Ideal Poultry v.s. Meyer Hatchery

Sweet Coastal said:

I was holding off posting this hoping Meyers would make it right. My family and I have been anxiously awaiting our 17 chics from Meyers. I tracked them all the way here and even called he post office to make sure I could get them as soon as they got in. They were delivered last Thursday to the post office. 16 DOA and the last one died within 3 hours. I know when ordering shipped birds some loss is inevitable. We were devastated to say the least. We called Meyers as soon as they opend to inform them of what happened. I belive it was the post office who mishandled them but still thought Meyers would make it right. They informed us they would replace the chicks next week. I wasn't even sure I could go through this again but decided it was probably just a fluke and I would try again. We lied to our kids trying to save them from the pain and informed them the chicks would be arriving a week late. Meyers informed us to call Today to make sure they had all the correct chicks for the order. When we called they were out of almost all of our chicks and would not be sending replacement. We could have a credit and keep checking the site if we wanted. This was a appalling response to me. They had chicks that were the breeds we ordered but wound up selling them all before they replaced ours. You would think they would replace the damaged birds before filling new orders. Hey did refund my money but honestly this in no way made me feel any better. I had to come home and tell my kids that we were not going to get our chicks that we had been waiting months for. My daughter has been taking pictures of the chicks to show and tell for weeks and is now devistated. I will never order from them again and wanted to share my experience with all. I understand that accidents happen but Meyers should have made this right.

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See post #38 and others following that on this thread to see my experience with Meyer. Also keep in mind that My Pet Chicken is a satellite of Meyer Hatchery.

Thank you Sweet Coastal. Since that experience I have ordered chicks from reputable breeders only. I have not lost a single chick during shipping since then either. I don't know what breeds you were looking for but I've bought several different breeds from Greenfire farms and have been very happy with them. I have mostly bought them on the rare breed auction site, where you can usually get a much better price than ordering directly from Greenfire. Just be careful when you bid that greenfire is the seller. Several others sell birds there with similar postings that say they are greenfire lines, and I cannot vouch for them. I'm sure that there are other quality breeders on that site, but I have only bought from Greenfire. I hope this is helpful.

rooboo said:

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Thank you Sweet Coastal. Since that experience I have ordered chicks from reputable breeders only. I have not lost a single chick during shipping since then either. I don't know what breeds you were looking for but I've bought several different breeds from Greenfire farms and have been very happy with them. I have mostly bought them on the rare breed auction site, where you can usually get a much better price than ordering directly from Greenfire. Just be careful when you bid that greenfire is the seller. Several others sell birds there with similar postings that say they are greenfire lines, and I cannot vouch for them. I'm sure that there are other quality breeders on that site, but I have only bought from Greenfire. I hope this is help

Thanks I just found out about GFF. I have 2 new Bielefelders that are from the Greenfire line. I will only Order locally or from them now. They are in fl also so that helps. I have been On rarebreeauction also it does have good prices! I'm just kinda scared to have them shipped. I guess I'll get over it eventually. I have only heard great stuff about them. I'm glad there is a place to post our bad experiences. Thanks for your response. That's crazy about your birds!

I actually have some Isbars coming from them tomorrow. I'm in Wisconsin and the chicks usually arrive in one day from Florida. Even over last winter the chicks arrived in excellent condition.

I realize this thread was last posted in about 3 months ago, but I didn't see anything in the rules about necroposting, and just wanted to briefly share my experience. Wouldn't bother with Meyer. I ordered the 25 rainbow pullet pack from them a year ago. Got 2 extras, so 27 total. (9 White Rocks, 4 Buff Orps, 5 RIRs, 4 BRs, 3 SLWs, and 2 Silver-laced Polish.) Of the original 27, I'm left with 4. YES..4!! They started dying a week after they got here and I lost one like clockwork every few days, until they were 4.5 months old. The remaining 4 (1 BR, 1 SLW, and 2 WRs) are now a month shy of a year old. I contacted Meyer about the insane loss and they gave me store credit, not a refund, for a whole 2 of the 23 lost...a whopping $3.98. They can take that and shove it. I'm never ordering from them again. The Rocks turned out decent quality (the BR isn't as dark as my others from other sources, she had me convinced she was a roo for months), but the SLW is so ugly. Well, she's one of my feather babies, so she's lovely to me, but you'd hardly even know she's a SLW from looking at her. Her lacing is awful, she's small and thin, and overall puny looking. All of them have flighty/non-personable attitudes, but the SLW is the worst. I can't even catch her. Her name is Nervy (nervous).
I don't have an updated pic handy, but this is Nervy at about 4 months old. She honestly hasn't changed at all. Just barely bigger. "Lacing" still looks the exact same.


As for Ideal, I'm waiting to find out. Just ordered a load from them, due to ship March 23 (same day hubby gets home from deployment after being away 5 months! yay happy day!). 3 straight run each of Spangled Cornish bantam, WLR Cornish bantam, Red Pyle Moderns, Silver Blue Moderns, Silver Sebrights, WFB Spanish bantams, Porcelain D'uccles, Assorted Frizzle Cochins, Mottled Cochins, Light Brahma bantams, Buff Laced Polish, Silver Laced Polish, Naked Necks, Speckled Sussex, and Silver Campines. Wait-listed Hamburgs, Spitzhaubens, Brabanters, Lakenvelders and Dorkings. Hoping not too many of these die off, since there's only 3 of each...

I heard from a friend of mine who also has chickens nearby that some attorney in the area is attempting to file a lawsuit against Meyer for getting carriers of Mareks from them. Supposedly his property had never had chickens on it before. I would like to restate that My Pet Chicken is (one that I know of) part of Meyer also, so beware them also.

I had bad luck with Meyer hatchery ordered 25 and it was cold and they for got to put the heat packs in the box. Ended up with 5. 16 were dead on arrival. I ordered 2 females and male of each one of the breeds I ordered. It was a mess they told my they would replace what was lost. But how could I tell what I had left male /females and what breed. Got my credit back but srill got the raw end of the deal.Never would I recommend Meyer to anyone. Hope this helps.