Cackle Hatchery issues (I do not suggest using them)

[humblehillsfarm]

I have seen several hatcheries that offer an extra chick, and they all give you a choice to accept or refuse it. So if you cannot have roosters, and if the free chick is likely to be a male (McMurray's usually are), then you just refuse the free chick. No problem.

At the very least, if this is a common practice, hatcheries should clarify this. It's a terrible position for many folks to be in to dispense of or dispatch a rooster when there was never supposed to be one. If I had not known I'd receive a rooster, I'd certainly take the extra chick. Thankfully I was aware of Meyer's policy and have always received accurately sexed chicks. I was simply saying I didn't agree with the policy of throwing in a free unexpected male. Personally, I can handle keeping or eating the extra male, but I've been on the other side of the fence too.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Whats thats not fair. I recived my crested cream legbar they were not auto sexable at all and once they turned 6 weeks they looked nothing like a cream legbar they looked like a mix breed look and the red laced cronish I orderd were to small I thought they were bantams and one had barring patterns instead of lacing all though the barring is pretty

Most hatcheries have poor autosexing lines.

 

[Cecisflock]

Maybe they didn’t have any more girls available that day or just made a mistake. They might have not had any left over after orders.

I didn't think of this...

 

[ShrekDawg]

I didn't think of this...

Yeah, usually the extras they include or the mix boxes hatcheries offer are just what’s leftover after all the other orders are filled so if they had a bad hatch or a lot of female orders or whatever then they might not have had more

 

[VeryHappyHens]

Most hatcheries have poor autosexing lines.

True. But some hatcherys like meyers seem to have good breed qauilty.Thats why I use Meyers hatchery now. From my experience meyers chicken quality are great.

 

[lilmillefleur]

 

[GingerAndHerChicks]

I am just creating this thread to talk about my issues I have had with cackle hatchery.
1- they sent me a chicken with 4 legs!
2- After talking to customer service about said chicken- they totally blew me off and didn't respond back to me for WEEKS
3- After I did get in touch with CS they told me there was nothing the could do and no refunds were given.
4- One of my sex links was clearly a rooster based off of color and I had ordered all females.
5- No refunds were given for that either.
I am overall not happy with them. Fell free to disagree or share your stories too!

4 legs, didn’t know that can happen. Poor chick.

 

[Cecisflock]

4 legs, didn’t know that can happen. Poor chick.

She is doing fine! we love her.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

The roo was a sex link. It is pretty much 100% I assume they didn't refund for the 4 legged because she was an extra though.

Are you sure it’s a sex link? Maybe they gave you the wrong breed. For instance, both sexes of amberlinks look like red sex link males.

Whats thats not fair. I recived my crested cream legbar they were not auto sexable at all and once they turned 6 weeks they looked nothing like a cream legbar they looked like a mix breed look and the red laced cronish I orderd were too small I thought they were bantams and one had barring patterns instead of lacing all though the barring is pretty

You could’ve gotten the wrong breeds. Maybe Easter eggers (legbar mixes) instead of purebred legbars. Cornish bantams are actually more common than standard cornish, so you could’ve gotten white laced red or dark cornish bantams.

 

[NatJ]

the red laced cronish I orderd were too small I thought they were bantams and one had barring patterns instead of lacing all though the barring is pretty

How old are they? (Or if you do not still have them, how long did you keep them?)

I have seen some chicks that grew barred-looking feathers first, and later grew laced feathers as they got older.

And purebred Cornish do grow slowly. They also have close-fitting feathers, so they look smaller than other chickens that are the same weight. The common "Cornish cross" meat birds that grow so fast originated as a crossing with a White Rock, to get them to grow faster.

If they were still mis-marked when they grew up, and never grew to an appropriate weight, then I certainly agree that is a problem. But sometimes chicks go through weird stages as they grow, and turn out fine when they mature.

Cornish bantams are actually more common than standard cornish, so you could’ve gotten white laced red or dark cornish bantams.

Not from McMurray. They offer the standards but not the bantams.