Cackle Hatchery reviews

[devious66]

I have an order number and when I log in it says processing with no ship date. April 2 2016. Still no word from the company.

 

[popsicle]

I have an order number and when I log in it says processing with no ship date. April 2 2016. Still no word from the company.

Call them.

Mine said the same thing. All my emails from them usually end up as spam.

 

[FurryHerbalist]

In February 2016, ordered 9 Speckled Sussex (8 hens, 1 roo), 8 Barred Rock hens and 11 Black Copper Maran (10 hens, 1 roo) from eFowl, who had Cackle fulfill the order. It was an abysmal experience.

First Cackle substituted the heritage Speckled Sussex with a newish breed called Rainbow Chickens - not the Easter eggers, but a breed designed to mature faster & produce 300 eggs/year - even though I specified no substitutions. eFowl said Cackle did that without their knowledge and refunded me the cost of the substituted chicks. That was good on eFowl's part, annoying on the part of Cackle. At least the hatchery could have substituted with another heritage breed or more of the other breeds I ordered. Cackle never responded to my complaint email.

Even though I ordered sexed birds at extra cost, I have 6 Black Copper Maran roos out of the 10 sexed hens. Several of the birds have crossed beaks. The Barred rocks, which were supposed to be all hens, turned out with 2 roos. That could be attributed to chance since sexing is an art after all. But 6 rosters out of 10 Maran hens? I couldn't have done worse if I ordered a straight run. I would have saved $2.50 per bird, too! As far as this order of chicks is concerned, Cackle can't sex worth a darn, is unresponsive to emails and has poor breeding stock. Maybe they are shipping their rejects through eFowl, I don't know. I sent an email to eFowl suggesting they re-examine their relationship with Cackle and got no reply.

I so wanted to support a small hatchery, but I may go back to Murray McMurry even if they do throw unordered chicks into a grinder.

 

[popsicle]

In February 2016, ordered 9 Speckled Sussex (8 hens, 1 roo), 8 Barred Rock hens and 11 Black Copper Maran (10 hens, 1 roo) from eFowl, who had Cackle fulfill the order. It was an abysmal experience.

First Cackle substituted the heritage Speckled Sussex with a newish breed called Rainbow Chickens - not the Easter eggers, but a breed designed to mature faster & produce 300 eggs/year - even though I specified no substitutions. eFowl said Cackle did that without their knowledge and refunded me the cost of the substituted chicks. That was good on eFowl's part, annoying on the part of Cackle. At least the hatchery could have substituted with another heritage breed or more of the other breeds I ordered. Cackle never responded to my complaint email.

Even though I ordered sexed birds at extra cost, I have 6 Black Copper Maran roos out of the 10 sexed hens. Several of the birds have crossed beaks. The Barred rocks, which were supposed to be all hens, turned out with 2 roos. That could be attributed to chance since sexing is an art after all. But 6 rosters out of 10 Maran hens? I couldn't have done worse if I ordered a straight run. I would have saved $2.50 per bird, too! As far as this order of chicks is concerned, Cackle can't sex worth a darn, is unresponsive to emails and has poor breeding stock. Maybe they are shipping their rejects through eFowl, I don't know. I sent an email to eFowl suggesting they re-examine their relationship with Cackle and got no reply.

I so wanted to support a small hatchery, but I may go back to Murray McMurry even if they do throw unordered chicks into a grinder.

I don't believe that Cackle sells anything remotely resembling what you describe as a Rainbow. McMurray sells a new fast-growing-high-production-blue-egg layer called a Whiting True Blue and a Pioneer (also called Dixie Rainbow) which is a multi-colored dual purpose broiler-thing. Meyer sells Rainbow Rangers.

I will agree that anytime I've ordered sexed pullets from Cackle, I end up with at least one cockerel. I split an order of Easter Egger pullets a few years ago--of the five chicks I got from the order I got 2 cockerels. This year I ordered 5 Easter Egger pullets with my hatchery surprise, again at least one is a male--I'm afraid there might be three.

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Feed store in town here deals exclusively with Cackle. Sexing has always been accurate on barred rocks and speckled sussex, but dismal on Easter Eggers, about 70% accurate. 90% on Orpingtons and Jersey Giants. I don't know about other breeds, that's just what I asked about. Pretty good if you don't count the EEs.

Sounds like eFowl might have grabbed from multiple hatcheries for your order? Those rainbow ones I've seen offered from other places, but not Cackle. I haven't dealt with eFowl at all for anything.

 

[FurryHerbalist]

Well, I can only go by what I was told. I hope it wasn't incorrect information. Unfortunately I no longer have the emails to refer to. I do know that eFowl doesn't do business with McMurray so there's no way the chicks came from there. I just checked eFowl's website and it shows the Rainbow chickens currently shipping from Hoover hatchery.

All I know is that in the future I'm only buying birds from heritage breeders who specialize in a specific breed. I'd rather drive a good distance than go through this again. I'm a vegetarian and don't care to be slaughter roosters right and left.

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Much agreed. I love my one mistake rooster but he won't let me keep any others. I'm sorry you have to deal with that situation.

 

[javim]

Can I ask what those Rainbow ones ended up looking like?

 

[FurryHerbalist]

I gave away the chicks at 3 weeks old as I had no interest in the breed. Plus I definitely saw the Rainbows picking on the smaller Barred Rocks & Maran and would have had to separate the chicks had I not found a home for them. The Rainbows, at 3 weeks old, were about 30% larger than the other chicks.

I did miss one chick who is now 10 weeks old. She is 50% larger than the other birds, a golden buff color with dark brown flecks here and there, especially over the shoulders. Sort of a Buff Orp meets Sicilian Buttercup with a little English Game thrown in. Very small comb, on the order of a Barred Rock. She is very docile, curious and quite personable in the coop as an adult.

Here's the description of the birds from the website:

"Rainbow Chickens

The Rainbow Chicken is a relatively new breed, not certified by the APA and actually a blend of many breeds. Considered a dual purpose breed, the Rainbow Chicken breed can be raised for meat or egg production.

The most unique characteristic of the Rainbow Chicken is its color and feather pattern variation. No two Rainbow Chickens will have the same color pattern and the feathers blend into a dizzying mirage unlike any other breed. Rainbow Chickens are fast growing and will quickly dwarf other standard and small breeds; as such it is important to put an end to aggressive behavior and if that fails, separate Rainbows from smaller breeds.

Male Rainbow Chickens will reach market weight within 12 weeks topping off around 5 lbs live weight and the females will lay 280-300 light brown eggs annually. These Beautiful birds are relatively new to the market and as such are very rare among chicken owners."

 

[mwtrees]

Ordered 20 bantam chicks. What I really wanted were the porcelain D'Uccle but a few cochins were always nice too...so 10/5/5 for a total of 20. They shipped 3 day (I called expressing my displeasure at that) and chicks arrived at my post office early on the 3rd day (this morning) 10 DOA, I am now down to 5, but expect it to be 4 or less by morning.

So far they have been responsive to my previous emails and phone calls. Will see how the rest of this goes. Will update how they deal with this.

Very disappointed.