2014 Hatchery Chick Orders

[popsicle]

I just took the screen shot--they have the wrong date. I'll email them.

 

[KuroKitsune]

i know about the dollar higher price i'm just waiting for tax return money which should i should have by the end of this month i think and then i'll order them and schedule them to be delivered in march or april

 

[SlipsWife]

Our order from Ideal came in today. We ordered 10 bantams (mix, no specific breeds) and they added 7 (or 9...hmmm, I need to recount) packing peanuts, 99% sure they are all EE (males). All of the packing peanuts made it fine. From what we ordered, we had 4 loses during shipment and of the 6 that are left, only 3 seem to have any spunk. I DO NOT FEEL IDEAL IS AT FAULT at all. I think it was just to cold for the little guys. Their customer service was great, said to call back tomorrow with total loss. I KNEW not to order, I had put off ordering until the very last minute because we had another cold front coming in. It was 12* this morning when I took my kids to the bus stop with a -1* wind chill. Ideal is in Texas, as are we, and I was hoping they would get here a little faster than what they did since they aren't extremely far away.

Next year I will wait until its warmer. We have 2 more orders coming in, one ships out from Cackle on the 12th, I'm a little nervous its not going to be warm enough...

 

[StewedMammal]

Our order from Ideal came in today. We ordered 10 bantams (mix, no specific breeds) and they added 7 (or 9...hmmm, I need to recount) packing peanuts, 99% sure they are all EE (males). All of the packing peanuts made it fine. From what we ordered, we had 4 loses during shipment and of the 6 that are left, only 3 seem to have any spunk. I DO NOT FEEL IDEAL IS AT FAULT at all. I think it was just to cold for the little guys. Their customer service was great, said to call back tomorrow with total loss. I KNEW not to order, I had put off ordering until the very last minute because we had another cold front coming in. It was 12* this morning when I took my kids to the bus stop with a -1* wind chill. Ideal is in Texas, as are we, and I was hoping they would get here a little faster than what they did since they aren't extremely far away.

Next year I will wait until its warmer. We have 2 more orders coming in, one ships out from Cackle on the 12th, I'm a little nervous its not going to be warm enough...

Sorry to hear about your losses. What breeds are you getting from cackle? I've found that bantams and lightweight standard breeds don't do well being shipped this early, but standard heavy breeds do better in this weather.

 

[kenzier093]

Sorry to hear about your losses. What breeds are you getting from cackle? I've found that bantams and lightweight standard breeds don't do well being shipped this early, but standard heavy breeds do better in this weather.

I am getting some chicks from Cackle as well. I sure hope mine make it here all alive and healthy.

 

[SlipsWife]

Sorry to hear about your losses. What breeds are you getting from cackle? I've found that bantams and lightweight standard breeds don't do well being shipped this early, but standard heavy breeds do better in this weather.

The first order from Cackle is 10 Cinnamon Queens and 15 EE pullets. They should be here Valentine's day. We also have another order from Cackle shipping March 3rd, a Hatchery Surprise.

I am trying to decide if I want to order more from Ideal now, or just wait until after our other orders and see what we get in the Surprise...I don't really 'need' anymore...I've ordered way more than we are going to keep as is. The breed I would order would be due to ship out on Monday, they said they would either send the replacements for our losses from today with that order or credit my card back. Since there's another cold front coming in Monday night I'm nervous about ordering more little ones. It's not suppose to get as cold but still below freezing. We got a number of bantams last year, some from TSC (they ordered from Privett), our own Privett order and a few in our Cackle order, the Ideal bantams seem to be significantly smaller than the other bantams from last year. We learned last year that doesn't mean they'll stay smaller, our turkens started out the same size as our bantams and caught up quickly but it might be important for someone looking for smaller bantams. It might also be part of the reason why they took the travel and cold so hard.

I believe Privett is closer to us than Ideal, even though we are in Texas and so is Ideal. Our Privett order came in overnight, which I'm sure helped with their survival rate.

 

[SlipsWife]

The 6 bantams and 7 packing peanuts are doing great this morning. One of the packing peanuts had the starting of pasty butt but it came off pretty easily. One of the bantams we just knew wasn't going to make it was just having a peck off with one of the other bantams so I think its going to be fine.

A few are less active than the others but everyone is eating and drinking.

So...I ordered 9 naked necks/turkens that will be shipping out Monday, should be here Wednesday, another order coming in on Friday and then March 5th...This morning my 14 year old daughter (I have 2 girls and 3 boys) said I'm ordering so many chickens because its not legal to order human babies...

 

[popsicle]

I think my Cackle Hatchery Surprise also ships on March 3. We'll have to compare! I'm also ordering some specific breeds with the surprise.

 

[SlipsWife]

I think my Cackle Hatchery Surprise also ships on March 3. We'll have to compare! I'm also ordering some specific breeds with the surprise.

I didn't dare try to order anything with the surprise...I wouldn't be able to tell if I got what I ordered or not!

That's why I put in for the EE's and Cinnamon Queens. This way, I have a 'responsible' order of layers to offset my fun order...I'm not sure what my reasoning behind the 6 bantams is...or the naked necks (other than they did lay all winter with our sex-link girls and we actually really enjoy them!)

We wanted to wait until after March for a chance a turkeys. We got 2 last year but didn't keep them. Our order last year was very pullet heavy so we might be pushing our luck 2 years in a row! No matter what we get, it should be fun!

I can't wait to see pictures and compare!

 

[popsicle]

I didn't dare try to order anything with the surprise...I wouldn't be able to tell if I got what I ordered or not!

That's why I put in for the EE's and Cinnamon Queens. This way, I have a 'responsible' order of layers to offset my fun order...I'm not sure what my reasoning behind the 6 bantams is...or the naked necks (other than they did lay all winter with our sex-link girls and we actually really enjoy them!)

We wanted to wait until after March for a chance a turkeys. We got 2 last year but didn't keep them. Our order last year was very pullet heavy so we might be pushing our luck 2 years in a row! No matter what we get, it should be fun!

I can't wait to see pictures and compare!

Our special last year was very pullet heavy. I would actually prefer to not get turkeys, but they're delicious so it's not the end of the world if I get some. The breeds I ordered should be somewhat easy to pick out--BCM, chanteclers and Buckeye. I also ordered Welsummers which might get lost. I figure there are enough of my specific breeds that they would get their own box compartment.