Bad Experience w/IDEAL Poultry Hatchery: Normal Occurrence?

[Greenlight Farm]

I just recently ordered from Ideal for the 1st time, small order of only 10 bantams. Ideal included 5 males (I assume broilers) for warmth and all chick's arrived alive, from TX all the way north to Central Vermont! Shipping was fast, took about a day and a half. It's now been 7days since arrival and I've lost 2 of the bantams but considering the distance traveled and travel Temps that's not bad. As luck would have it both were my favorite out of the lot but they were also the smallest of them all, 1 Mille fleur OEB and 1 Silver seabright.

Also I know most folks say that hatchery stock isn't the best but my birds, although young, look great. The 1 seabright that passed had great confirmation even at such a young age, it was heart breaking when he passed.

Anyway I would not hesitate to order from them again and maybe doing another order later this spring. My suggestion if you want to limit the impact of chicks dying in your shipment is to order more then you need/want, instead of getting just 2 of any given breed order 4 for example. You can easily sell or find homes for any excess chick's on this site or even Craigslist.

 

[janieannie]

I have ordered from Ideal 3 times in the past. Just got an order in February. They sent 10 extra. I did lose 8 chicks, but ended up with more than I ordered. They are all healthy. I live in Kentucky & it was cold in Feb. I did have an order where I lost several chicks, also shipped in winter. Ideal immediately shipped replacements. Their customer service has always been great. So sorry your experience was bad. I've always been satisfied with Ideal.

 

[cedarcovefarm]

I ordered 6 ducklings from Ideal. They included 13 "males for warmth." 13! I cannot even have roosters where I live. 1 duck arrived dead. One duck was sick (runny eye and stuffy nose). I'm not sure if this was a cold or a virus. The sick duck died within 2 days. Several dead chicks. This shipment was single boxed. No heating pad and too much room for all the birds to shift and get trampled.
We were very disappointed with our shipment from Ideal. The 13 roosters added to the box made for a rough shipment. We live in an area that does not allow roosters so we are burdened with either finding a home for these roosters or disposing of them. I have young children that take this very emotionally. I didn't even order chicks so I don't feel I should have been burdened with the dying and rehoming of chicks. I have ordered from other hatcheries that double boxed and used heating pads. All previous shipped birds from other hatcheries have been healthy and happy after shipment. No need for "males for warmth." Even in below freezing temps. I'm sad that our experience with Ideal has been undesirable. My children are heartbroken at the loss of their 2 ducks and the several chicks. We own chickens and other waterfowl so we are not inexperienced owners. I hope Ideal will reconsider their shipping practices.

 

[Balloonjuice]

I have always ordered from Ideal in the past and have always had good success with their chicks. I've ordered Red Stars, RIR, and Black Stars. This year they did not have the breed I wanted when I wanted it (a result of me waiting too long to order), so I ordered from a different hatchery which I will not name. Out of an order of 30 (and 36 shipped), only 19 lived. My brooder setup is exactly the same as it has been in previous years when ordering from Ideal. The chicks were treated the same; we taught them to drink the same; the thermostats and windows were set the same. Now, the hatchery in question refunded me for the lost chicks - the ones I paid for. It just goes to show that shipping chicks through the mail, while ordinarily safe, does come with some risk.

Important Note: I live in Texas so we are much closer to Ideal than we are to the other hatchery and the distances involved may be the whole difference, but I honestly don't know.

 

[0wen]

Small order from Ideal (first time using them) and so far 40% of the chicks have died. They're in a brooder with other similar aged and sized chicks from other hatcheries - showing no signs of injury but in general the order seemed low energy upon arrival - picked up on 4/14 a.m. at post office after shipping on 4/12. I live in VA and this is the furthest I've shipped chicks - hoping the remainders live, but who knows. I have my shopping cart @ ideal full but will cancel it out and not use them again.

 

[realsis]

I am so very very sorry you all had such a bad experience. That's heartbreaking. This year I placed my order for chicks in January from Meyer Hatchery. I choose April for my ship date. The hatchery is in Ohio, I'm in California. I had a small order of ten chicks. They hatched and. Shipped on April 11th, I recieved them on April 12th afternoon. ALL WERE ALIVE AND HEALTHY THANK God! They had a nice heat pack and extra nest material. No extra male chicks. I am so happy with Meyer. They did a amazing job and it was a great experience! !

 

[0wen]

I am so very very sorry you all had such a bad experience. That's heartbreaking. This year I placed my order for chicks in January from Meyer Hatchery. I choose April for my ship date. The hatchery is in Ohio, I'm in California. I had a small order of ten chicks. They hatched and. Shipped on April 11th, I recieved them on April 12th afternoon. ALL WERE ALIVE AND HEALTHY THANK God! They had a nice heat pack and extra nest material. No extra male chicks. I am so happy with Meyer. They did a amazing job and it was a great experience! !

I've used Meyer in the past but didn't order chicks until late this year (we were moving, new baby, etc) so their stock was limited and I chose Ideal and My Pet Chicken. MPC chicks arrived Tuesday, Ideal Wednesday - MPC chicks are doing great but the Ideal chicks aren't faring well at all. This morning there was another dead Ideal chick, which brings the total dead past the 50% mark. I'd been checking them every couple of hours - making sure they're getting food and drink - temps were good, no signs of obvious illness; they're simply not thriving. There is zero chance that I order from Ideal again, and how things are going, I'll be surprised if I have anything from their hatchery left alive this time next week...

 

[happycorvid]

I ordered 16 chicks from Ideal: 4 mille fleur dutch, 4 porcelain dutch, 4 black d'anvers and 4 bantam RIR. They arrived 3-17. To date, 7 of them have died. All the mille fleur and 2 of the d'anvers died died within 4 days of arrival. Another d'anvers developed a severe scissor beak and died a week ago. The remaining d'anvers has a bit of scissor beak and excels at escaping any enclosure. I think its a roo and I call it Adventure Chicken. Ideal refunded me for the mille fleurs. They were pleasant to deal with. I've never ordered chicks by mail and only raised bantams from the feed store, but have never experienced such high losses. I ordered from them because they had the best selection of clean footed bantams. I'll probably just be patient next time and try to buy local.

 

[0wen]

A single Ideal bantam survived - not very 'ideal' after all... By comparison 100% of the chicks from My Pet Chicken are thriving. Shipped the week, living under identical conditions. One and done with Ideal. I don't know if it's the quality of their stock, the handling conditions of the chicks, shipping conditions, or what, but a ~90% mortality rate is unacceptable. From this thread, it's clear others are having similar experiences, but I doubt a few complaints from an online forum will have any impact on whatever is occurring at Ideal so what can you do? (Obviously order from other hatcheries or one better, find quality breeders --- an unfortunate lesson learned...)

 

[littlekatzz]

I have mixed feelings on ideal. My last order from them being a perfect example. I ordered 30 duccle chicks on special for 1.15 each a great deal I couldn't pass up. And 20 ducks at 2.00. 7 ducks and 17 duccle chicks were DOA. Called ideal asap they reshiped the very next week. All replacement ducks were alive. Of the 17 duccle chicks 9 were DOA . At that point I took the credit on the remaining chicks owed . The duccle chicks were assorted colors. Well fast forward 2 months and the Mille fluer duccle chicks of which I had 7 from the 1st shipment were not duccle chicks but bantam buff brahmas. The survivors Mille fluers from my 2nd shipment were d'uccles as were all my other colors from both shipments. So yet again I called ideal. I sent them pictures and explained my situation. They sent another replacement shipment of 9 assorted d'uccles. So it took 3 shipments to get the birds I ordered and one partial credit however they never once doubted me and were pleasant to deal with through this whole ordeal. Also of note I live in Nevada and those first 2 shipments were in February which could have easily been a factor. Would I order from them again.. Yes. Their advertised specials are amazing deals. However bantams shipped in winter are not a good idea for me. Also of note many of their birds I've found to be very generic versions of the breed and perfect examples of how far hatchery stock can be from breed SOP. On the other hand many have been fantastic layers for me. Last year I ordered some bantam blue laced red wyandottes, what I got was more along the line of splash laced buffs who laid surprisingly well for bantams . I eventually sold those as they weren't what I had my heart set on. Like I've stated many pros and cons. Cheap prices , good costumer service, cheap shipping. And a perfect example of you get what you pay for. They are more quantity over Quality.