much, buy from a good breeder
but if your just looking to have a bunch of fun fuzzy butts running
around I would just buy from a normal larger hatchery

I just ordered 16 Black Copper Marans from Chicken Scratch Poultry and they sent extras of the same kind. So in total I received 21 chicks and ALL survived the long trip to Hawaii from Illinois. I received them by express mail with tracking on June 29, 2012 and I have nothing bad to say about Chicken Scratch Poultry but praises, and I will definitely to more business with them in the future.

I just checked out the CSP website. They have some gorgeous birds for sure! I sent them an email inquiring about the cost and feasibility of shipping some to Maui. I loved the lavender orpingtons. So pretty

So Puna Chick, I'm wondering how long were your chicks in transit all together? Illinois is a long way from Hawaii!

I also have a question for bethbug74 or for anyone who has laying hens that came from CSP in the last couple years.

Now that your black copper marans are laying, how would you rate the darkness of the eggs you get? Have you compared them to a marans egg color chart? 

 http://www.themaransclub.co.uk/#/eggs-and-egg-colour-chart/4541995077

And finally a question for anyone who's done business with CSP. I couldn't tell from their website, do they vaccinate their chicks, and if so what do they vaccinate against?

This feedback has been very helpful.  I was wondering if the chicks and eggs they sold were worth the asking price.  So far the answer has been no as far as I can read.  Yeah for BYC!

Has anyone purchased Welsummers from this breeder?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFCottage 

I hatched out some Ameraucanas and marans from them about 3 weeks ago. They are very nice people to deal with. I had 15 eggs shipped, 9 hatched (I incubate/hatch in a Brinsea). I ended up with 2 blue and 1 black Ameraucanas out of 5 eggs shipped, 3 black copper marans and 3 blue copper marans out of 10 marans eggs shipped.  One of the blue marans was born with a leg it couldn't use.. I gave it a few days but it was apparent it wouldn't thrive. I have another blue that I am now noticing a strange issue: there is NO tail to speak of on this chick. However, there are feathers starting to grow out below it's vent that are growing up towards the vent!! I am going to wait and see what happens with this, but it seems like an early recipe for a big problem. 2 of the 3 black marans have very heavily feathered legs, but they both also have mid toe feathering, a fault. That said I'm not a show breeder, I just want to enjoy some nice dark eggs. For the nice line they claim these birds are from I was a bit surprised. But the birds I have are active and growing like weeds, can't wait to get some nice eggs from them down the line.

auraconas don't have tails.  Americanas do, but not auraconas.

I recently ordered a few blue copper marans and olive egger hatching eggs from them and got a 100% hatch rate in my brinsea mini advance. Even after the long trip from Illinois to California. The chicks are active and healthy. I will order from them again next year.