Cackle Hatchery reviews

[ConPollos]

I'm not familiar with Mr. Lay's chickens.  I'll let you know how mine do somewhere in September. I hope to get a bunch of hatching in in the fall.   And... a bunch of eggs.

UPDATE: My local farm supply just called me to say they can't get me the three Buckeyes I added to my order from Cackle bc Cackle needs a minimum order of 15 and they don't sell them wholesale, only retail. So, it's okay, I'll wait until December or January to order from Jeff Lay at Cairns Run Ranch in time for spring delivery. Unless I feel like I have enough chickens by then and decide not to get Buckeyes after all. But I think they're really neat.

 

[tbishop]

I tried to buy from him but I could never get him to commit to taking my money. I figured I'd rather own hatchery stock than not own breeder stock. They are a pretty political breed- I'm fine with staying out of that mess.

 

[ConPollos]

I tried to buy from him but I could never get him to commit to taking my money.  I figured I'd rather own hatchery stock than not own breeder stock.  They are a pretty political breed- I'm fine with staying out of that mess.

Interesting. I sent Mr. Lay a couple of emails and never got a reply. I emailed a local Buckeye breeder, and also Mr. Shumaker, and they replied very nicely, but they don't have any Buckeyes for sale. I guess Buckeyes are just hard to get right now.

 

[tbishop]

If you follow the politics of it, you'll find there are two breed groups and they don't get along well. I think one group is worried that their birds will get co-opted by the other group and so they don't sell any. It just doesn't seem worth getting involved in. The birds I get from elsewhere are good enough for me.

 

[ConPollos]

If you follow the politics of it, you'll find there are two breed groups and they don't get along well.  I think one group is worried that their birds will get co-opted by the other group and so they don't sell any.  It just doesn't seem worth getting involved in.  The birds I get from elsewhere are good enough for me.

Yeah, I discovered the animosity between the two groups after a few hours of Googling. What does it mean to be "co-opted"? You mean one group is afraid the other group will get their birds' genetics and take credit.for thier breeding acomplishments?

I still don't get why Cackle has a shortage of Buckeyes when their website says they've been breeding them for several years. I wonder what lines Cackle has.

 

[Rin]

Well, I came here hoping for specific reviews of JUST Cackle Hatchery, instead had to trudge through several clearly biased lectures of how all hatcheries suck / how they don't personally breed all their birds.

Does it matter? They're a Hatchery. Duh. When I'm looking for a review of a HATCHERY it's already clear I want hatchery chicks. Period. I just want to check if the stock they're using (said stock still comes from specific breeder stock) is any good and how they handle their DoA's. That part seems to be mixed reviews at best.

Normally, I order through Ideal Poultry (their shipping is a lot cheaper, have never had birds die except when I had them vaccinated, but this year they seem to refuse to bring one of my breeds of choice into stock at all; Salmon Faverolles. By their own page these should have been available by now but guess what.)

So, I'm trying Cackle Hatchery for the first time for my order of 10 straight run Salmon Faverolles and 5 unsexed Cayuga ducks; I had them, Myer, and Murray McMurray to choose from for the chicks I needed. The latter two seemed to have really bad reviews of these breeds in particular; neurological issues, health issues, and major faults in the stock they use (no feathers on feet or beards which is pretty major imho since these are what drew me to salmon faverolles, blatant mixed breed Cayugas with white and black barring on their undersides, and their shipping minimums were strange and honestly I didn't feel like buying even more chicks when they weren't wanted) Most of these issues had photographic proof coinciding.

SO I decided to take the plunge, ordered my birds yesterday from Cackle, will actually give a review OF THIS HATCHERY when they get here. So far, I will say their ordering/minimums system seems to be the most straight forward of the three, since ducks counted (as they should) towards the minimum chick total. Ordering keets though is exactly the same as Myer and Murray McMurray, but half what Murray wanted as a minimum. I still did not need 15 keets for my tick issues so decided not to order these this time (will be going with a local feed store instead). The total price was also very comparable to the other two hatcheries. Only about $3 more for my grand total from Myer, but $20 less than McMurray (since I had to buy 5 more birds than desired to reach their minimum for CHICKEN chicks).

 

[tbishop]

Hi Rin-

I haven't read all the way back- there definitely seemed to be an anti-hatchery theme going on here when I first started participating in the thread. If you look from page 10 on it's more about the birds and service from Cackle.

 

[mrchicks]

Hi Rin,

There was some bashing going on, and the thread did go off topic.

I use Cackle exclusively now, and am always happy with my birds and the service that I receive. My last order was 150 chicks, I received 156 healthy birds. My current order has been placed for 200+ birds and I have no reason to doubt that I will be pleased. They are scheduled to ship on the 18th. I'll post my results from that shipment as well.

My customers are also thrilled with their Cackle birds, which is what really counts.

 

[Rin]

Hi Rin-

I haven't read all the way back- there definitely seemed to be an anti-hatchery theme going on here when I first started participating in the thread. If you look from page 10 on it's more about the birds and service from Cackle.

Yeah, I read the whole thing first but it seems they decided to inject their 2 cents throughout beginning to near end which both amused and irked me.

I have gotten some really impressive specimens from Ideal Poultry in particular and have never gotten anything that resembled a "mixed breed" (other than actual mixed breed easter eggers ordered through my local feed store). I'm aware it does happen but not that commonly and usually through very specific hatcheries as their breeders may have made mistakes and from what I hear, those mistakes are usually very isolated and never happen again once it's complained about? The thing to be aware of, is the breeders working with hatcheries sometimes are the exact same breeders you are buying hatching eggs from online (I had a very interesting situation when this came up from a different hatchery, I ordered 12 hatching eggs each from both a hatchery and directly from a breeder on e-bay. The look on my face when I got 2 boxes wrapped very similarly with 15 eggs each (+ extras), and a card from the same farm in both boxes, I thought the Breeder accidentally shipped me 2 boxes; ebay - sometimes people get confused, but after contacting her she informed me that no, she worked with that hatchery too! Her stock was porcelain D'uccles and really nice ones at that.

Up until then, I was under the strong impression from people like the ones aforementioned earlier in this thread that hatcheries didn't sell any pure bred birds, not just that their birds weren't show quality - but not the breeds represented at all! I call bull on these people now. The problem is, these hatcheries work with a lot of chefs and you know what they say about that broth sometimes.

 

[popsicle]

Stuff

I've ordered from Ideal and Cackle. I generally go with Cackle, because I enjoy their Hatchery Surprise box. I've found that their stock is generally a little better--at least with breeds they charge a premium for (White Chanteclers, Marans, etc). I know they got their original Chantecler flock from a well known and respected breeder. I've seen over and over again that Cackle frequently buys breeder stock at shows etc--now, what happens to the quality after a few years is another thing (I'm not going to even pretend I know anything about breeding quality birds, that's why I buy new chicks every spring).

I very much appreciate the videos of the breeder flocks. I have found the videos do a great job giving one an idea of the quality of the birds you will end up with. Did you look at the videos for the Faverolles? My understanding is that it's hard to maintain good salmon color. Please do review your Salmon Faverolles here!

I will say that MOST of my chickens from Cackle have been perfectly fine representatives of the breeds. However, my Silver Laced Wyandotte was small and mossy, and with generally terrible lacing. You can look at the breeder flock video for SLW on Cackle's website and see exactly what I'm talking about. She did lay like a champ though. She was probably half the size of my Silver Laced Wyandotte from Welp (Privett). Any time I get SLW in my Cackle box they are given to somebody else.

ETA: And since I mentioned it in another thread... 75% of my Cochins have had icky vulture hocks.