Attention those who plan on ordering chicks from hatcheries!

[Buster]

I have noticed many people lately ordering chicks from the various hatcheries around. I want to warn everyone that by ordering chicks during cold weather months, you run the risk of killing them from the cold. I know that the waiting is frustrating and the anticipation is great but it would do you much better to wait until April or even May to order hatchery chicks. Chicks get chilled very easy in the first few days of life (as I have learned through sad experience even in my own home) and the weather simply isn't stable enough to ship such fragile lives over great distances. For the sake of the chicks and for the sake of your emotion and even the feelings of your children, WAIT until the weather gets warmer. The experience will be better for everyone involved. Just because the hatcheries have chicks available doesn't mean it's necessarily time to have them shipped. I would reserve your order, but request a ship date for a warmer month. Good luck and enjoy those chicks when they get here, just be patient and wait!

 

[beakkeeper]

Quote:
So true. It's really sad when people open a box of what was supposed to be 100 chicks and it's more like 4 chicks and 96 dead fluffs.

 

[crzychicken]

That's what My Pet Chicken asked me to do, pick a week when I wanted them delivered.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Sooooo true!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Good point! Mine are coming June 10th. Now I just have to hurry up & WAIT!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I wasn't thinking about the weather when I placed my ideal order, and I have chicks coming from them next week....

My McMurray Order won't be coming until the end of March.

 

[jimnjay]

I can't agree more, Last year I read more reports of chicks dying in the process of shipping in the month of Feb and March. If you must order and you live in a reasonably warm climate, please order from Privett or Ideal. They are in Texas and New Mexico so the climate is more dependable and warmer. McMurray is in Iowa and they will take your orders but if you live in the north you are asking for problems. Even if the chicks make it they will have a much longer turn around time to recover from the whole process. Please use good judgment in ordering chicks in the winter months.

 

[WalkingWolf]

Just a thought what do you think happens to those chicks if nobody orders them? I just got my order I lost two out of 25, that happens in warm weather. 2 out of 25 is better odds than a hatch, really the only place a problem would arise is the airport. They are warm when they enter a heated truck then when picked up at the airport transported in a heated truck. Then your post office calls and if they do like mine they put them in a heated office until you pick them up. If they are left on the tarmac at the airport whether it is summer or winter you will have dead chicks. The only change I plan on making is not ordering bantams with standard chicks I think mine were trampled. BTW it was 16F on the night they were delivered to the post office.

 

[Buster]

Quote:
I wouldn't recommend ordering chicks in the heat of the summer either. Spring and Fall have the best temps. Also, what hatchery did you order from? NC is a pretty warm weather state so you would have much better luck than ordering chicks from the south going up north, because in general you have warmer temps than a lot of the country.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Um, nothing at all, mostly.

Chiefly they set eggs three weeks in advance as per the orders they get. So if you don't order chicks now, they don't put the eggs in the incubator in the first place.

They do set some 'on spec' of the popular breeds, but mostly not, AFAIK.

Pat