A few questions before I place my order.

[obxWaMi]

I don't have room for more than 10 or 12 more chickens. So, because of the minimum of 25 the hatchery requires I'm going to be sharing an order of chicks with a neighbor. When we place the order we will each specify which types we want and how many. When the chicks arrive how will we be able to tell which type of chicks are which? Does the hatchery band them or something?

Should we keep all the chicks together for some amount of time or will it be okay for me to have mine at my house and send the others home with the neighbor? I would rather have just mine to care for. God forbid they get sick or I do something wrong and kill 25+ birds.

 

[TipsyDog]

You can definetely split the chicks when they arrive. That's not a problem. As for who gets what - you should be able to tell them apart by breed. They are not banded from the hatchery. What breeds are you thinking of getting? I'm sure we can find some pictures of what they look like or you can post some pictures when you get them and BYC members can identify them for you.

 

[teach1rusl]

It'll be fine to seperate them when they arrive. Telling them apart may be a bit more of a challenge. Make sure you're familiar with chick pics of the breeds each of you is ordering. That would be the first step. Then, if you're still uncertain, I guess you'd better post pics on here for help!

 

[faykokoWV]

just FYI, not all hatcheries require a minimum of 25. My pet chicken does smaller orders and Ideal Poultry has a $25 minimum, not a number of chicks minimum. I've ordered as few as 11 from Ideal with no problem. (it would be a problem this time of year though as they would add males for warmth)

 

[Sunny Side Up]

When I split an order of 25 chicks from McMurray Hatchery they would mark our chicks with big dabs of color from a non-toxic marker. I'd tell them which chicks were in each person's order and they'd mark them all in the same color. They've also done that when I ordered a few pullets in with an all-cockerel special, & would mark the pullets so I'd know which ones were the keepers right from the start. I don't know if all hatcheries would be willing/able to do this for you.

 

[kywilber]

I just received mine and the only marking they did was on the 2 males that i order. it was from ideal