The story of my chicks, from the hatchery to home and beyond!
I place an online order through Ideal on 2/19/10. The ship date is set for March 10th, so i'm expecting the chicks by this Friday March 12th.
I ordered the following:
3- Dominiques
3 Gold penciled Hamburgs
3 Red Sex-links(stars)
.and 2 Danish Brown Leghorns
All the hens i ordered are pretty small at maturity from 4lbs to 5.5lbs. And per the info on Ideals website and other websites they are all active laying breeds. The DB Leghorns and GP Hamburgs both lay white eggs while the Red Sex links and Dominiques lay brown eggs. I will be try to chronicle my ordering experience with Ideal and will be posting pics of the chicks from the day of there arrival along with updates as they grow.
Hope this info helps any people out there that are thinking or ordering online for the first time as it seems it can be nerve racking!
As of right now. I placed my order on the 19th of Feb and immediately got a confirmation email. During the order process it asks how soon you would like you chicks to be shipped. This give you options to set a shipping date way out in the future if you don't want your chicks traveling during the cold months or are just not ready for them. I chose immediate delivery. About a week later I received an email saying my chicks were to be shipped March 10th. I'm getting anxious!
Update: Got an email from Ideal yesterday the 9th saying they shipped!
My order was kind of small (11 chicks) so i had to pay an additional small order fee. My order total came out to be 40 bucks including shipping. I only plan on keeping 3 to 4 chicks and will sell the rest (or give them away). I decided to order more chicks than I wanted to hopefully cut down on the number of packing peanuts they send which are usually cockerels. I figured if i was going to end up with extra chicks then they might as well be pullets which will make them easier to sell....possibly for profit. If I keep all the chicks for 5 to 6 weeks then I could probably sell 8 of the extras for at least 5 bucks a piece which would mean that my chicks were free beside the cost of feeding them for 5 to 6 weeks. Either way it doesn't really matter, around here 40 bucks doesn't even get me half a tank of gas so i'm not really worried about it.
I hope by 5 to 6 weeks I can identify some of the quieter more docile chicks so I can keep those and sell off the more audible flighty chicks. Having quiet birds will most definitely help my urban type situation.
Ok Finally the day came, or so I thought. I received an email from Ideal saying they shipped on the 9th. I figured they would be here by thurs. Well they never made it. Friday morning brought new hope. That hope was dashed. I called the post office periodically through out the day with no luck. I phoned Ideal who confirmed the chicks shipped on Tuesday and the very nice lady said they should of gotten here already for sure. She said they must of got lost (not Ideals fault) so she set me up for a new shipment to come out the following Monday. Man o Man I was disappointed but anywho I went about my day. To my surprise my cell phone rings around 3pm. I recognized the number as the post office number (basically memorized it since I called so much). My chicks were here! Mixed blessing since I knew they had spent over 3 days in a box I was expecting some DOA. More on that later......for now enjoy some quick pics I snapped off after getting them home and settled in.
Update: I have thinned my flock to the final three! Craiglist was very helpful getting rid of my extras.
I kept one Red sexlink, one Dominique and A Brown Leghorn. Pics to follow.
I place an online order through Ideal on 2/19/10. The ship date is set for March 10th, so i'm expecting the chicks by this Friday March 12th.
I ordered the following:
3- Dominiques
3 Gold penciled Hamburgs
3 Red Sex-links(stars)
.and 2 Danish Brown Leghorns
All the hens i ordered are pretty small at maturity from 4lbs to 5.5lbs. And per the info on Ideals website and other websites they are all active laying breeds. The DB Leghorns and GP Hamburgs both lay white eggs while the Red Sex links and Dominiques lay brown eggs. I will be try to chronicle my ordering experience with Ideal and will be posting pics of the chicks from the day of there arrival along with updates as they grow.
Hope this info helps any people out there that are thinking or ordering online for the first time as it seems it can be nerve racking!
As of right now. I placed my order on the 19th of Feb and immediately got a confirmation email. During the order process it asks how soon you would like you chicks to be shipped. This give you options to set a shipping date way out in the future if you don't want your chicks traveling during the cold months or are just not ready for them. I chose immediate delivery. About a week later I received an email saying my chicks were to be shipped March 10th. I'm getting anxious!
Update: Got an email from Ideal yesterday the 9th saying they shipped!
My order was kind of small (11 chicks) so i had to pay an additional small order fee. My order total came out to be 40 bucks including shipping. I only plan on keeping 3 to 4 chicks and will sell the rest (or give them away). I decided to order more chicks than I wanted to hopefully cut down on the number of packing peanuts they send which are usually cockerels. I figured if i was going to end up with extra chicks then they might as well be pullets which will make them easier to sell....possibly for profit. If I keep all the chicks for 5 to 6 weeks then I could probably sell 8 of the extras for at least 5 bucks a piece which would mean that my chicks were free beside the cost of feeding them for 5 to 6 weeks. Either way it doesn't really matter, around here 40 bucks doesn't even get me half a tank of gas so i'm not really worried about it.
I hope by 5 to 6 weeks I can identify some of the quieter more docile chicks so I can keep those and sell off the more audible flighty chicks. Having quiet birds will most definitely help my urban type situation.
Ok Finally the day came, or so I thought. I received an email from Ideal saying they shipped on the 9th. I figured they would be here by thurs. Well they never made it. Friday morning brought new hope. That hope was dashed. I called the post office periodically through out the day with no luck. I phoned Ideal who confirmed the chicks shipped on Tuesday and the very nice lady said they should of gotten here already for sure. She said they must of got lost (not Ideals fault) so she set me up for a new shipment to come out the following Monday. Man o Man I was disappointed but anywho I went about my day. To my surprise my cell phone rings around 3pm. I recognized the number as the post office number (basically memorized it since I called so much). My chicks were here! Mixed blessing since I knew they had spent over 3 days in a box I was expecting some DOA. More on that later......for now enjoy some quick pics I snapped off after getting them home and settled in.
Update: I have thinned my flock to the final three! Craiglist was very helpful getting rid of my extras.
I kept one Red sexlink, one Dominique and A Brown Leghorn. Pics to follow.
