Mt Healthy Hatchery - Page 2

Yes, that might help, if it can be told w/o breaking the BYC rules.

Might help others in future.

Local Farmers Co-op orders from Mt. Healthy, and swears by them. Local Agway, however, orders from another reputable hatchery which you might telephone. It is Clearview Stock Farm. David Hartman runs the place. And note, someone I spoke with AT MT. HEALTHY said that Clearview 'is a reputable hatchery'. They too will send shipments as small as 15 birds, like the Mount, and unlike Murray McMurray which has a minimum of 25 per order. Good luck

i had good luck with mt.healthy but i pick them up at the hatchery kenny

We bought 26 Mt Healthy chicks thru the feed store two and half years ago. As of now the only ones I have lost have been to roaming dogs. Well, except for the one BO Roo that was on the mean side.

At this age with 13 that could be laying I am averaging about 7-8 xl eggs a day. Not too bad for "older" hens.

I have BO, RIR, EE, & BR from them.

Angela

I ordered from Mr. Healthy back in July.  I needed to change shipping dates, so I called them. They gave me a new date the very next week.  When the chicks didn't come, I called them right away.  They said there had been a mix up and asked me if I still wanted them or whether I wanted to cancel.  I cancelled, not because they were not a good place, but because I just wasn't going to be home at the time they could ship out new ones.  Anyway, these people were VERY NICE and UNDERSTANDING.  Even though it was there mistake, they were not defensive and in fact said they would do whatever I wanted done about the whole mess. I will definitely try and order from them again.  Everyone I have ever dealt with thinks Mt. Healthy is very good and the birds I have seen coming from there are really nice looking. 

I really don't expect people to be perfect, but it is great when they just admit a mistake and then fix it.  I have also had positive experiences with Ideal and McM.  Maybe, I've just been lucky.  Who knows?

My chickens (8 BR pullets, 6 RIR pullets, and 3 RIR roosters) all came from Mt. Hatchery, via a reputable and long-time feed store here in Aiken, SC.  We lost two of the BR pullets very young, but it was our mistake and not due to any health issues (we had not realized they could escape from the brooder already and one of my dogs got the first two brave little souls).  They are about 8 weeks old now and I am very pleased.  They all have great temperaments and personalities (my avatar is of one of the cockerels sitting on my head).

Here is a picture of Grady, one of the cockerels, at 8 wks.  The flash makes him look lighter than he really is, though he is the lighter of my three cockerels.

We started our flock with Mt Healthy Hatchery chicks purchased through a local retailer.
Their minimum purchase was 25 birds with a guarantee of healthy birds, delivered live.

We special-ordered because we wanted straight run hens and heritage breed, dual purpose birds. We have 11 Black Australorpes and 13 Buff Orpingtons.

One Black Australorpe chick didn't make it through shipping. Another of the Australorpes had a missing toe defect that we didn't notice until they were several weeks old. We've received credit for both of them, but that won't be applied until/if we decide to purchase another flock from them. Of the remaining birds, we've discovered that one of our Buff Orpington girls "Sue" (short for sumo because 'she' was so big) is actually a roo. No credit for him.

Overall, we are pleased with the service and would use them again. I understand that they work towards a 90% accuracy rate for sexing newly hatched birds. We actually expected to lose more birds than we have due to natural causes. Other than the one that didn't survive shipping all of the birds have thrived (especially Sue!). We've had no disease problems. They have done well with 100+ degree summer weather, and we expect to see our first eggs within the next month or so.

Our local TSC sells chicks from Mt. Healthy, and I have a bunch of them.  They are all healthy, but quite a few of them are not what the sign said.  We bought straight run on the  Australorps, but they are mixed with something.  All of the roosters have yellow necks, with patches of white, brown and gold on the black body.  None of the hens are solid black either, and many of them look like EE's.  The Ameracana's we got were all EE's.  The golden comets we got are not golden comets, but have yellow and white bars like a barred rock with black flecks on the neck and back, and they are all ROOSTERS.  Many of the barred rocks have lots of brown on them, and one is actually brown and black barred.  I don't know if the our TSC got stuck with all the mutts or what.  Then there is the Mt. Healthy salmonella scare which I asked our local TSC about a couple weeks ago, and they say they are not going to be carrying any birds from Mt. Healthy this fall. 

Now our White Rocks, Leghorns, and Red Sex-links all seem okay. 

I'm not trying to sway anyone on whether to buy or not.  But I never will buy from TSC or Mt. Healthy again.  I just don't feel I can trust either one enough to get what I want.

My stock is from Mt Healthy.  I have been breeding it.  My chickens blog dates from the first buy from Mt Healthy.  Link in sig and I just updated it also with new chicks pics that I bred out of thier stock.

Personally, I have never been disappointed with the stock I have gotten from Mt. Healthy. I can't say that about a few of the other hatcheries I've dealt with though. I don't expect to get show quality birds from any hatchery, but just big, productive birds. That's what I've always gotten from Mt. Healthy. Here's a few of my pullets I got from them this spring.







Orange Ribbon,
Could the "Australorps" actually be Black Sex links? Do you have any pictures of them? I would love to see pictures of the yellow and white barreds  and the brown and black barred.  I don't think I've ever seen a brown and black barred. They sound pretty neat!

I have a couple of pictures, but not of the brown and black barred.  I'll try to remember to get some tomorrow.  But here are pictures of an "Australorp" rooster and another of the white and yellow barred ones.





Here is a close up of the barred one.  This when they were younger before the sickle feathers started growing out.  I ended up with four of them!  They are kind of cool looking, but I guess they will be going to the freezer soon along with the other ten that look like the one in the first picture.  Oh, and one of the brown and black barred rocks is a rooster too, so he will also be dinner fare before long.