Greenfire Farms Chick Survival Rate

[Zinniah]

They did give him a refund. I wouldn't be worried, anyways let us know how your chicks show up.

 

[Exotica]

They did give him a refund. I wouldn't be worried, anyways let us know how your chicks show up.

I sure will! Does anybody have a problem contacting them? I have already paid and emailed them but still no response? I wish there was a phone number or something..

 

[Zinniah]

I sure will! Does anybody have a problem contacting them? I have already paid and emailed them but still no response? I wish there was a phone number or something..

It took them 1-2 days to answer from my experience. http://greenfirefarms.com/contact/ Send your email to [email protected] if it is about your order.

 

[elkinsacres]

I have not received a reply from Greenfire yet, actually. I will send another email in the morning.

As for my remaining 4 Twentse, all of them have had, and continue to have, 'paste butt'. These are the only chicks I currently have that have this issue (and I am growing out 50+ right now, of varying breeds). I am taking them into the house now, one at a time, and using a warm water compress to clean them up. So far, they have taken a lot of work to keep alive - and I only have 4 left out of 13 originally sent.

Maybe my experience is wholly unique here. Maybe this is just the risk one takes in the quest for rare chicken breeds imported from foreign lands.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I have not received a reply from Greenfire yet, actually. I will send another email in the morning.

As for my remaining 4 Twentse, all of them have had, and continue to have, 'paste butt'. These are the only chicks I currently have that have this issue (and I am growing out 50+ right now, of varying breeds). I am taking them into the house now, one at a time, and using a warm water compress to clean them up. So far, they have taken a lot of work to keep alive - and I only have 4 left out of 13 originally sent.

Maybe my experience is wholly unique here. Maybe this is just the risk one takes in the quest for rare chicken breeds imported from foreign lands.

Are they on a vit/mineral water supplement? Does it have probiotics in it or anything else? Once in awhile I notice some with this issue and usually, when I take them off of supplements in the water, it will clear up. Strange, yes, but I figure they just can't tolerate it. I've even noticed it with some of my full grown hens at times. Probiotics or some other supplement, give them the nasty butt.

 

[JanetMarie]

A good reason not to get chicks shipped. The only chicks I will have shipped to me are in the egg as embryos. I have to do the hatching myself. If I can't find the breed by way of hatching egg, or drive to pick up chicks myself well, too bad.

 

[Exotica]

They have finally replied to me and have been nothing but courteous. I once read somewhere that they ended up sending someone all males. I know your breed was not an auto-sexing one, but I am a bit worried about mine! How are your chicks now?

 

[elkinsacres]

I got a reply from Greenfire today. Apparently they have just been swamped. Over on Rare Breed Auctions, they had offered some new birds so they are obviously busy. They'll refund me, but they asked for some pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of any corpses...

As for my surviving chicks, they are doing much better now that I cleaned up their little butts!

I would much rather take my chances on having chicks shipped than having eggs shipped. I think out of around 4-5 dozen eggs, I have been able to hatch out maybe 4-5. USPS does not give a crap about what is written on that box, let me tell you. Fragile? They will test that 'theory' through rough handling. Arrow indicating box orientation? Nope, that's simply a suggestion to them. Nothing but detached air cells and problems all around.

My order of preference...
1. Hatch my own eggs from my own birds.
2. Hatch eggs from local stock.
3. Drive (whatever distance needed) to pick up chicks.
4. Drive (whatever distance needed) to pick up eggs for hatching (chicks better than eggs because I have seen batches of eggs with horrible fertility rates - live chicks are a 'sure thing', albeit more expensive).
5. Have chicks shipped to me.
6. Have eggs shipped to me.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

I have had chicks sent to me, not from GFF, that died after a few days as well. This particular breeder did not use Gro-gel as he thinks chicks drown and get chilled by the stuff during shipping. In the same shipment (in different boxes), he had two-week-old and day-old chicks. All of the two week olds survived, but four of the day-olds died. They were shipped in April when air temperature was in the 60's - heating pads were included. Of the four chicks that died, three were boys. As these were cream legbars, I wondered if the ones that died had genetic issues that affected the male chicks as the majority of the loss were boys. They all were extremely thirsty after I got them. Twenty chicks drank about 20 ounces of water in the first 12 hours. I was able to measure precisely the amount of water consumed as I used a waterer with water nipples.

This breeder explained that day-old shipped chicks experience stress during shipment and some just won't make it. From the same breeder, I now only ask for two-week (or older) chicks to be shipped. I find the survival rate much higher with older chicks.


I just placed an order with GFF for some CLs, to be shipped in January - we have a heat wave where I live now and I don't want to brood chicks over the holidays. I am somewhat concerned about chicks shipped in January with the colder temperatures. But since it is their business, I assume GFF knows what they are doing and hope all will be fine.

 

[headintheclouds]

Just to note - I have hatched Niederrheiner chicks (shipped eggs) at home. The chicks were also surprisingly small. Not many hatched, but that could be the shipped eggs. Got me wondering if some of these breeds are rare because they just aren't thrifty or easy to grow. The few that hatched were slow growers and not easy to manage.

I have shipped chicks from GF once. Also purchased on RBA. They were Cream Legbars and have thrived and grown into beautiful birds. This breed seems to be hardier in general. Some of those chicks were stained from the GroGel, but it did not seem to affect them. Though I do think you have a point about properly hydrating the stuff.