Mislabeled Tractor Supply/Feed Store Chicks

[woodmort]

I’d love to see what some of the employees do when chicks come in. Do they bother to get them in the correct container or just dump them ? We’re kind of lucky in that one of my former students who knows chickens works there. I’ll wait until she can sort them for me.

 

[Pyxis]

I’d love to see what some of the employees do when chicks come in. Do they bother to get them in the correct container or just dump them ? We’re kind of lucky in that one of my former students who knows chickens works there. I’ll wait until she can sort them for me.

So I had the chance to see what the boxes look like when they come in and what the employees are working off of. I got to see this because they were, in my opinion, mistreating the chicks, but I digress.

They get boxes in of 100 chicks, and the boxes are divided into four compartments. On the lid over each compartment, on the outside of the box, what each type of chick in the compartment is supposed to be is stamped in black ink.

So imagine that the box is damaged in shipping and the ink is torn off or worn off, or chicks manage to jump compartments, or the person packing the box rotates the lid and puts it on the 'wrong' way, or the wrong breed name gets stamped on the lid, etc etc.

And then the employees have no idea what each breed is supposed to look like, so they just go by what's on the lid or if nothing's there I assume they just guess.

 

[HarmonyHomestead]

Last year (first time chicken owner) my 4 pullets were as advertised- one Leghorn one RIR and 2 sex links- but this year I nabbed one single silkie (in profile pic) from the “starlight green egger” pullet bin! Felt like finding a shiny Pokémon when I noticed the grey beak. However, for some reason it didn’t occur to me that being in the wrong place, it could be a rooster! Crossing my fingers! If it is that’s ok, as long as it’s not too agressive I don’t mind having one to protect the girls.

 

[Pyxis]

one longhorn

Did they actually say longhorn? That's funny; some kind of cow/chicken cross I guess, haha. Wouldn't surprise me at all though. I assume what they meant was leghorn?

Good luck with the silkie! Bantams aren't sexed, so it'll be straight run most likely, so it's a 50/50 shot on whether it will be a pullet or a cockerel.

 

[HarmonyHomestead]

Did they actually say longhorn? That's funny; some kind of cow/chicken cross I guess, haha. Wouldn't surprise me at all though. I assume what they meant was leghorn?

Good luck with the silkie! Bantams aren't sexed, so it'll be straight run most likely, so it's a 50/50 shot on whether it will be a pullet or a cockerel.

Lol my bad, autocorrect error.

 

[Cctomboy88]

might be a Colombian Wyandotte...just a guess as I have those and they feather quite similar...is there a dimple in the comb?? I cant tell from the pic

Two have flat combs and one has a raised comb.

 

[tn_artist]

We just got our first chicks ever from Tractor Supply. My daughters are old enough to tend and take care of them. In the past, I only had hens brooding, no ordered or TS chicks. I sure hope my 4 Americaunas are really that! They said they were all pullets too. We also got 4 Cochin straight run, but I'm thinking they aren't as big as the Americaunas. The Americaunas have the cheek puffs and the Cochins have feathered legs. The bantams were all mixed and straight run. We had what I believe are four lavender Mille Fleur, but lost two to poopy butt. When we went to replace them, they were out, but had a new batch in. Polish! With full head poof down! We got 4, of course. My girls also picked out two tiny little buff chicks. They were the only ones like it. No idea what they are, or have any clue about the 2 Buttercups they got. We are ready for surprises! Oh, and we got all the ones that we could tell were Silkies. Feather legged, black skin, etc.

 

[Pyxis]

I sure hope my 4 Americaunas are really that!

They'll be easter eggers Americana is a purposeful misspelling of ameraucana that some hatcheries use to sell their easter eggers under.

 

[Manedwolfy]

Honestly, we've always gotten TSC chicks, and we almost always get correct species. Thing is, they think easter eggers are red sex link cockerels... We've tried getting easter eggers a few times and every. single. time. They end up being red sex link cockerels. Not sure what that's about.
At least the "ameracaunas" and speckled sussexs turned out fine.

 

[Sundybee]

We all know Tractor Supply is notorious for mislabeling their chicks. However, I got the idea for this thread today when I encountered perhaps the worst case of mislabeling I have ever seen.

I stopped in to grab some feed and peeked in the chick bins, and immediately some of the birds caught my eye. So I asked to buy a couple of the "leghorns" they had.

This is what I bought:

View attachment 1483891

Broad breasted white turkey poults. Not only was the breed wrong, but the species too! In the past I've bought some chicks from them that were labeled pretty wrong, such as red sex links labeled as silver laced wyandottes, but this takes the cake.

Oh, and as a bonus, since they require you to buy at least six birds, I picked out four dominiques to fill out the purchase. Except when I got home and looked at them closely, I realized they had single combs. So they're not dominiques. 0 for 2, Tractor Supply. The moral of this story is, when you're buying chicks from Tractor Supply, be careful that you're getting what they say you're getting.

Who else has bought chicks that were mislabeled? What were they labeled as, and what did they end up being?

I bought a couple "speckeled sussex" that turned out to be Golden Polish but I can say I'm upset about that and on the same trip I got two "Brahmas" that turned out to be sex-link hens. They did get the Leghorns labled correctly though. I'm definitely a novice so I wasn't very sharp on recognizing breeds and my first time buying chicks from TS.