Cedar Creek Hatchery in Twin Lake, MI

I would be very interested in knowing what others think about these breeders. I have some issues with them. I am praying this situation resolves itself.

Firstly, a year or two ago I had a conversation with the woman/owner who claimed they sex their chicks by "feather sexing". She absolutely proclaimed to me that she had a chat with Townline Hatchery in Zeeland and they had told her that is how they sex their chicks. I am absolutely certain that Townline does not sex by feathers. I have also spoken to Townline about their sexing of chicks, and I got an entirely different story from Townline. I do believe there are SOME sex linked breeds of chickens that can be sexed by feathers at hatch, but by no means does that rule apply to all chicks, and this grinds me. To this day this urban myth prevails. Feather sexing IS NOT by any means a reliable method of sexing chicks, UNLESS those chicks are certain sex link varieties. And people continue to believe that there is some mystical easy way to sex chicks. The ONLY truly reliable method of sexing a chick at hatch is by vent sexing and even that is not 100 % reliable, but it is a whole lot more reliable that "feather sexing", unless you are specifically speaking about specific breeds bred for feather sexing.

So that day that I spoke with her I felt I had been lied to. On subsequent attempts to visit their farm, I was turned down. Once she told me that I would probably not be able to get any of the chicks I wanted from them because they could get more money for the eggs selling them online. I was like... REALLY????

Not much for customer service.

I wonder how many years of experience these people have?

I wonder what other peoples experience with them have been? Will an order from them give the sort of show quality birds they are proclaiming they have to offer?

I really want to know what others experiences have been? I have seen several posts here about what great people these folks are but one thread also pointed out that this hatchery shares the same name as hatcheries in at least two other states, so there was some question about whether the threads were addressing the folks in Twin Lake Mi?

Has anyone gotten more roosters from these folks than hens when they have ordered only hens?

This note is from someone who has raised, hatched and been in the poultry industry for well over twenty years. I don't get on here very often because I am not necesarily interested in chatting about how cute this bird is vs. that bird and what I have got vs. what you have got. I prefer to get down the facts and this is much more than just a hobby for us here.

Having done a bit of research on this... I see they are rated and "F" at the Better Business Bureau and I see a very negative comment on their services on google. Will be happy to provide the links. Am not trying to "dis" these folks, just want to get to the bottom line... Do they know what they are doing or not? So far I am not seeing much evidence to support their business.

Anyone?

bump, bump

Hi--since you're asking I'll give you the summary of my relationship with Cedar Creek this year.
This is my first time ordering from them, been a couple of years since I've gotten chicks and have almost always gone to Meyer Hatchery to pick up hatchery chicks, otherwise, only mail ordered once in the past. I liked their website, their selection/variety and I did get a response within 48 hours when I was asking for more details. I had also seen some decent reviews about them so I went ahead and ordered for a late March hatching.

I know that the feather sexing was not considered 100% reliable BUT I chose to pay a little extra with the hopes that they would take a little extra time to check the chicks out and at least attempt to determine the gender. I know I took the gamble, they did post that the accuracy rate was not guaranteed right up front so I'm thinking it's a 'buyer beware' situation. For me, I was simply hoping to increase the odds of not having to sell/rehome unwanted cockerals.

My order was to be for 10 BCM's for a March hatch date...the earliest available date was a month later but he generously offered to substitute a combo of Wheaten and Blue Copper Marans instead, for the same price (BCM's were cheaper than the others...I didn't realize that at the time though, until he offered to sub. them). Very fair offer, so i took him up on it.

My order was: 10 Blue Copper and Wheaten Marans--pullets, 5 Ameraucanas--pullets, and 5 Bluebell Super Layers--pullets= 20 chicks
I received 22 chicks, lost one on the second night so ended up with 21 healthy chicks so far, now 10 weeks old.

What I think I ended up with:
8 BlueCM's--soo far looks like four cockerals. Three copper heads and one splash cockeral, two appear to be copper headed blue pullets, one all blue pullet and one copper headed blue pullet without feathered legs (the rest all have feathers). So...not a good track record on them as far as the "feathered sexing" goes--very disappointing as I have to try to sell them to recoup some of the cost, but I assumed that risk and was very optimistic when I placed the order. No deception or misleading on their end. I just want more girls, and personally do not like having to get rid of unwanted boys--not my strong point.

1 Wheaten Marans--Beautiful pullet

The (5) "Ameraucana's" appear to be Easter Eggers---legs are not slate or grey, there are four green and one yellow legged chick.
Jury is out on gender (I just posted last night under "What Gender or Breed am I?" thread, complete with pics, if you're curious).
Looks like maybe two are boys...still not certain of any of them. One of them has pretty severe outside toe deformity with the outer toes on both feet curling quite noticeably, and he/she is sort of a 'slow' bird, compared to the others---not terribly active, seems like the elevator doesn't go to the top floor with this one. Other than that, they are pretty cool looking birds--again wish they were all girls and that they were really Ameracaunas as I wanted truly blue eggs...but don't think they are.

Lastly, the Bluebells...have at least two roos (one already trying to crow), possible three--mostly white with teensy splash markings, then a black pulet and maybe a blueish pullet.

So, bottom line--I might have seven cockerals out of 21 birds...not the best return on my extra cost, but too late to do anything about that. Quality of birds...I'm not an expert so no clue on breed standards, nor do I need to know. I want pretty, healthy, egg layers with a couple nice ones for my dd's county fair production project. I'm still faced with the task of getting rid of the boys, once I know who is what, but unless I went to a bigger hatchery (such as Meyer, who I do like a lot), I'd have to do that regardless. Assumed risk.
I do wish I knew exactly which bird was which breed--sound stupid I know, but with two types of 'blue' breeding (resulting in blue, black, splash) and the mishmash of EE's with no true standard on them it's been a challenge to say the least! That's why the numbers don't add up to 21...I get them confused. I resorted to photographing all of them, creating a folder for each breed I think each chick belongs to and sorting from there. That's why I only have 39 birds....not 1000's.

Business wise--I won't judge them yet. My chicks arrived healthy (with one the one mortality the second night...unknown why..think Wheaten Marans) I hope to send them a note with request for added info on breeds I ended up with for clarification, otherwise, water over the dam.
Good luck in your search for other input. That's all I have.

Hi DelcoChix,

Thanks so much for your input! Very much appreciate your thoughts! 7 out of 21 is high, but not really too bad, honestly, considering that no vent sexing is done at Cedar Creek. I hope you get some really nice birds you are delighted with. That is the fun of it !

My chicks are only going on three weeks now, so hard to tell if there are roosters, but I am betting on it. Also, it may be too early, but the barred rocks appear to be developing dingy gray/dingy gray barring, in contrast to the photos I saw on Cedar Creek Hatcheries website. The only reason I purchased them was because the pictures of their birds look like truly beautiful birds, so I am hoping the adult feathers are nice, but not very hopeful.

Truthfully, I am wishing we had ordered elsewhere but as we were ordering so late in the spring it was the only place that had French Copper Marans available.

They still owe us 13 chicks. Three weeks later, no more chicks are forthcoming. I do believe their website suggests that pick up orders are given the lowest priority, so now, not only am I out of the shipping charge, because we did pay for shipping, I am also out of thirteen chicks I paid for. My best advice is to avoid these folks at all cost!

strawberryfields said:

They still owe us 13 chicks. Three weeks later, no more chicks are forthcoming. I do believe their website suggests that pick up orders are given the lowest priority, so now, not only am I out of the shipping charge, because we did pay for shipping, I am also out of thirteen chicks I paid for. My best advice is to avoid these folks at all cost!

 

Click to expand...

I live 30-40 minutes away and I had inquired about some BCMs. I only wanted to add one or two with my other chicks. Their response was that they give priority to online shipped orders and they never have any left over for pickup.

The thing is, we made our order online, and we paid for shipping. There really is no reason for them not to full fill the order - I am not asking for extra chicks. I have never ever had any problems with any other hatchery that comes close to this. I don't know if I should tell them I expect a refund for the shipping and chicks or if I should just let it go. But I will tell you this: I will get the word out about my experience with them.

That's a shame that you have had such a bad experience with them. Did you place an order that they have only partially filled? Is that why you have chicks from them that are three weeks old and then you're still waiting on others? What a pain--just trying to brood two separate batches and then integrating them later...geez.

I like the chicks I have but have to admit I'm somewhat confused on exactly what I have. At 10 weeks I'd hoped I'd be a little clearer by now! Part of the confusion comes from ordering 'blue' birds because of course they don't all come blue...I have (supposedly) 5 BlueBells..but really I think one is blue, one black, and three look and act like Leghorns except they are all splash--very pretty but pretty flighty, two splash cockerals and one splash pullet I believe. They're supposed to be a cross between RIR and a Marans (Black or Blue Copper?)....anyways, neat looking but wish I knew exactly which was which.

I'd originally wanted BCM's but he offered to substitute Wheaten and Blue Coppers since he wouldn't have BCM's for another month, so that was fine...problem is I (silly me) thought I'd get 5 of each breed/color...not.
I think I have 3 Black Copper cockerals...one Blue Copper cockeral, 2 really cute Blue Copper pullets...one Blue pullet...all feathered, and then one Blue Copper pullet with no feathers on legs. Oh yeah...one Blue Splash cockeral (with a tinge of reddish on his neck...so maybe Wheaten?) who is mostly white with blue splashes...and only ONE pretty Wheaten pullet.
Hoped for more Wheatens...and 50% pullet ratio here. Do you need a pretty Marans cockeral? I've got plenty and want none....
Sigh.
Live and learn I guess....best of luck with wrapping up your business with them.