Hatcheries

Thanks for the replies. I try to get my birds from local breeders when I can but there are a few breeds I can't find anyone selling around here like partridge brahmas, rouen ducks, or bourbon red turks.
 
Wow, after reading all of this forum, I suppose a lot of us have learned a hard lesson. Do not order chicks in the middle of winter, especially this past one, unless the hatchery is very close to you. The chicks just cannot take that cold and we cannot trust the postal service whether our town is large or small. Can understand you want them laying by spring time and all that, but it's just not worth it. Wouldn't order any before the end of February.

With that being said, would think Tractor Supply gets them from a hatchery, so the little things are handled more times over. Best to pay shipping and get healthy birds.

McMurray has always been good to us over 10 years or so, also Metzers and Meyers. Depends where you live, we always try to get as close as possible, but this year everyone is short on chicks, even the local hardware/farm stores have people lining up outside on chick day at the crack of dawn. People must have lost a lot with this brutal winter and more are getting into having backyarders. Plus when you have all the holidays falling in there, Valentines, spring breaks, Easter, the demand on the hatcheries is high.

Please take note, having a HUGE issue with The Poultry Hatchery, you can read about it on that forum another started a week ago, so would advise you NOT to order from them, ever. Just a beware...

Good luck everyone with your new babies, expecting mine this week, will be nice and warm in the sunroom and should not have to use brood lights at all as the wood stove is still pumpin' out heat. Works every year. Will be getting guineas as ticks are so very bad already, and some RI Reds, hopefully will have a nice rooster out of the 2 boys, we lost ours almost 2 years ago and miss him tons. Enjoy your babies, and remember the hard journey these tiny creatures have to endure (or not) in the winter, no matter where you live. And yes, packing peanuts are excess roos always. So enjoy your Sunday roasts! Take care all, anyone want to talk to me about the poultry hatchery, feel free to pm me.
 
Thanks for the replies. I try to get my birds from local breeders when I can but there are a few breeds I can't find anyone selling around here like partridge brahmas, rouen ducks, or bourbon red turks.
Sally sunshine has Partidge Brahma eggs if your willing to hatch she is very reputable so her birds would be healthy therefore the eggs would result in healthy chicks
 
the only advantage is you know what the chicks have been exposed to etc..no stress as they aren't just born and sent through the mail..and then you can swap eggs on here with your own etc which for just postage you get a new breed or new blood lines..and if you have children ( i have 5)
they grasp death..because some chicks will fully form and not hatch so they get it that death is forever, and don't dwell on it because even if you have 2 out of 20 eggs you still have 2 new happy babies they focus on..
 
Anyone had any experience with Cackle Hatchery? Do they have good, healthy chicks?
And I saw one post approving of McMurray. Anyone else have any experience with them?
I ordered from McMurray last year in August. I really probably only needed 8. but their minimum was 15. I went with the rainbow layers bargain and added two extra EE to make sure I got a couple plus their free chick. All 18 arrived healthy. I lost one at about a week-- failure to thrive kinda thing. It was happy and healthy until suddenly it was not and all the others were huge compared to it. I expected loss… in fact, being my first time, I expected MORE loss to the point that I was sure I would end up with my original goal of 8. Right now, 8 months later, I have 15 laying hens and one rooster free ranging in my orchard. My only other loss was on Christmas day, to a hawk. If I needed 15+ chickens, I would look to McMurray first :)

My only negative is more of a learning experience on my end--- being that I ordered their bargain, I could not control what went into it. I ended up very leghorn heavy. In the future (and the future is now, because I have 10 coming from Ideal on Wednesday) I will choose exactly what breeds I want. My egg basket is a little colorless with only one brown egg layer in the bunch!
 
My flock is the opposite with all of mine laying brown eggs. For Easter I came to the realization that I'm going to need to add some white egg layers if I want to have eggs for my future children to dye :)
 
Very funny!! Last Easter, before we had chickens, we were dying some eggs with some people camping next to us. They forgot about dying eggs and brought the brown eggs that they always use with them. I was quite impressed with the colors. It seemed like they dyed darker and almost more vibrant than the whites!! It could have been the type of dye used, but if I would have had more than one brown egg in my carton I would have tried it again!
 

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