Total disaster!!

[lazy gardener]

I think the difference in size between hatchery stock and home hatched stock is mostly related to nutrition and living conditions of the hen. B/C, if I buy hatchery chicks from any hatchery, and raise those chicks, and set eggs from those birds the following spring, all things being same, and assuming that the hatchery has not had any degradation or improvement in their stock... If my chicks are bigger, then, nutrition and better living conditions have to be the reason. It would be highly unlikely for any study to be published, because it would not be in the best interests of the hatcheries to conduct such a study, and I doubt that any BYC hatcher is going to hatch X breed of chicks from hatchery A, and order the same breed from the hatchery in the same year.

 

[bhaugh]

Although I agree that nutrition, stress etc on breeding stock play a role, genetics is at least 50%. This would be true in any species. It's hatchery stock. One doesn't expect to get breed quality. My hatchery chick's who are now a week old are half the size of newly hatched chicks or smaller.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yes, but if my birds ARE hatchery stock, and my chicks hatch out bigger than the strain of hatchery stock that they came from, nutrition, not genetics would be the cause.

 

[bhaugh]

Genetics will always play a role even if they are recessive.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Genetics will always play a role even if they are recessive.

I don't think you're getting @lazy gardener 's point. If you get hatchery chicks from say, Crackle, and they're bitty. But you grow them out and then hatch their eggs the next year and the chicks are considerably larger, then you're dealing with a nutrition/conditions issue, not a genetics issue. Because the genetics are identical.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thankyou!

 

[batchhatchin]

I ordered 25 hamburg chicks to start with and all but one have now died. They sent 15 replacements which wasn't the number I told them I needed and now 2 of them have died. I ordered 7 white Cochins which all died within 8 hrs of picking them up at the post office. I informed them of this when I called for my replacements and they sent 5. I also ordered 10 Phoenix of which only one died and they sent 6 more of those so who knows what in the world those people in the office put in their coffee but I'd love to have a couple lbs of it. I'm not very impressed at this point with any part of what I got for my $150+

 

[farnorth]

Yes, but if my birds ARE hatchery stock, and my chicks hatch out bigger than the strain of hatchery stock that they came from, nutrition, not genetics would be the cause.

Could it be neither though? Lets say the chicks are being hatched from pullet size eggs because it's so early in the year that the new (probably young) breeding hens for this year are still laying smallish eggs right now. Couldn't that me the reason for a whole order of smaller than normal chicks? Perhaps your chicks you hatch at home are from mature hens who are laying nice roomy eggs that allow the chicks to grow bigger? just a thought.

 

[Rhoise]

Sorry to hear about your chicks. I just received my order yesterday. Thanks goes out to some awesome & caring postal workers for taking the time to do the research and locate my chicks. They left Iowa on Saturday morning so when I called my local post office around 9am Monday morning and they said no more packages arriving until tomorrow, I knew I had to act fast.The last point they were tracked was in St Paul MN sometime on Saturday. I got a really bad feeling, then called back and pleaded with the post master to at least "look into it" or they would die for sure ........I got a call back around noon, they had arrived in Boise, and the local office master granted permission to allow me to intercept them instead of waiting for them to arrive at my local station the following day. Needless to say, when I got the box in hand, it was stone cold, loud distressed cheeping and weak chicks were staring at me, one was dead stiff as a board, flat as a pancake, in the bottom of the box, and we lost another little runt around 6pm last night, he was too weak to even drink from an eye dropper. I am 100% certain if I had waited and not taken action, all or most of those babies would have been dead. It was too early, too cold, and too long, for these little ones to survive that kind of trip. If they had been shipped overnight it may have been a bit quicker, but even the healthiest of chicks, put through this kind of stress, its a miracle any survived. This was my first mail order and probably my last!! I only have myself to blame, just because someone else is willing to risk shipping under these conditions, doesn't mean I should have allowed myself to buy into it. I honestly didn't think it through, or do enough research on other peoples "disasters" before making the decision to order live animals in the mail. What was I thinking? Truthfully I wasn't. I just wanted chicks and thought if I get them early, I'll have eggs by June. Instead of what I put these poor little ones through.

 

[Meaghan]

I've had the same result from McMurray. Hatched and shipped Saturday, got here today with 9 dead and another 16 died this afternoon despite our best attempts. Not the fault of the hatchery and they were great in assisting, but I just feel frustrated and sad that so many of them had to die because the PO shipped them slow. It's not even cold here in Florida (highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s).