Best hatchery for SOP birds?

[RememberTheWay]

***EDITED TO SAY I AM VERY AWARE THAT HATCHERYS DO NOT BREED SOP birds. My question was to find out which hatchery had better stock not which hatchery has SOP stock. I'm aware they are infamous for breeding birds that don't fit the standard. But it also impossible to find certain breeds in my area. Also private breeders are not always perfect either. I haven't been able to find certain breeds in my area at all let alone to the standard. I have to start somewhere, right? So what I'm trying to do is find stock with the least amount of problems to start with. Hope this clear up the confusion.


Curious to hear about everyones experiences with certain hatcheries and the quality of birds they got from them for SOP. Also curious about vitamins vigor. I am In the middle Tennessee area and just ordered from Meyers. It hasn't been great. I've already lost ten of 48 chicks. And have a feeling a few more will pass as well. I would like to attempt to replace the ones I've lost but would like to get decent chicks and ones that are strong.

I would like to know who people have ordered from and how long your chicks traveled to get to you. I believe that Meyers is 7.5 hrs from me, the chicks were in the mail on Monday and I received them Wednesday. The bantam passed shortly after its arrival. I thought it was dead on arrival but it wasn't and I was unsuccessful to save it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not blaming Meyers. I think maybe something happened in transit. But I'm not sure. They also chose not to put in a heat pack and packaged favorolles (know. For being fragile) and one late hatch bantam in with full size strong chicks. I think that probably played a part as well. Personally I would not have put the bantam in and would have packaged the favorolles in their own compartment. But that's me. I also think hatcheries should feed the chicks before they leave. It would make them stronger for shipping.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hatcheries breed for quantity, not quality. If you want birds that meet a standard, look for actual breeders

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Hatcheries don't breed for quality. I have found much better quality with breeders who are breeding to SOP.
I have been able to work with a great breeder who i will be getting more eggs to hatch from. Her chickens are all bred to SOP.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Hatcheries breed for quantity, not quality. If you want birds that meet a standard, look for actual breeders

I'm aware of this. The question was to figure out which hatchery had better stock which helps me to not have to correct as many things

 

[SourRoses]

So sorry to hear about your babies, that's always hard

No hatcheries have what you're asking for.
By the very nature of the industry, hatchery birds are poorer quality, except for egg laying (numbers, not egg size or color).

If you get particular on a specific breed, you can find that one hatchery has slightly better birds than another. Some have even started with quite good stock from breeders. But the longer they are in charge of maintaining the lines, the worse they get.

If I had to pick a hatchery, I'd probably go with Cackle.

We tried to start our long ago flock of Speckled Sussex with hatchery stock, thinking we could breed for better. But the chicks produced didn't offer anything better than their parents. Small eggs, small hens, mean roosters. All very consistent.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Are you aware that hatcheries don't really ship direct to you? I mean the distance from the hatchery to you, as far as how long it takes you to get there, is irrelevant. Shipments go to central locations or hubs like, say, Chicago, where they are redistributed to another location nearer you (St. Louis in my case) and then get closer and closer until they end up at your place. That's why it may take up to three days for your chicks to reach you.

As far as feeding the chicks, they don't need to. Chicks can survive on the yolk they're absorbing for up to 72 hours, which is why shipping is even possible. They typically won't eat for a couple of days even if you hatch them at home.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Curious to hear about everyones experiences with certain hatcheries and the quality of birds they got from them for SOP. Also curious about vitamins vigor. I am In the middle Tennessee area and just ordered from Meyers. It hasn't been great. I've already lost ten of 48 chicks. And have a feeling a few more will pass as well. I would like to attempt to replace the ones I've lost but would like to get decent chicks and ones that are strong.

I would like to know who people have ordered from and how long your chicks traveled to get to you. I believe that Meyers is 7.5 hrs from me, the chicks were in the mail on Monday and I received them Wednesday. The bantam passed shortly after its arrival. I thought it was dead on arrival but it wasn't and I was unsuccessful to save it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not blaming Meyers. I think maybe something happened in transit. But I'm not sure. They also chose not to put in a heat pack and packaged favorolles (know. For being fragile) and one late hatch bantam in with full size strong chicks. I think that probably played a part as well. Personally I would not have put the bantam in and would have packaged the favorolles in their own compartment. But that's me. I also think hatcheries should feed the chicks before they leave. It would make them stronger for shipping.

Are you aware that hatcheries don't really ship direct to you? I mean the distance from the hatchery to you, as far as how long it takes you to get there, is irrelevant. Shipments go to central locations or hubs like, say, Chicago, where they are redistributed to another location nearer you (St. Louis in my case) and then get closer and closer until they end up at your place. That's why it may take up to three days for your chicks to reach you.

As far as feeding the chicks, they don't need to. Chicks can survive on the yolk they're absorbing for up to 72 hours, which is why shipping is even possible. They typically won't eat for a couple of days even if you hatch them at home.

Yes you are absolutely correct a chick can survive on that yolk uptake. But that isn't what it was intended for and there is a huge difference in survival and thriving. If you would like to take a look at the research that backs up better quality stronger birds if they are fed sooner I'm more then happy to provide it. My point in bringing up this topic at all was to point out that for birds being shipped, which is stressful on them period, if they qere set up for success before leaving the hatchery by feeding them then the hatcheries would prevent a lot of unnecessary losses.

And yes, I'm aware they don't go directly to me. My point in putting that information was to get an idea of how far other people were from the hatchery they ordered from to see if it compares. I am aware that shipping time matters when it comes to chicks. I can't compare my experience to some one who ordered from a hatchery four hrs way and it took one day. The other reason for bringing that up was to look at the average trip chicks were taking and the rte of deaths comparably. If everyone's chicks are fine from one state away but half of them die when it's two states, that's something I wanted to take into consideration when I order again, IF I order again. Which I'm probably not going to.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be critical. I was just trying to pass on information I thought you might not be aware of. I've ordered from both in state and out of state hatcheries, and to my surprise it seems to take chicks three days to reach me in any case (I do live in a very rural environment). Most arrive in great shape. The only exceptions have been a) in the event of a freak blizzard and b) when shipping was delayed due to a holiday. In neither case was the hatchery at fault (different hatcheries) and in both cases, the hatchery sent me a replacement order at no cost to me. I've had great results from virtually every hatchery I've ordered from.

 

[Major_in_MS]

I also think hatcheries should feed the chicks before they leave. It would make them stronger for shipping.

I read somewhere, I can't remember the source and I can not find it now, that once you begin feeding your day old chicks, you must provide food and water because the chicks metabolism shifts away from the absorbed yolk to dietary intake. If this is true, then feeding them before shipping might actually do much more harm than good. I wish I could remember where I read that. Maybe someone else can provide more information.

 

[SourRoses]

I read somewhere, I can't remember the source and I can not find it now, that once you begin feeding your day old chicks, you must provide food and water because the chicks metabolism shifts away from the absorbed yolk to dietary intake. If this is true, then feeding them before shipping might actually do much more harm than good. I wish I could remember where I read that. Maybe someone else can provide more information.

Once they eat, they need water. And their little digestive systems start working so they need to eat more.
Water is near impossible to provide in a shipping box.
They used to use GrowGel, basically a vitamin sugar jello in the box, but more often than not it just got trampled underfoot.

At home, I actually find my chicks happy to eat on the first day. They grow faster than chicks not fed until the third day.
But it's still for the best to leave shipped chicks unfed.

A lot of their wellness upon arrival depends on the shipping conditions. The range of temperatures they experienced. The care in handling. And perhaps the most important - how the box is sized and space allocated for chicks.
My worst chick shipment came from a hatchery where the babies were just swimming around with a lot of empty space. Sure, there was straw padding at the sides, but they still could jostle around too much.
My best shipped chicks were from a private breeder who used a surprisingly small box, and they were all packed in there together helping each other stand up.

@RememberTheWay please note, there are good breeders who are NPIP certified and can ship chicks, it just costs more for each chick, but you save money on trying to breed for generations to get the same result.
If you want leads, just ask about a specific breed on the forum. I know of two that have good reputations for English Orpingtons.