Privett hatchery

mishka67 · Apr 12, 2017

I've decided to try Privett through my feed store. I have always ordered through the mail but this year I had greater than 20% losses from both McMurray and Ideal. I do not blame the hatcheries for these losses.....I think shipping is very stressful and the weather was bad with high humidity. I lost all the rare and unusual breeds from McMurray.....Red Caps, Faverolles and my Modern Games. All of the more common breeds were great with no losses. The reason I order from the Hatcheries is so I can mix and match and get all of the different breeds that I want but if I am going to lose them to shipping stress what's the point? I would suggest trying your feed store and asking them if you can place special orders when they put their order in. Mine will do it for me and this year he got a lot of really neat breeds in anyway. My local feed store brought in New Hampshires, Blue Wyandotts, Partidge Rocks, Welsummers, Silver Wyandottes, Australorps, Black Giants, Cochins, Heritage RR's, Penedesenca as well as all of the big laying breeds. I opted for some Blue Wyandottes, New Hamp's and some of the Cochin's to try. I will keep you updated on how the birds from Privet turn out compared to Ideal and McMurray. I am just kind of worn out trying to resuscitate chicks. It's kind of heartbreaking and I'd rather pick them up fluffy and healthy several days later at the feed store.

paintedChix · Jun 1, 2017

Most of our chickens, since March 2012, have come from a local feed store that gets their chicks from Privett. Our Privett chicks have done well.

When I've gotten some special order chicks from other breeders - only to lose those to stress or predators.

Just got 14 chicks a week ago - Blue Australorp. LOVE them. They are straight run, so I don't know what I have yet and at least 3 are splash. Not sure when they started doing Blue Australorp, but when I saw them first come into the feed store I wanted them. I wasn't able to get any from the first 2 batches that came in, but then got all of the last batch on the day I went to the feed store...

and they are on Privett's current PDF catalog. Page 1, 2nd to last box listing (Extremely Rare Breeds - hatched Wednesdays & only in straight run). I would actually like to order directly from Privett some time, but that's not in the cards right now.

cactusrota · Jun 2, 2017

They just got those blues this year. I had ordered a batch of black Australorps in Febuary (it's somewhere earlier in this thread I think) and got one blue pullet mixed in. I emailed to ask and they said that it was a new breed they'd just gotten and haven't even started selling yet, and that it must have gotten in there by accident.

cactusrota · Jun 2, 2017

This was her a month ago, I don't have any current pics. She's among of the bigger of the pullets they came.

OCeggs23 · Jun 9, 2017

I purchased chicks from a local feed store in Orange County, CA and they are supplied by Privett.
I knew which breeds I wanted and since not all I wanted were in stock at once, I purchased in stages.

According to the store, Privett hatches on Wednesdays and ships on Thursday. Store gets them Friday.

We made our first purchase on a Saturday - a Welsummer and a SLW. The SLW was a very loud peeper all the way home and once in the brooder. Then got quiet, did weird motions with its head and died that same evening. The next day (Sunday) we replaced the SLW with a white rock. This wasn't one of the breeds I initially wanted but they didn't have any more SLWs and our Wellie needed a fellow chick.
Two days later (Tuesday) the White Rock stopped eating and drinking and laid quietly until it passed a short time later (maybe an hour if that?). We went back (Wednesday) and purchased another Wellie and then went back again two more days later (Friday) to pick up our pre-ordered batch of 3 Easter Eggers. The initial Wellie we had purchased preciously died that Friday evening after bringing the EEs home, leaving us with 4 chicks of the total 7 we purchased overall.

One thing we noticed when we picked up our EEs is that they were much more robust than the chicks we bought from the previous week's shipment (the Wellies, SLW, White Rock). They seemed fatter and more rambunctious. I don't know if that means anything, but it was very noticeable when we got the EEs home and in the brooder with the Wellies, even though the Wellies were a week older.

Our 3 EEs and 1 Wellie are now almost 5 months old and they are awesome chickens. All four are females (whew!). Overall we are very pleased with our experience although the deaths were stressful and confusing. More color options for the EEs would have been nice (all were similar chipmunks and have turned out some version of partridge which is okay but not my preference). Although maybe that's just what our store received. None have any physical defects and all our girls are very personable and get along well with each other.

cactusrota · Jul 28, 2017

Todays pics of my Privett birds. First is the blue Australorp. She's a hair over 6 months old now, starting to lay eggs and letting the big roo mount her.

One of the Mottled Java's and one of the Black Australorps. Very beautiful birds but not as big as I hoped by now, being dual purpose, and more skittish than I would like. Still, very nice for a hands off laying flock, if that's what you want.

Magnolia7330 · Aug 26, 2017

This is my mottled java that is from Privett. I got her from a local farm store. I'm not convinced she's a mottled java, so not sure what she is. But, she is nice and calm and we like her anyway.

cactusrota · Aug 26, 2017

Magnolia7330 said:
This is my mottled java that is from Privett. I got her from a local farm store. I'm not convinced she's a mottled java, so not sure what she is. But, she is nice and calm and we like her anyway. View attachment 1121682 View attachment 1121683

Ya, that bird is barred/cuckoo. Interesting. Maybe a Cuckoo maran? Is she laying yet?

Magnolia7330 · Aug 26, 2017

cactusrota said:
Ya, that bird is barred/cuckoo. Interesting. Maybe a Cuckoo maran? Is she laying yet?

She is not laying yet. I was also thinking Cuckoo Marans, but I started a thread on the forum to ask and a few people that she was maybe a mixed breed. Hopefully, I can tell more when she lays an egg. Hoping it's dark brown.

Sylvester017 · Oct 5, 2017

So many chickeneers have hatchery preferences and I think it's all the luck of the draw experiencing a hatchery order -- depending on climate/weather conditions during shipping chicks, handling by the USPS of the chicks, whether an order is placed thru a broker or directly from a hatchery, if any of the chicks got trampled in the shipping box, how stressed the chicks were when being transferred from the shipping box into the feed store's brooder, how caring or uncaring the feed store employees were with the transference shock, etc etc etc -- plus many feed stores get their chick orders from several different hatcheries and many feed store employees don't know what hatchery the different breeds came from. One of our nearby feed stores have local farmers bring in their chicks for sale on consignment. Healthy chicks are all dependent on these many factors in addition to whether they are coming from a clean breeding facility. I suspect that the majority of hatcheries have the cleanest facilities possible but so many mishaps can happen to affect chicks from their hatching to final delivery destinations sometimes hundreds of miles away. It amazes me that chicks can survive USPS shipping at all! A couple of my cross-country juvenile orders from private breeders were sent USPS but actually got flown to me by FedEx Air which is the airline USPS uses for expedited shipping. So many factors can affect chick quality going to their final destination.

Also, not every chick that hatches will meet breed standards (even if both parents were show champions). Breed standards are something to strive for but as we know not every chick hatches to standard or might even have glaring flaws like an extra toe, scissors beak, splayed legs, uneven wattles, funky combs, etc etc. Even show breeders have to breed 100's of chicks to get maybe one or two quality champion adults that meet breed/show standards.

I don't order directly from hatcheries since most require a minimum order of more chicks than I'm zoned for in my city. So I order the breed I want directly from my private local feed store who happens to order the majority of his chicks from Privett Hatchery. I get the feed store's money-back guarantee if I get a mistaken cockerel. I believe Privett has the most reasonably priced and widest variety of chicken breeds so it stands to reason that the little local feed store will order from Privett and that most feed stores on shoestring budgets don't order the Marek's vaccinations either. I once asked my local feed store why he didn't order vaccinated chicks and he said he had more chick losses with vaccinated birds because they'd have a bit of blood on them and the other chicks would peck them to death so he stopped ordering vaccinations. Whether that's a valid assessment or not that was his explanation and I'm inclined to believe him since vaccinations cost only a few cents per chick and wouldn't break the store's budget.

But I have not been disappointed in the chicks I get from my local feed store that largely uses Privett. A couple years ago I got the last Dominique pullet chick from my feed store and she suffered a seizure and died at 3 weeks -- it happens, chicks are delicate. I was so impressed with her lovely spunky personality that this summer I ordered 3 Dominique chicks from my feed store which said they came from Privett. I got 3 chicks fully expecting to lose at least one but all 3 are 9 weeks old now, thriving, and the pesty'est, friendliest chicken breed we've ever had. Hope their good health continues.

3 TINY CHICKS IN A KIDDIE POOL