Bad Experience w/IDEAL Poultry Hatchery: Normal Occurrence? - Page 2

YOU and I got ours from the same time and batch I think to remember. I got turkeys and 6 packing peanuts.

Find a hatchery that ships tens of thousands of chicks per day that DOESN'T have at least a few unhappy customers on these forums.  Good luck.

All 7 of my chicks were from Ideal. They are currently 9 weeks old, healthy, happy and doing well. I got them in May. I love my girls

Find a hatchery that ships tens of thousands of chicks per day that DOESN'T have at least a few unhappy customers on these forums.  Good luck.

I totally agree with this!  There ARE going to be unhappy ppl with any hatchery when it comes to this many ppl on a forum and like I said, my first two orders were all very healthy and I didn't lose even one   SO can't really say if it was Ideals fault at all.  They were all older (just before laying) when they died.  I wasn't anything that affected my other birds because everyone else is doing fine and they were all around the them.   I would prob order from them again though if I were to order from a hatchery because they do have a VERY good variety of chicks.

I've never had  a problem with Ideal ..  but I live in Texas so they are just "up the road" from me...

I ordered 50 cornish X 3 weeks ago and 8 arrived DOA with 4 more dying that didnt' make it through the night.  I called Ideal and told them, they immediately shipped 12 replacements that were very lively.  Remember that it is VERY hot in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, (pretty much everywhere right now).  There were no questions asked, they took my word for the losses, and shipped them immediately.  I would say this is excellent customer service.  They chicks are monsters right now, I've only lost 3 more.  The heat has been unbearable here for the last 2 weeks with no relief in sight.

In hindsight I would not order chicks during this time of year, this was the first time I have ordered chicks in the mail since living in Arkanasas.

Now, did your chicks have a disease?  Probably not, IMO, since the symptoms of heat exposure, dehydration, stress are weakness and inability to eat or drink on their own.

Also, my opinion is the handling that they get AFTER the hatchery.  Unfortunately this is a whole other discussion regarding the postal service that is very difficult to overcome in the extreme weather conditions that we are experiencing.

Bottom line:  Very happy with Ideal Poulty, have ordered several times from them, will order again.

I ordered from them this year and got them in MAy . I ordered three different types of chickens. They all arrived fine. So far, they are all very healthy
and have grown very fast. They seem bigger than ones we ordered from other places. They all turned out well. I have had a great experience with them. They even sent extras. I asked for no males. The extras were all pullets!

I love Ideal also.

I am sorry you had such a bad experience, and I am wondering if it could be heat related.

I have been getting chicks that originate from Ideal for years and have not seen or heard of disease, however, I have noticed that some chicks appear to be small and not as thrifty when they arrive.  Not sure I blame Ideal on that though.   
I live about 40 miles from the hatchery, but since I work, I have the chicks mailed to me or order from the feed store and I still get what seems to be travel stressed chicks.  The chicks appear to be packed correctly.  These chicks are in the box one day and night and I pick them up at 7am, so I can imagine what it would do for them any further.  I lost 4 out of 15 Delawares I ordered through the feed store this year.  Also, out of the surviving 11, 2 are roos.  I bought 60 total this year and have nine roos.  The percentages used to be much better.

Mine were ordered in Feb but now the weather is incredibly hot, over 100 degrees for 30 days, 10+ days consecutive, I can only imagine how warm it may get in the boxes.  Not real sure how well they are treated on the trip either, as short as my trip is I still have boxes come that are bent.  A friend had 40 birds shipped from McMurray and ended up with 16 alive.  They were all credited, but it also means you have different age chicks to re-order.  My home raised chicks always thrive much better but do not go through the travel time.
I am wondering if it would help if Ideal would include Gro Gel in the boxes, to me it stands to reason that some of the chicks could have hatched a little early and are arriving empty. 

All said and done, I will order again from Ideal, but I plan to drive to the hatchery and pick the chicks up.  Everyone around here seems to be happy with them.

I agree, I like Ideal. I've ordered from them once and it worked out good. All healthy chicks and I got 2 goslings too