Order Chickens Online?

I was just wondering about purchasing chickens from online sites. Is it bad to order them online, I've never done it before and was thinking of getting the newest additions to my flock from online. Any experience or advice would be appreciated, if it is bad to order online I'll probobly get them from the farmers market near me again.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with ordering chickens online. Unless you plan on buying show quality breeding birds, even the. Online may still be okay. I have ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery for many, many years now and have been pleased with the outcome each and every time. There are very few chick deaths upon arrival...I have never lost more than 2. Also, the quality of their laying birds is phenomenal! I won Grand Champion in brown egg production at my local fair with a pen of Rhode Island Reds, which were ordered online. So I would say ordering online is okay

I have ordered online from four different hatcheries, Murray McMurray Hatchery (http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html), Cackle Hatchery (http://cacklehatchery.com/), Ideal Poultry (http://idealpoultry.com/), and Dunlap Hatchery (http://dunlaphatchery.net/), and have been satisfied with the service and birds from all of them. I never lost more that a chick or two in shipping (never lost a single one from Dunlap), and the hatcheries always put two or three extras in the boxes, so I always got what I paid for.

15 from tractor supply (local, unknown supplier)
6 from st Elmo feed (local, they bought from ideal)
I ordered 4 bbb turkeys from ideal directly(they sent 9 day olds for warmth).

I've had zero loses and I'm happy with the free "will be meat" birds. Out of the 9 extras, 1 is a female red mix(keeper).

I have always ordered 25 or more when having them shipped, they travel much better in groups like that. As long as you want that many, it's a great way to get chicks that are good quality and reasonable prices. For smaller quantities, the price advantage is much less and the risk to the chicks is much higher, so I recommend local purchases for smaller amounts. This time of year, getting chicks anywhere is a little harder than in the spring.

I've placed about 13 or 14 orders this year. 3 from Cackle, 1 from Moyers Chicks, and the rest from Ideal - around 700 birds total. One order had several dead/dying birds, but that was due to the USPS putting A/C directly on them. Other than that I think I've only had one bird that arrived dead.

But do make sure you order at least 15 or 25 chicks. Most places won't ship less than 15. There are some of these places that will ship just 2 or 3, but a lot of people post on here (and other sites) that they have problems. It's just too much stress on the little guys to ship so few, both with little heat plus the stress of being knocked all around a box. Often they die in transit or soon after arriving.

If you only want just a few, you would be better getting something local. But if you do want 25, then by all means try out a hatchery. Ideal has some excellent sales each week - they've been having Surprise Special (whatever they have left at the end of the day) straight runs (unsexed, males and females) for 99 cents, and pullets (hens) for $1.50.

Dealfinder500 did you rescue those last minute special birds for $1.35 today from Ideal?

dheltzel said:

I have always ordered 25 or more when having them shipped, they travel much better in groups like that.

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X2 on 25 or more traveling better. I've never ordered less than 25 (some hatcheries won't even ship less), even when I didn't intend to keep that many. I always order pullets (with the exception of a Cornish X order), and have been able to recoup my money by selling off the extra pullets.

I ordered 15 Black Sex link pullet chicks last year from Hoffman and they were shipped from Ideal in TX. They will be a year old 8/27. They all arrived healthy and lively and there were no extras. I ordered 25 on my 2 orders from Ideal this year because they had such great advertised specials. Even 25 birds cannot keep each other warm enough if their environment is too cold and having more room in the box can be a good thing in the summer.

After my eight, four day old chicks turned out to be all roo's from a local poultry farmer, I turned to online ordering in late August. I'm hoping they will do better with the sexing as I am new to chicken keeping.

I ordered six female Easter Egger chicks from mypetchicken http://www.mypetchicken.com. I placed my order to be delivered September 9th. The one day old chicks arrived on the 9th and as I was struggling with the box, I tore a hole big enough, that one chick popped out on its own. All healthy (as of 9 days old) and cute as a buttons, they are.

Later, I found out it's a bit more expensive on the shipping compared to others, but they let me order only six chicks and females where still available, though limited. Whether I will get hens or roo's, and lay colored eggs, time will tell. I just checked their site and they are sold out through December.

Does anyone know who sells chicks all year round? I'm in Florida, so cold is not a problem. (Or do chickens not lay eggs during the winter months? The Tractor Supply Co. store here doesn't begin to sell until spring or at least that's what the cashier said.