Buying chickens from local vender

[Hoosiercluck]

I love my local Tractor Supply store, good, friendly people. However, I ordered what was suppose to be Isa Brown from them last year, and pretty sure they are RIR. I even have posted pictures before and the response seems to be they are NOT Isa Brown as I hoped.
They are currently doing Chick Days and have a pullet pen of the Isa Brown chicks at the store. I would really like a couple of these chickens, so I am considering getting a few, but have others had bad luck from getting what is labeled on the pen?

 

[Wryen'sTheBomb.com]

Nope, I've gotten everything as labeled on the pen. Not purebred (I have a BO with a black tip on it's tail) but I wouldn't expect it.

It's a tractor supply store.

Don't know what to tell you other than good luck​

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Do you have a rural king near you(ie within an hour or two)? When we were in Indiana I preferred getting my chicks there when I bought from retailers as they ordered a better selection of breeds and, while not an issue for me dfue to my own knowledge, more knowledgeable about those breeds and general poultry keeping in the assistance they provided to ttheir fustomers

 

[sheetmetaltom]

dont have a tss near me, but the local feed store here has always labeled the chicks correctly. they are friendly and helpful, unfortunately they only sell chicks as straight run so you never know how many hens/roos you will get, so the last few years i order from hatcheries so i get the ratio that im looking for.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

One thing to do for yourself is thoroughly familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the breeds you are looking for (leg color, toe count, feathering or lack of for face and shanks, skin color, comb bud type, down patterns). This allows you to better id what is or isnt in a given brooder

 

[Hoosiercluck]

since I buy chicks, I know what the chick looks like, but I also know from other breeders, IsaBrown can be hard to distinguish at chick age from RIR if you don't know what you are doing. I will look into Rural King too, about 40 minutes away.

 

[member 373180]

I have several RK and TSC. I think it just depends on who they have working the chicks, some of my local stores have a person who knows the breeds and cares, others not so much so you take your chances.
You can take your phone and pull up the website of a hatchery that has good pics of babies and compare before you buy to help sort them out.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

I've heard many times where somebody picked out a chick from a bin and the chick was miss-labeled. Essentially, some customer picks up a black or yellow chick coos over it and then puts it down in a bin with black or yellow chicks... not paying attention to the fact that they just put a BR in with BSL, or that they picked up a LH and put it in with CX... or visa versa.
Don't get me wrong... my first set of six, I got from a feed store, but they had all the chicks locked up. You couldn't access them w/out an employee, and they wouldn't let you hold them. If you wanted to coo at it, you had to do it with the bars in between you and the chicks.
I think that method is better, so that you know everybody and their brother's cousin hasn't touched those babies and exposed them to who knows what.

 

[Hoosiercluck]

I can see that for sure. I special ordered mine and I think the chicks are separated with orders and "packaged" so they are not in the big arena in the store, but can't say that for sure. They called when the chicks came in, and when I arrived they were boxed and ready. My other unfortunate thing, I got a rooster with a pullet order. He, Benny, is thank goodness a wonderful rooster, but I wanted and paid for pullet. Chickens....fun!

 

[K813ZRA]

Most of my TSC chicks have been what they said they were. Ours is very strict in that you are not allowed to handle the chicks at all while in the store if you are not an employee. However, I got my barred rock from the Australorp bin.