Advise for buying chicks during COVID?

[Phantom_k9]

Hi all!
So we have recently finished our coop, and have decided that we should try to buy some more chickens! however, COVID hasn't helped us that much, not to mention we want some breeds that are on the rarer* side...
Most hatcheries, as of now, are either not selling the chicks that we want, or their minimum amount to purchase is too high. We only want to buy about 8-10 new chicks, not 15-20. Is it possible to purchase a lot of extra chicks in order to meet a minimum, and then ell them off later? Or what would be the best way to go about getting new chicks?

 

[keesmom]

I would suggest ordering from one of the hatcheries that have a 15 chick minimum. Add an extra or 2 to each of the breeds you want. That way in case you have any losses during shipping, some don't do well, or you end up with oops cockerels you will definitely get the number of birds you want. If you do wind up with extras you can sell them.

 

[The Moonshiner]

That's exactly what I would do.
If I only wanted 8 or 10 I'd buy the 15 or 20 and sell the extras. Which shouldn't be hard to do with everyone snapping up chickens right now.
There's places that do sell small quantities but you'll have to pay a crazy amount for the overnight shipping thats required and on top of that many tack on another smaller or fee.
Haven't done it in a while but in the past I bought the extras and ended up selling them for enough that it covered all costs of the ones I kept.