I want to order chicks through the mail which makes me a little nervous since they are so little, but I want to be sure they are all girls and where I live there are not a lot of near by options (that I know of) for buying chicks. So..... if I want to order no more than 6 peeps who should I order from? Who have you had good experiences with and/or maybe not so great experiences with (like and unexpected roo or sick chicks)?
Everyone's going to give you a different answer, but I have done two small orders from Meyer Hatchery. It's in Ohio, so only 5.5 hours away from me. Both orders arrived less than 24 hours from shipping, and the checks were alive and healthy. My guess is any place you order from that does small orders is going to take two days minimum to get to you, even with express mail.
I got mine from Mypetchicken.com. Just got them last week and all arrived just fine. They will also ship as few as 3 chicks in one order. Had a great experience.
i got mine from mypetchicken.com and they arrived the following afternoon after shipping so i wouldn't say 2 days minimum for express shipping as i am in hawaii, which is rather a distance from Ohio. one of my 8 died after a week or so but i don't think it was my or the hatchery's fault. just wasnt meant to be. they were generally great customer service wise. the fact that you only want 6 and you want them sexed is going to limit your options a bit. because you want them sexed, it's a bad bet to get them off of craigslist. others will have to weigh in on who you can order from exactly with that few chickens but mypetchicken and ideal should be an option for you. i think with mypetchicken you can do 5 or 6 if you live within 30 min of a major city. i dunno, check it out. you might get stuck with having to get 8 and then pairing down. generally speaking i dont think people find it hard to find an interested party for female chicks. good luck!
Hi, I just got a small order from Ideal 10 chicks, I ordered 9 pullets and a roo. They didn't charge me much at all for a small order it like 4 dollars and for less than 2 dollars didn't add filler roos to the order they marked the breeds for me too. So for basicly less than $36 I got the chicks in one day no extras and insured. Was very pleased and they have a nice selection...
My Pet Chicken.com here as well..Ordered 6 and being they are from CT and so am I, they arrive the very next day. (They have a weird policy that I can't go physically pick them up but whatever..) They guarantee a 90% rate for sexing the chickens as well.. 5 weeks later all are doing very well. I would order from them again without reservation.
I got my 5 girl EEs from Randall Burkey. All are alive and well but one has curly toes and one developed a cross beak at 10 weeks old.
I got some chicks from my pet chicken, the arrived quickly, so far no mistakes in the sexing (that I can tell). One did die upon arrival. Due to my location the min order was 8 chicks. I think if you are more than an hour from a major city, the min order is 8 (I think). Their customer service is lovely and they actually refunded my the cost of the lost chick. My only complaint with them is that the shipping was a bit expensive. I also ordered from Cackle. The chicks did take two days to get to me (In in NH and I think the hartchery is in MO?). They sent me 1 extra chick. All chicks were healthy. I think their min order was 15 chicks but I thought their shipping rate was better.
Quote:Even the hatcheries make mistakes sometimes on sexing. When that happens, I'm not sure whether they expect you to ship back the cockerel or just "dispose" of it yourself. I got my first batch of chicks from a local hobby breeder who agreed to take back any that turned out to be cockerels. I'm so glad I got my chicks locally rather than having them shipped from one of the big commercial hatcheries. I was able to view the parent stock myself and see what conditions the birds were kept in, and I believe I got healthier and better genetic quality chicks than I would have if I'd gone the factory route. I also did not have the experience of opening up a box and finding dead chicks. This doesn't happen always, of course, but it's always a risk when you order through the mail.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think MyPetChicken is a middleman. When you order from them, they place an order with a commercial hatchery to fill it. I'm not sure which commercial hatchery or hatcheries they use, though.