Anyone else have chicks shipping this week?

[PulletSurpriseWinner]

I was so excited to get a small order of sexed chicks including bantams. I ordered a shipment from MPC as well. They had to sub out for the frizzle. Shipped monday night, arrived at the po the next morning. Dead.

Heat pack was on top of the poor smooshed things. Only three of the vent holes were punched open. Customer service had wait times of 1-2 hours. They couldn't come up with replacement birds till several months out. Very unsatisfying conversations to be had once I'd get a person.

If I try another hatchery, is this likely to happen again? I now have a broody hen so I'd like to get her a few babies, or a few eggs.

My husband will take some convincing. He is the one who opened the box...

I'm sorry to hear about this. Torey had to work on me (a little) to get more chicks. I can sympathize with you both, especially your husband. I was the one who opened the box on our dead chicks; it was pretty terrible for them. We bought our babies (had to go with straight run) from a local farm. They're all very lively. They and McNugget accepted one another quite happily. I recommend trying the same!

Hang in there.

PulletSurpriseWinner

 

[Janie1968]

Oops, forgot to hit the quote button... the sweetest comment was in reference to Awalrooster getting barred rock chickies later this month.

 

[AwallRooster]

lil blue roo - that is awful!  There is a thread here somewhere that is a running review of hatcheries, you may want to consider posting your experience to save others the same disappointment.
I have received 2 small (10 pullet) orders from cackle hatchery, the only problem being that they were 30% cockerel (oops). My most recent order was from ideal, they arrived today, twice the number of chicks that I ordered.  I am afraid that they may be rock reds (barred rock /rhode island red cross) and all 7 male. As I cannot have roosters, I am hoping desperately that they are straight run barred rocks.  Had i only known they would send 15, I would have ordered more pullets and paid more, it is so hard to find homes for roosters, and I cannot bear to eat them.
Overall, ideal customer service has been nice, and the chicks appear active.  I will post in the hatchery forum when they reach 2 weeks old.
BTW, thanks all you lovely chicken parents for the fabulous review thread - it is how I felt comfortable ordering from ideal in the first place!

 

That is way I took the insurance out, for the fact reason that I Ordered 6 chicks from Ideal Poultry. 1roo,5hens Plymouth Rocks.And they actually called Me back before processing my order and said they would have to add at least 9to11mixed breed. Roo"s to my order cause it was a smaller then a 1/4 box order, an I told the lady I didn't won't no more roo "s but the one I ordered, so she told me to take the insurance out, cause they won't ship less then a 1/4 box without the insurance (why that is i don't know)but anyway they seemed to be very professional to me.
just hope the 6 little babies arrive in good heath.

 

[Janie1968]

Yeah, I'm a little worried about "packing peanuts" arriving with my chicks tomorrow from Ideal. I ordered 12 chicks and then called back to add two more. They sent me two e-mails about my chicks shipping out. Just like you awalrooster, I don't want anymore roosters. We have had way too many hatch out from my incubator, and while we have harvested about 10 so far I still have six left which is five too many. Ughhh! I'll let you know what shows up in my box(es) tomorrow and how my chicks shipping out from Texas fare in this hot weather.

 

[lil blue roux]

It is amazing to me how soothing it is to share my sadness with you all and receive comforting words. I'm a stranger on an internet forum and yet I feel heard.

Thank you.

***

On the packing peanuts...if they were marked clearly, or of breeds not in my order I wouldn't mind them coming along for the ride. In my thinking those males are going to be, uh, recycled anyway. I can do that particular deed myself, especially when they are young, nameless packing peanuts.

***

I've warmed a few eggs from the fridge to deposit under my broody, grumpy girl. Wrote "throw away" on them too. She took them quite happily. Hopefully that will hold her till I decide if I'm going to get chicks or hatching eggs.

 

[Adenium]

Adenium,

After seeing prizma's very cute chick pics, I definitely will post some of our new babies.  And even though I'm a big sap, I'm a guy!    You'd never know it, but my other hobbies are all nuts and bolts stuff, and I work in a machine shop.  There's just something about chickens that turns me into a softy.

Oops, sorry! Don't know why I was assuming woman. Didn't mean to emasculate!

 

[Janie1968]

lil blue roux - at what age should I harvest my roosters? My understanding on the Freedom Rangers is that it takes about 3 to 3 1/2 months to get them to a good weight. The roosters that we have harvested so far were older then that... at a guess I'd say between 4 to 5 months old. Those guys needed special attention at cooking time... only roasted one and that was a mistake. Have used the crock pot on another and that turned out a bit better. How do you handle them?

 

[Janie1968]

Chicks just arrived from Ideal... all are healthy and active, thank goodness! And NO packing peanuts!!! Yea!!! Those golden laced polish chicks are so cute! Now I need to figure out the difference between the black broiler and the black sex link.

 

[JakeBremer]

Hello, I sent my second order of chicks from ideal, 13. they are gonna be shipped on the 25th of this month.

 

[Shyla-C]

I ordered 20 chicks from Cackle Hatchery, they are shipping out on the 16th! I can't wait for them to get here.