Best Hatchery?

[The Moonshiner]

What you call "originals from MPC" I call plain ol mix breeds given a fancy name and charged more than they're worth.
Imo MPC sells average hatchery chicks and their mixed breeds and charges way too much for.
When you add in their shipping you could go to show breeders and get way nicer birds for the same price.

GFF does charge crazy crazy high prices. And the birds I've gotten from them were never the quality they should be for those prices.
That said they do sell actual rare breeds that you won't find else where or at least not as early as they have them. What I do know is wait till they've been out a few years and find breeders that bought them in the begining. Some breeders actually improve on them and the prices always drop as more get out there.

 

[Peep boy]

What you call "originals from MPC" I call plain ol mix breeds given a fancy name and charged more than they're worth.
Imo MPC sells average hatchery chicks and their mixed breeds and charges way too much for.
When you add in their shipping you could go to show breeders and get way nicer birds for the same price.

GFF does charge crazy crazy high prices. And the birds I've gotten from them were never the quality they should be for those prices.
That said they do sell actual rare breeds that you won't find else where or at least not as early as they have them. What I do know is wait till they've been out a few years and find breeders that bought them in the begining. Some breeders actually improve on them and the prices always drop as more get out there.

Thanks! I would prefer to get birds from breeders instead of hatcheries, because it feels a little more honest. My local breeder has some pretty great stuff, but she is experiencing Marek's in her flocks, so I don't know if I want to risk getting birds from her again.

 

[ScottandSam]

I am not a fan of dropshipping, but I really like the originals from MPC, like the blue Favaucana. I would love to get my hands on some of those... Any experience with green fire farms? Love their birds, but the prices are out of the roof!

I love our two blue Favaucana and the partridge olive eggers from mpc.
we have been really happy with them and now are going to try in breed our own.
Scott

 

[lazy gardener]

I urge caution when ordering from multiple hatcheries or breeders. IMO, the more different places you source your birds from, the more likely you are to introduce illness to your flock.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

One of the local farm store orders from Dunlap Hatchery in Caldwell, Idaho. I've purchased chicks from this store most ever spring and been very happy. I'll put there name out there since I don't think they're well know.

 

[Peep boy]

Checked out Dunlap. Cool hatchery!

 

[dheltzel]

I am a small time breeder (local only, can't ship) and of course I recommend going that route if you can find what you want locally. Getting reputable, local connections can be tricky. I recommend checking your local state message thread in the "Where am I" forum here. Personal recommendations are golden!
I bought a lot of chicks from Sandhill this year (for the first time) and they are probably not what you are looking for. It takes patience to order from them, but can be very rewarding. They are not a "call up and give them your credit card" hatchery. For that sort of ordering, I have used Privett and been happy with their stock. I have bought from Greenfire once, and would again if they had something I wanted to breed.
Sandhill is perfect for 2 types of customers, 1) breeders who are looking to preserve a rare breed and finding stock hard to locate, and 2) adventurous individuals or families that like the idea of getting rare and unusual poultry to try. I'm in the first group, but their assortments are a lot of fun, and I could imagine a certain type of customer really liking them. You have to be flexible about delivery and open minded about trying new breeds. Also, able to deal with roosters (all chicks are straight run). Getting a shipment from Sand Hill is like opening a Christmas present, at least for me.
I view my role as being to "shield" my customers from dealing with hatcheries and low quality breeders. I don't have a huge selection, but I get a few new breeds each year. Some turn out good, some not so much. I experiment and allow my customers to do some of that too. I make recommendations after talking to them and am usually spot on. I love having lots of happy customers. Many will only buy from me now because they know I'm out to make them successful. It's hard to make loads of money with that sort of attitude, but I have my day job for that, my hobby makes more friends than money. I'm not even rare in this, there are a lot of people like me that love what they do and try to pass that on. If you can find that in a local breeder, you don't need a hatchery until you get more advanced in your tastes.

 

[The Moonshiner]

@dheltzel
I'm curious about your sandhill birds. Are they grown and do they represent the breed well?
I was pretty excited with them and what they had available. Problem was most of what they listed were never available. I ended up with 7 different breeds/varieties. None represented their breed well. Some had a few issues/ serious faults. Some were so far from the standard that they wouldn't even been recognized as the breed they were sold as.
I'm all for working with faults and breeding to improve but you got to have something worth starting with. As a breed preservation breeder I was sadly disappointed.
I had leghorns with white legs, red earlobes, incorrect body type, small combs with too many points, layed cream eggs. The only thing leghorn about them was the name on the packing slip.
I had Orpingtons and Cochin that looked exactly the same except the Cochins had light feathering on the legs. Body type was so far off you couldn't guess what they were.
Shamo that looked like under sized Cornish X. Short and fat. Marans that looked the closest to their breed standard but ended up laying light brown eggs. Our Plymouth rocks layed darker eggs.
I honestly have gotten better birds from mainstream hatcheries.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I'm a bit unsure of what you're looking for as far as quality? You wanting just decent quality hatchery stock or something better?

Mainstream hatcheries I've used.
Cackle... has probably been the best overall.
Ideal... has had the worst overall.
Estes... average
Welp drop ships from privett... Average

 

[Peep boy]

Thanks! I'm just looking for birds that represent their breed. Especially looking for faverolle and black jersey Giants.