Chicken Heel
Songster
- Jun 8, 2019
- 843
- 2,463
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I just wanted to give a shout out to Leggett Town & Country in Danville, VA. Last Saturday, I was over there looking through their wonderful store and they had several bins of baby chicks, keets and poults for sale. Being a lifelong practitioner of chicken math, I just had to wander over and check things out. Lo and behold, they had mostly pullets, including several of my favorites like Speckled Sussex, Barred Rocks, and Cuckoo Marans. And they also had 5 Buff Rock pullets that appeared to be older than the rest. I asked the store manager over the area how long they had been there and he told me they were 8 days old. This made my next decision easier because I have never had Buff Rocks and these looked particulary healthy and well cared for. In fact, all the brooder tanks of chicks looked great with ample feed and clean water available for them which is often not the case in most stores I have frequented. The brooder tanks were also in an area of the store free from drafts. I commended the manager for this and asked him where all their young birds came from. He told me this particular group had come from hatcheries in Ohio and New Mexico and that they also order from a hatchery in Idaho. All the chicks, keats and poults were in great shape and it was super hard not to buy every single one of them. Fortunately, my sweet wife was there to rein me in and I left with only the 5 Buff Rock pullets. Nearly a week later, these 5 pullets are doing great and feathering out quickly. They haven't even slept under the brooder plate since I got them and the ambient temperature in the room where I have them is around 75 degrees F. Based on this experience, I would tell anyone in the central VA/NC border area to make sure to check out this store and their young poultry because they are exceptional. As for the hatcheries they buy from, deductive reasoning leads me to believe they are Mt. Healthy in Ohio, Privett Hatchery in New Mexico, and Dunlap Hatchery in Idaho. And since Mt. Healthy doesn't appear to offer Buff Rocks, I believe my 5 pullets came from Privett Hatchery in NM and they are very vigorous.
