California Hatchery

I would consider using www.efowl.com for chicks. They may not ship small orders of fowl, but their costs are much lower and their better business bureau comments are great. They also answer phones and emails almost immediately and are quite friendly. They dont ship out of the contiguous united states though! Sorry Alaskan and Hawaiian compatriots!

OnTheSunnyside said:

Did you intentionally order a Cornish cross, or did the hatchery ship the wrong bird?

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The hatchery shipped the wrong bird. They were all supposed to be just egg layers

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Mollie4dogs said:

I'm sort of confused... I see that most of the posts say don't order from California Hatcheries, and yet there are a few posts of successful happy customers.

I was considering ordering from them, but now I'm on the fence. I'm located near the Central Valley (Three Rivers) and thought that it would be more convenient to order from a company that is within this state and relatively close to where I am. I chose them as a potential supplier since they have a small minimum and I wanted to get several varieties of chicks that were sexed.

Can anyone here recommend another company that is reliable and also doesn't require one to order 50 chicks at a time. I'm still a bit of a newbie, so any suggestions are gladly appreciated.

--Mollie

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Our other 3 chickens are great but look them up. They are being investigated for abuse, so I will never buy from them again

Wow, that is interesting. I heard that the state of California is cracking down on abuse, especially with the commercial hatcheries and growers. It's so easy to order online, so it's tempting to do so. But to be honest, I'd rather meet the folks I would buy chickens from, especially from folks who just raise them for the joy and love of raising chickens. My current flock came from a large chicken farm in Tulare county- and it took me a couple of weeks to tame them, although there was one hen who was so sweet right from the start. I would imagine that these large production companies are in it for the money and will subject their animals to whatever conditions will allow them more sales- specifically overcrowding.

Plus, a lot of online vendors have large minimums. One can't just order a few- it's generally a lot more than I want to fulfill their minimum order. I'm aware of "chicken math" although my love of chickens has become an obsession, LOL.

But as of this point, I hope to find chickens from members here or at the Stockton County Fair in January.

gummybear24 said:

They are being investigated for abuse, so I will never buy from them again

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I would certainly like a reference for this allegation.

I am not affiliated with California Hatchery and did some research for a potential order. I found no accusations for a company called California Hatchery.

I did find articles stating that a California hatchery, named Cal-Cruz Hatcheries in Santa Cruz, California, had been sued in California Superior Court for animal abuse. This hatchery sells or sold chicks to poultry companies raising chickens for meat. However, there is no apparent affiliation between Cal-Cruz Hatcheries and California Hatchery.

There may be other reasons not to order from California Hatchery, such as they apparently do not have a location that one can visit. They are listed as being located in Yucaipa, California, but their other contact information is in Vallejo, California (the 530 telephone number). They have one Better Business Bureau complaint regarding a delivery issue that has been closed. They have 3 unfavorable Yelp reviews (including one rant from someone incredulous that the USPS would accept live animals for shipping through the mail). However, even local hatcheries that specialize in hand-raising chicks on a small scale have unfavorable Yelp reviews.

If this company is guilty of abuse, then certainly that would be an excellent reason to avoid them; however, if these accusations are because of mistaken identity, then that certainly would be unfair. I think that their 3 chick minimum as well as the variety of breeds they offer would be a desirable option for some people.

I ended up ordering chicks from California Hatchery in late January. They are one of the few that have a small minimum order and a good variety of chickens available. I don't know about accusations of abuse- I should think that if it were the case, they would shut them down? I'm still new to chickens more or less- but sometimes even ordering from an individual breeder can run into issues, especially when chicks are sent via USPS. What I do know is that I can't be ordering 20 chicks- I don't have the room nor the ability to take care of that many. I've paid my money to them and hopefully they will ship me my chicks. Yes, I'm taking a chance but I'd like to be optimistic about this company. The more and more I network, I'm finding new sources for chicks of a variety I'm interested in. So, fingers crossed... maybe I'll regret having done this, or maybe not. We'll see.

I'm late to this post, but I ordered 4 chicks from California Hatchery and I had no problems. I placed my order in August of 2014 and they said they would hatch on 10/20/14 and ship the next day. My chicks arrived on 10/21 happy and healthy.