Advice on Hatcher for mixed breeds

[Kalileigh09]

I want to add several breeds to my flock this year and only want a few of each. Anyone have advice or reviews on a hatchery that at is good for this?
Crackle hatchery has a 3 bird min per breed and I found a Valley hatchery that does as well but never heard of them.
Anyone know of a hatchery with a smaller minimum. I’ll still be getting 10-15 birds total

 

[BrahmasMama02]

Depending on your location I'd suggest Hoovers and Ideal. I haven't ordered from Ideal, but I've heard their customer service wasn't bad.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Depending on your location I'd suggest Hoovers and Ideal. I haven't ordered from Ideal, but I've heard their customer service wasn't bad.

I wouldn't go with Ideal - you look around this site you will find that there chicks are not healthy and very low quality. It's close to being a scam - also they can't tell if a chick is a male or female very well.
I would go with Meyer Hatchery - very good quality chicks and they will send you what you order.

 

[AprilWC]

I've placed several orders from Ideal and was happy with the quality of chicks received. At least in the past, they did not have a chick quantity minimum but a price minimum to spend.

 

[nuthatched]

McMurray has no breed requirements, at least last time i ordered they didn't.

 

[NatJ]

I want to add several breeds to my flock this year and only want a few of each. Anyone have advice or reviews on a hatchery that at is good for this?
Crackle hatchery has a 3 bird min per breed and I found a Valley hatchery that does as well but never heard of them.
Anyone know of a hatchery with a smaller minimum. I’ll still be getting 10-15 birds total

Ideal and McMurray let you order as few as 1 of each kind.
McMurray has a minimum number of total birds (fewer in the summer, more in the winter).
Ideal has a minimum purchase (cost of birds, not number of birds).

I have personally ordered from both of them (several times from Ideal), and they usually ship healthy chicks of the correct breed and gender. Those hatcheries, and all other hatcheries, have occasional issues with birds that aren't quite right (wrong leg color, wrong comb type, missing beard on a chicken that should have one, color or pattern a bit off, "white" egg breed that lays light cream instead, and so forth.) Chicks from any hatchery can arrive in bad shape if the Post Office mis-handles the box, or it gets delayed for some reason, or the weather is very bad.

It can work well to order extras, then keep the ones you like best and sell or butcher the ones you like less (not practical for everyone, but works well for some people, and is a good hedge against oops males and other unexpected situations.)

I wouldn't go with Ideal - you look around this site you will find that there chicks are not healthy and very low quality. It's close to being a scam - also they can't tell if a chick is a male or female very well.
I would go with Meyer Hatchery - very good quality chicks and they will send you what you order.

You can find complaining threads about nearly all hatcheries if you search on this site. Some problems are the fault of the hatchery, some are the fault of the Post Office, some are the fault of the person receiving the chicks, and some are not actually problems at all but the person thinks they are (wrong-sex or wrong-breed complaints that grow up to be correct after all.)

I have ordered from Ideal a number of times. The chicks were healthy. The quality was about the same as I got from several other hatcheries. The sexing was within their guarantee of 90% accuracy. They aren't perfect, but they did not stand out as being inferior to chicks I've gotten from other hatcheries.

 

[Kalileigh09]

Thanks everyone! I’m glad to know some don’t have a breed minimum at all. I’ll compare these with the breeds I want and prices. I’m confused why some care about how many of each breed instead of just quantity of the total order but I’m glad to know there is options that don’t

 

[NatJ]

I’m confused why some care about how many of each breed instead of just quantity of the total order but I’m glad to know there is options that don’t

Maybe it is as simple as how fast they can pack the boxes (more kinds of chicks per box would mean more time to pack each box, and more details to check and get right. They need the right number of workers to get all the boxes packed quickly so they can ship them. Hiring more workers might not even be possible, if they can't find suitable people to hire, or if the building is not big enough for more people to work safely.)

Or maybe they have "always done it this way," and see no need to change. If they are already selling all the chicks they can hatch, there may be no reason for them to do things differently.

Or it may be some reason that I haven't thought of but that makes perfect sense to the people actually making the decisions for the hatchery.

 

[Iluveggers]

McMurray, Ideal, and Mt Healthy all have small minimum orders with reasonable shipping rates, and allow just one of each breed to be included. I have ordered from all 3 hatcheries and would again. My advice is to see which have good availability when you want them, and most of the breeds you want, and go from there!

 

[BonnieBlue]

I had excellent results with my order from Ideal. Ten pullets ordered (Easter Egger and Olive Egger) because of a minimum, with some rehomed at 8 weeks, since I couldn't keep all. Both the ones I kept, and the ones rehomed, are all thriving, and laying well. One of the pullets turned out to be a roo, but I am happy with 9/10.

If I expand, additional chicks will come from a different hatchery, only because I don't want to order extra and have to rehome again. This was my first time with chickens, and tbh, I was afraid I would kill some of the chicks.