Anyone else have a bad experience with Welp Hatchery?

[kenzilou]

We have never ordered from there before had used Meyer and our local feed store, but this year we wanted to try some rarer breeds out and Meyer was sold out. We found Welp online and they had ll the types we were looking for and we liked the amount of ship dates they provided. We ordered 5 of each of Salmon Faverolles, Ameraucanas (turned out to be Easter Eggers), Blue laced red Wyandottes, Giant Blue Cochins and Buff Orpingtons. When we rec'd them at eth POst office, we went right there as soon as we rec'd notice they arrived. 5 of the 6 SF we already dead and flattened at the bottom, the box was TINY about the size of the boxes that tangerines come in. That was very upsetting for my 12 yr old who these belong to and did the unpacking etc. We noticed the last 2 surviving SF were super small. One has since perked up and is running around eating and drinking. The other one had it's eyes closed, so I used warm water and gauze pad to work them open, it got up and while shaky was moving around and did drink by itself. One of the blue cochins was limp and sleepy so we tried giving it electrolyte water by dropper unfortunately it died that night. The tiny SF we also separated now as it is so weak and not able to stand, also have tried giving it some E water ( that is what we have for all of the chicks in a communal water holder.) and now I noticed 2 more blue cochins are weak and wobbly and not eating or drinking. All the rest of the chicks are running around fine. THis is crazy, and traumatic.....we have never experienced this before. With Meyer we did lose one chick who arrived weak and listless as well. All the ones sick and dying are the smallest...are they too young? What else could we have done for the weak ones? I am very upset with Welp for the size of theship box, the weakness of the chicks. I know they will refund my money but that really isn't the point, we wanted these particular chicks and didn't expect to be dealing with so many dead and dying. Anyone else have this happen? We are fairly new to chicken raising, this is our 3rd season and we have a very small flock of 5 ( from a total of 10, but hawks got to some of them over the years, until we added goats).

 

[Judy]

They are an established business, nearly a century old. I can only wonder if the box size might help maintain warmth and decrease jostling around; you might ask them about it. Aren't SF's a small breed? Also, they don't hatch anywhere near all their breeds, as their website makes clear; many come from other suppliers. I don't have any idea how much delay this might cause. I'd suggest a call to them with your questions.

 

[kenzilou]

Yes we will call today, it is just devasting how they arrived though, 5 at the bottom were literally flattened and squished with the insides coming out, it was pretty horrifying for my daughter ( as well as myself) and now so many are ill. Even the one we thought was fine is not as lively now. We have been giving them Nutri drench in their water and feeding them organic chick mash. Another cochin has died. I just don't know what to do. I can't be with them round the clock as I work and my daughter has to go to school. I had heard good things when I researched them so this was a surprise to be dealing with such losses.

 

[FlySammyJ]

I'm picturing a box of tangerines, and that's about twice the size of the box my 15 chicks arrived in, healthy. Regardless, when ordering chicks with kids it's recommended that you not tell them how many you ordered and don't take them with you to the post office, so you can present them with live birds. While your mortality rates are unusually high, we have to remember that chickens are "quantity over quality" reproducers, meaning that they make a lot more babies than they expect to survive, as a way of hedging their evolutionary bets.

 

[ozarkmomma]

so sorry you have had a bad experience. I have ordered from Welp with no problems. I do have a question, how many days did they take to get to you? I ordered chicks that shipped last Tuesday afternoon and were supposed to arrive Thursday but they didn't show up till Friday. I had 2 dead but the rest are healthy and happy. If your chicks got delayed in the mail that can certainly cause problems and is the fault of the Post Office, and not the hatchery. Just a thought since you didn't say anything about shipping times.

 

[kenzilou]

Thank you all for your answers. They shipped on May 8th and we rec'd them on the 10th. I know they had a rough trip, they weren't left on top of the mail as they should have been when they were rec'd by my local PO they had to uncover them under boxes. I have still 3 in a separate box that I am trying to keep going, I am using a dropper with nutri drench straight up ( one drop) about every 3 hrs. and then a little diluted nutra drench in water about every 2 hrs. I have one Salmon Fav left after another died today. The 2 cochins I have separated are drinking and eating on their own but I have been keeping up with giving them drops of nutri water. My Wyandotte is still droopy and uncoordinated and not yet eating or drinking on her own. I hope that this is is for losses.

 

[kenzilou]

and yes they came from a supplier. It was a bit small on the box size. I ordered 35 and she said they normally would ship that amount in a slightly larger box with a partition, but they didn't they used the box normally used to ship 30 or less and added just one Buff as an extra so there were 36 in the box. They refunded and she was very nice but I just couldn't go through that amount of dead ones again. I did expect maybe 1 or 2 or even 3 to not make it. I did explain to my daughter about loss and with Meyer last year she had experienced 1 dying after being shipped. It was the flattened and squished condition that was so awful, didn't expect that or I would not have had her unpack them.

 

[Michael Apple]

Very sorry this was your experience. I made a mistake years ago ordering from a hatchery far away named Murray McMurray. They all made it alive, but the genetics and health of the chicks were terrible. 50% loss within a year. Kinky back, Mareks symptoms were common even though vaccinations were supposedly given. I have since dealt with a hatchery much closer and the chicks spend less time being handled by careless postal workers. My local post office is good. They call me immediately no matter what time it is, and set the box in a warm room until I get there.

 

[akbeliever]

We ordered the Cornish-Rock Broilers in the summer of 2012. We ordered 25 and received 26. One died in the shipping, but the rest were very healthy and grew into the best chicken ever. Our chicks had to come all the way to Alaska. The post office called when they arrived, we picked them up, and all was well. I'm ordering again this year.