Has anyone every purchased chickens from Hoover Hatchery?
I am recently a new chicken mama. I spent 2 weeks in January looking at every hatchery and finally decided on hoovers because they had everything that I was looking for. I ordered 17 chicks of varying types (Welsummers, Calico, Rainbow, Isa, Tetra, Production red, Americuana, Delaware). As I am new to raising chickens I wanted to do everything right. I ordered all the vaccinations and beak trimming. Made a beautiful brooder, bought the eco glow 20, set up a beautiful nursery for my babies. I got my order this week..and it has been heartbreaking. I took off from work the day they arrived so very excited to see my babies. They arrived alive and well. Now, I fully expected some to not survive so I was happy. I even know that sometimes within 48 hours you can lose a few. Well it started with one. I could tell from the start it wasn't well. We separated it and nursed and she seemed like she was doing great. The next day she died. That morning I also had 3 more die. The next day I had 2 more die. All total so far in less than a week I have lost half of my babies. I was careful to check for pasty butt so I know that wasn't the cause. Hoover did refund my money but that doesn't help when your babies start dying. I am afraid to look in my brooder each morning. I have friends that order from McMurry and they have never had this problem. Not sure if I would order from Hoover's again. Keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of my babies survive. If not, I may not venture into having chickens again. This is heartbreaking.
I didn't realize how common Mareck's was until I started reading up on it today. I guess I have to assume that my remaining birds must be resistant, since none of them have been sick. My Hoover's chicks will be vaccinated (none of my other birds were), so hopefully they'll be okay, but it does make me a little more nervous about introducing them.
