Bad Experience w/IDEAL Poultry Hatchery: Normal Occurrence?

[Orange Ribbon]

I forgot to mention that my wife ordered 17 partridge rocks from Ideal and we got them in over a week ago. They were all lively upon arrival and every one is still doing great. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

 

[HHandbasket]

Sometimes, I think it's just luck of the draw, conditions in weather/shipping between the hatchery and the place the chicks are headed for delivery, etc.

I ordered 25 WFBS chicks this spring from Ideal. They sent me 26. One was nearly DOA, and one was murdered by a broody hen in my yard (long story). The other 24 are now a month old and are healthy, vibrant, excellent type, active, eat like PIGS, and are just all-around great chicks. One has crossbeak and is missing an eye (I think the other chicks pecked out his eye), but even with a crossed beak, he's eating and drinking and is active with the rest of his flock. He's got a really sweet personality, as do all of them (flighty though they may be).

I have nothing but good things to say about Ideal. However, I know that there are good and bad stories out there about every single hatchery. It has been my experience, however, that the good stories about Ideal outweigh the bad by a long shot.

I'll order from them again.

 

[beauty2thebirds]

I have only dealt with them once so far.
25 assorted pullets 2 turkeys and 20 crested ducks. They made it from the hatchery to my post office in 30 hours.
1 turkey and 1 chick was DOA. The 2 deceased looked like, they died healthy. Not crushed, wet or any of the other craziness we tend to see with chick shipments. My replacements are on the way at this moment.
This was a week ago, and ALL of my other babies from that shipment are doing fantastic
In all honesty, it is probably the postal service, the babies were set in front of the air conditioner would be my first guess. Sometimes when they are trying to be helpful, they do more harm than good.
I will continue to do business with Ideal poultry, and I encourage you to give them another try. Good luck on the new batch and ....
Happy Hatching!

Tonya

 

[mszbdog1]

I ordered 25 silkies a couple of months ago out of 25 11 are still living, ordered again from them 2 weeks or less ago 25 cochin out of the 25 I only have 4 living and they don't look so good. I will never order from them again! Might have been stress related with the last bunch, but the first bunch of silkies that came in it was not hotter than two hells outside, I just can't keep ordering chicks and 3/4 of them end up dead within a week or ordering them, all the one's I've hatched myself are doing great except for one little guy that somehow got into the cochin holding cell.
Bev

 

[tomcat1]

you guys think you had it bad with ideal, ive got it bad I just ordrered 75 old english chicks from them and all but one showed up dead and I had purchased them for a school project that probably will be incomplete Ideals operator told me they would ship out on wednesday and it would take 1-2business days well it took three days. I cant believe they would ship them priorty mail instead of express its really depressing when all your birds arrive dead ive ordered from several hatcheries and have never had this problem

 

[MrsMoonCat]

I ordered 25 chicks in June 2011 from Ideal. I received 27 with 4 being dead and 2 more dying that day. Ideal was very nice and refunded the price for those 6. Over the next three months ALL but two of the birds died.

I know lots of things come into play raising animals. But the thing is that I had orders from two other hatcheries arrive the same week. All three batches were raised in seperate brooders. (I use the big solid fiberglass bins used to ship produce on trucks.) They all received the exact same care, food, environment - everything. Once they were six weeks old, they were all moved to pens. The two pens from the other hatcheries are still going strong with no losses. I have just the two little Iowa Blue hens left from the Ideal pen.

I am not bashing Ideal at all, just sharing my experience. Their service was great, I just think there might have been an issue last spring as I notice this thread originated during that same time period.

 

[wildriverswolf90]

i oredered frpm ideal last year 8 buff orpigtons and 5 cochins the orpingtons arrived happy and healthy and although they forgot my cochins they sent them the next week at no charge and i got 4 packing peanuts that turned out to be 2 EE hens 2 EE roos. i ordered agian from them this month and cant wait to see the chichks. several of my birds look amazing and are now laying. my cochin that i kept has the most beautiful foot feathering. i will be ordering my duckks from them this spring and probaly more chicks this fall!

 

[gmendoza]

We have 6 bb turkeys comming next week.they are early birds because Ideal called and asked if we wouldnt mind them early. We are getting packing peanuts from them as well.Our packing peanuts from last years batch was 6 rir mixed. we still have 4 of them.one rir roo and three rir hens.

 

[flower]

Over the years I have ordered chicks from McM, MPC, Stombergers and Ideal. Ideal is the only hatchery that I have or will reorder from because even though the birds are hatchery quality, their service is polite, prices are competitive, and they have the best variety of all the hatcheries. Also I think they boast about being the largest in the country. I do not order June through September because we have triple digit heat here also. In fact this IS Death Valley area. It is amazing that all the creatures here adapt. My chickens are not ducks but they like their swimming pools for foot baths.

 

[JenellYB]

I haven't raised many chickens in a few years, but did for many years....And, for many years, most of the chickens I had, mostly dual purpose, some straight egg layers, came from Ideal either directly or through local feed stores that ordered from them. In all those years, the only batch of chicks I remember having any serious problems with that were clearly not my own fault, or something that happened here, after I got them, was a single time I made the mistake of buying a batch of 50 Cornish X Rock chicks and 50 White rock chicks instead of my usual choice, just all White Rocks, that were at the feed store, to mainly raise for fryers. Man, did I learn THAT lesson well, those poor Cornish X going down, crippled, unable to walk, I was horrified, couldn't imagine what was going wrong! Never again would another Cornish X Rock cross my property line, lol! But that wasn't the hatchery's fault, it was my ignorance about that variety.

But, now I don't mean to insult or hurt anyone's feelings here, but I live in SE Texas, and even aside from these recent extra hot summers, I've just gotta say this....anybody that tries to order and raise chicks in the heat of the summer months in the southern half of this country has to be either very green or very crazy! The rate of losses for those that try in these mids-summers has to be horrific overall. When temps are hitting or even nearing 100 degrees day after day, it can be hard to keep them alive even in shaded and ventilated barns, let alone little boxes stacked in the back of hot trucks!