WARNING: Hoovers hatchery

[CharlotteBEe]

Thats terrible! I'm sorry.
But, its not really their fault. It's too cold to be ordering chicks right now. Every year there's scores of posts complaining about every hatchery. It's not the hatchery, is the shipping through cold fronts and negative temperatures. They don't bounce back.
Imo, Hatcheries shouldn't be offering chicks until the beginning of March for non retail orders over a certain distance.

I think it is their fault because they shipped them in this weather

 

[ShrekDawg]

omg... why are you trying to cause an arguement here. Go argue with someone else, its been a long past few days. I have tried to keep it peaceful

also what is with you leaving the bad Hoovers hatchery reviews, yeah, hoovers is terrible, I am not saying hoovers isnt. thats the whole point of me creating this thread

ive tried saying it in the simplest terms I can so I am not sure how to explain that not all hatcheries are bad

You can hit ignore if you feel you need to.

 

[saysfaa]

You can hit ignore if you feel you need to.

He's the OP so shouldn't have to either ignore his thread or have no say in whether or how the thread drifts.

 

[ShrekDawg]

He's the OP so shouldn't have to either ignore his thread or have no say in whether or how the thread drifts.

Not the whole thread. You can ignore individual people on this site.

 

[ShrekDawg]

But I agree they shouldn’t have to. I was just saying it’s an option.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

I agree that the hatcheries shouldn't be shipping chicks this early in the year. And I'm not sure why they think they need to since most sell out many of their breeds way before fall.
But the fact that they are shipping them now does make it entirely their fault. Especially when they are in February without a heat pack for smaller orders.

It's not that they shouldn't be shipping this time of the year... it's that they aren't taking the proper steps and supplying the needs that the chicks need to be able to reach your home... and better yet the post office.
If they don't supply a heat packet and other things.... the chicks are likely going to die.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Cackle's Saipan Junglefowl have 80-100% mortality rate. If you look at the reviews it's common for every single chick to die in transit

Mine lived. I ordered 6, they sent me 8. 1 died on arrival, second extra was cannibalized(Attempted), had to be put down.

 

[The Moonshiner]

It's not that they shouldn't be shipping this time of the year... it's that they aren't taking the proper steps and supplying the needs that the chicks need to be able to reach your home... and better yet the post office.
If they don't supply a heat packet and other things.... the chicks are likely going to die.

And because they're not doing it right and taking precautions that is why I don't think they should be shipping this early.
I think a lot of it has to do with the world we live in nowadays. People want what they want and they want companies to bend over backwards to give them what they want when they want.
Hatcheries are starting to cater to this. Back in the day there wasn't many problems because hatcheries didn't sell and ship these small orders and I'm not sure they shipped this early in the season.
You used to buy chicks and lots of 25. It wasn't a big deal because most people were out in the country and was buying laying hens. It wasn't nothing to buy 25 at a time and even then if you didn't want that many you just gave some to neighbors or friends or whatever
Now you have the backyard chicken craze or people only want four or six chickens so hatcheries started doing the small orders. Small orders are more risky. People also don't want to wait when they want something so hatcheries are selling earlier and later to try to keep customers happy.
I've never done small orders so I don't know the mortality rate. I've usually bought 25 at a time and had very few DOAs so I don't think those numbers were correct.

 

[lagrange chicks]

My 2 cents. There is 2 parties involved in the shipping of chicks, the hatchery and the buyer. The hatchery is supplying what the buyer wants, the buyer needs to think about if the weather/ conditions in your area are suitable for the shipment. Me being in Wisconsin there would be no way I would order chicks in Feb/ March and expect not to have any losses even if they were shipped with heat pads.

 

[saysfaa]

I'm shopping for chicks for this spring. I think the big hatcheries are my best option. Last time, I picked my chicks up from the only hatchery I could find that allowed it (there were still covid restrictions). That is my first choice again but I'm looking at shipped options too.

This morning, I noticed Hoovers website says they ship with a heat pack under the grass mat.

So it looks like a glitch problem rather than a policy problem.

They ship literally millions of chicks. There will be glitches.

There is no excuse for not honoring their guarantee. Hopefully, it is still coming.

I read the dozen one star reviews from over the past year. And found a third party site with one star, two star, three star, four star, and five star reviews in about the ratio typical of any big company.

Edit to add link to the info I put here via a screen shot.

https://newsfromthecoop.hoovershatchery.com/raising-winter-chicks-part-2-the-concerns/