Central and Schlechlt have best prices, but are their chicks good quality? What do you think? Thanks.
Schlecht Hatchery is hands down the best I've used and I've used dozens of hatcheries for broilers. All hatcheries are gong to vary from batch to batch... that's the nature of the business as the quality of the chicks has more to do with the breeders themselves. However the incubators have a huge say in how the chicks hatch and thrive. For instance if the temp fluctuates too much, say it gets too hot... the chicks will hatch a few hours early and will not thrive. They will be smaller when you get them and you are less likely to have problems. Only once have I had this happen with Schlecht but all were replaced the next week. They are a small hatchery and the owner actually has a catering business too so I'm assuming the incubators are not state of the art and fluctuations do happen. However the service and price outweigh any other issues that I have dealt with. Hands down a class act. However there are other hatcheries that have amazing incubator systems that keep this from happening, but the price also reflects this. Welp, Moyers, and Meyers have state of the art facilities but the price for all have went up in the last few years drastically. Probably to help pay for the millions that are invested. I've heard mixed reviews from central.... so I'm not sure. I have never ordered from them, just chatted on the phone a couple of times.
I order from as close to MN as I can. The last 5 years, I have ordered from Hoover with great success. Since you are in a different galaxy, you may want to ask around locally The best price, well... If you order 100 and loose 20 in the first week because they were "the cheapest", that great deal doesn't look so good. Worse yet, loose them after you have been feeding them for 8 weeks. What I am saying is that good stock is priceless especially if you are raising for others who will pay a good price. (Like Jeff does, but he is the exception )
I had a bad expirience with Central. I lost almost 40 chicks out of 100. It's the only time I have ever had that happen. I didn't call them or anything to see if they would make things right, just never ordered from there again. I know others who have had no problems, but I wasn't going to risk it again.
Here is a chart I made: HATCHERY PRICE Per 25 Chicks (St Run) Shipping Total $ Located Hatch day Central $22.50 $7.00 $29.50 Nebraska Wednesday Schlecht $22.00 $20.95 $42.95 Iowa Tuesday Hoffman $40.00 $10.50 $50.50 Gratz, PA Unknown Moyer $46.25 $12.70 $58.95 Quakertown, PA Unknown Welp $39.00 Unknown Unknown Iowa Unknown McMurray $46.25 $14.70 $60.95 Iowa J.M. Freedom Rangers $50.00 $40.00 $90.00 PA Unknown
Welp's price includes shipping, so while others may have a lower cost on birds, others make it up in shipping.
I need to chime in and say Schlecht, for price and quality. I live in NCentral Il and they are close, they are a smaller farm operation, their prices are great and customer service even greater. I don't raise the quantity that Jeff (BruntyFarms) does, but I raised two batches of 25 in '09 and one batch this year )(and one batch of FR), only lost three total within a day or so and one at 7 weeks from the three batches and they sent an extra each time so I butchered exactly what I paid for. Just my two cents!
I've heard good things about Schlecht, it's just that the local feed stores and fleet/farm operations around here get theirs through Hoover so when ever I order layers and whatnot I get them from the same hatchery. Schlecht didn't carry the breeds I wanted. HOWEVER, this year I am getting all my layers through breeders instead of hatchery's so there really is no reason not to give them a try this year for my broilers.
