Tractor supply or hatchery?

[Ozarkoak]

I guess it depends on if the tractor supply has the birds you want. I ordered through a hatchery last spring. A week or so before the scheduled delivery I called and said "weather service is predicting a ice storm on my delivery day, can we change the delivery day?" Response: "no we cant". 90%+ of the birds arrived dead. 2 days late. They refunded the price but it was not remotely the point. Im not at all a greenie or animal rights activist but no one wants to freeze to death in a box. We had planned on 40 or so cornish cross and under 5 survived. We got the rest at our farm supply and they worked out just fine. Couldnt tell one hatchery from another, at least with those birds. Would I order from them again? Yep its not their fault it rained ice. But understand you are at the mercy of the delivery persons handling those birds.

 

[Tamayeager]

I guess it depends on if the tractor supply has the birds you want. I ordered through a hatchery last spring. A week or so before the scheduled delivery I called and said "weather service is predicting a ice storm on my delivery day, can we change the delivery day?" Response: "no we cant". 90%+ of the birds arrived dead. 2 days late. They refunded the price but it was not remotely the point. Im not at all a greenie or animal rights activist but no one wants to freeze to death in a box. We had planned on 40 or so cornish cross and under 5 survived. We got the rest at our farm supply and they worked out just fine. Couldnt tell one hatchery from another, at least with those birds. Would I order from them again? Yep its not their fault it rained ice. But understand you are at the mercy of the delivery persons handling those birds.

I disagree. It's not their fault it stor.ed. but they know the chick's didn't stand a chance of surviving that, no matter who was delivering them. Trucks are not equipped for living creatures. They could have bumped your delivery date, and did whatever it is they do with the extras chicks they hatch. It's kinda ridiculous considering they had to refund you the money for the dead. Wonder how much you paid for that shipping. I find all the varying shipping costs to be very interesting. I would love to find out how shipping costs are actually figured out. And how they are actually charged. For example. Meyers if you buy less than 15 chicks, shipping is $50. But buy more than 15, and it drops to $15. So, they pay less money for shipping more birds? I doubt that. But I have no idea what they are actually charged. And how much of it is straight profit, that they do not reimburse, when the birds arrive dead. And it's not just hatchery that have strange shipping costs. I buy semiprecious stones from other countries. And the shipping is always free. Even though it comes in the mail. Again, I would love to know how they get to do this I pay a couple dollars for a stone, not a penny for shipping. And it's delivered in my mailbox. But, I use that stone to make jewelry or art, and it costs me a small fortune to ship it to a customer. And I live here in the USA. I just think that there is more the hatchery can do, if they wanted to. It's a choice. They choose to not care. Just my two worthless cents. Lol

 

[CrspyChkn]

At my tractor supply, they only got the breeds correct once that I was there. And that was the one time that I wanted a specific breed. I was looking for Jersey Giants, and they had them so it worked out. Unfortunately I wanted a rooster or two, but they were all pullets and the sexing was correct. I think the shipping cost thing is due to some companies try to encourage people to buy more while others dont? I have no idea though.

 

[Ozarkoak]

I disagree. It's not their fault it stor.ed. but they know the chick's didn't stand a chance of surviving that, no matter who was delivering them. Trucks are not equipped for living creatures. They could have bumped your delivery date, and did whatever it is they do with the extras chicks they hatch. It's kinda ridiculous considering they had to refund you the money for the dead. Wonder how much you paid for that shipping. I find all the varying shipping costs to be very interesting. I would love to find out how shipping costs are actually figured out. And how they are actually charged. For example. Meyers if you buy less than 15 chicks, shipping is $50. But buy more than 15, and it drops to $15. So, they pay less money for shipping more birds? I doubt that. But I have no idea what they are actually charged. And how much of it is straight profit, that they do not reimburse, when the birds arrive dead. And it's not just hatchery that have strange shipping costs. I buy semiprecious stones from other countries. And the shipping is always free. Even though it comes in the mail. Again, I would love to know how they get to do this I pay a couple dollars for a stone, not a penny for shipping. And it's delivered in my mailbox. But, I use that stone to make jewelry or art, and it costs me a small fortune to ship it to a customer. And I live here in the USA. I just think that there is more the hatchery can do, if they wanted to. It's a choice. They choose to not care. Just my two worthless cents. Lol

I agree 100% I told them I did not care if I had to wait for the birds, even weeks. and it would make sense sending them in a totally different direction than into a possible ice storm. I basically knew what was going to happen. I was angry. I let them know I was angry and that even though they are just chickens that was no way to go. Not a huge deal we are going to try incubation this winter and if we fail miserably we are just going to refresh the flock from our farm store. We have built a good relationship with them and like them a lot anyway.

 

[Coops Dad]

I buy plenty of chicks from our local Orscheln's (just turned into a Bomgaar's) and have had great results and rarely lose one. The lady who runs the poultry section will call me once in a while to tell me they got a breed that I'd asked about, or that she thinks I'd be interested in. Once, she held back 6 turkey poults because I was out on the road and wouldn't be back for almost a week. How could I not buy them?

Recently, I went in to pick up something from the automotive/tractor section and she saw me and told me that they had six leftover RIR chicks that were almost two weeks old and she'd let me have them for a dollar each.

So now I have six more RIRs.

She also throws "add-ons" into my chick selections, like runts, pasty-butt chicks, etc., and she once sold me all the leftover CXs for .50 each.

It's good to have a reputation sometimes.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I have done both, ordered online and bought at our local Rural King. I got my two sexed Mallard female ducklings from Metzer and they arrived just fine. The two ducklings that I bought from Rural King were Khaki Campbell and being unsexed I got a boy and a girl and rehomed the boy later on as he was too hard on my hens. Some people say that Metzer has been not accurate on the sexing since two years ago when I got mine. I don't know that for sure. I liked only having to buy two. I paid for shipping but if I went for free shipping I would have all of those extra mouths to feed and would not be ahead. Good luck on your decision.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Do you have other feed stores around?

Lots of horror stories from TSC (and I'm sure it varies wildly by store) about people getting meat chicks from layer bins, straight runs from sexed bins, wrong breeds in general). But I also absolutely do not want to put the onus on myself to order chicks and have to open a box to find dead chicks. Plus, I only get a few chicks at a time anyhow.

My local feed stores have been good about keeping people out of chick bins (only employees should access) and keeping up to date lists of what breeds they're expecting when. We also don't have any regulations about minimum numbers for purchase, so I have no issue just getting 3-4 chicks. I don't mind paying the mark up in exchange for them dealing with any losses.

 

[Coops Dad]

Oh! You can order from the hatchery TSC uses and have the chicks delivered to TSC. Hoover's, I think?

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Personally if I could, I would order. For me it's just not realistic with the costs.

The TSC in my area is fairly new. They don't offer much selection. They had a bin of assorted ducks, Australorps and sexlinks, and assorted bantams. When I asked if the chick person would grab me the three silkies out of the bantam box she said it was luck of the draw. I said nvermind then. I think she didn't want to admit she couldn't tell which were silkies, which is alright. The birds looked happy and healthy though each time I've been in there.

Our Wilcos have been around more and they offer a much larger variety. they are accurately separated and well cared for. They will call when a breed you're looking for is available.

My favorite place to get chicks personally has been The Old Mill feed n seed in Dallas OR. I have a loooong history with that place that goes back to kindergarten (Kindergarten was right next door. That's its own story.) But even if I was new to the area and didn't have that history, I'd still say the local place is the best. They do a chick days event, allow customers to preorder, have twenty plus bins with breeds, and very knowledgeable staff. They order from Privett. My current birds are from there and have been the healthiest flock I've ever had.

 

[sdm111]

Find a breeder. If I had to pick from your 2 options I'd use a hatchery. I try to not buy anything from tractor supply. The chicks are probably very low quality culls from hatcheries. Makes perfect sense, pull out the low quality chicks and sell volume to tractor supply. If you can find a breeder you can go see what the parent stock is like.