California - Northern

[juststruttin]

I ordered Chicks on January 3rd 2012 and received them in May 2013 - 17 months later. Here's my story.

I really wanted Gold Brabanters and SH was the only place I could find that carried them. I sent my order in Jan 3rd, 2012 with a check. They do not have on-line or phone order systems. You have to print an order form, calculate shipping and send in a check. In Feb. I received a letter that my chicks would be sent on 3/12/12. I waited for the call from the post office on 3/13 and 3/14 and no call so I decided to call SH on Thursday between 2-4 (only phone hours for the week) Yes, in case you missed that. SH only answers the phone on Thursday between 2-4.

The line was busy and then I finally got through. Linda answered the phone and I told her that my chicks had not arrived. She snapped at me and said "if you did not receive a call then they did not ship"...... She asked " Did you read your contract"?" then said. " it says that on the contract!"..

Wow, I was blown away by her attitude.

I told her that I had read the contract but when I had received the letter stating that they would be shipped March 12th I thought they would be shipped March 12. She repeated "if you did not receive a call from us then they did not ship!"

I asked when she thought they might be shipped and was informed that they would ship on one of the other 2 requested ship dates written on my order form.
For reference: on the order form they ask you to write down 3 possible ship dates.

The next two ship dates came and went and no chicks. I decided to call again to check the status of my order because it was now summer and we had camping plans etc.. and I did not want the chicks to randomly arrive while I was out of town.

Luckily Glen (Linda's husband) answered the phone. Glen could not have been any nicer or apologetic. He explained that they had low fertility and poor hatch rates across the board and informed me that he would not be able to fulfill my order. He offered me a refund.

I told him I understood production and hatch related problems and told him that he could hold my $ and fulfill my order in 2013 instead. He told me that all the breeds I ordered should be available in 2013 except the Gold Brabanters. They had a significant loss to the Brabanter flock and they were not going to offer them in 2013. I asked that he substitute for Cream Brabanters and he agreed.

In January, I got a letter with an estimated deliver for March 11th. From past experience I new this letter meant little or nothing. The March date came and went and no birds. April came and went no birds and then in May I got a call from Linda saying the chicks had shipped. She said they had shorted the MF Leghorns and Brabanters and gave me more Jaerhons as a replacement. The chicks arrived and I was indeed shorted Brabanters, but I had extra MF leghorns. I also shorted a couple Norwegian Jaerhons and was given extra Flame Jaerhons.

I toe punched the MF Leghorns because I had already acquired a flock and wanted to be able to identify the different lines. By the time the MFL were 8 weeks old I realized they were very poor quality. They had white legs, poor type and few spots. I sold them all as pets since they were not worthy of being used for breeding. One of the Brabanter roosters was definitely not purebred. He looked like Brabanter X gamebird cross

My overall experience with SH was very frustrating. It is a shame because Glen seems like a genuinely good and hard working man and I would like to give him my business but doubt I will order from SH again.

 

[ronott1]

I would bet that goopy skin is why they taste so good......

I would really love to see a picture of the color of your counters. I Googled images of stained IKEA counters and they can be really pretty.

Does the geiger counter comment apply to Quarts too? I don't like it as well as Granite but I don't really want to glow in the dark. One funny thought though is that Penryn was basically founded because of the granite quarry they started here in the 1800's. There is a pile of granite in this area.

The radiation comes from Chinese Stone. Sources from the United States are not dangerous.

 

[chiqita]

I would bet that goopy skin is why they taste so good......

I would really love to see a picture of the color of your counters. I Googled images of stained IKEA counters and they can be really pretty.

Does the geiger counter comment apply to Quarts too? I don't like it as well as Granite but I don't really want to glow in the dark. One funny thought though is that Penryn was basically founded because of the granite quarry they started here in the 1800's. There is a pile of granite in this area.

Edit: Totally forgot to ask how your quail are laying this time of year? Do you have a list for jumbo Cots eggs started for Spring? I need to be on your list.

Or MAYBE if you have any for the New Year's Day Hatch Along with Ron!

Well I do know that MPC gets their stock in our area from someone in Ohio I think. Since you want straight run there would be no point in going through MPC, since their main claim to fame is the small order pullet only options. Unless of course there is something on there you can't find on the Ohio hatchery website..... I am stalling here waiting for the name of it to come to me.

Their stock quality was fine. All except for the Silkies. They were disappointing in quality but laid pretty well. 3 eggs a week and the buff one wasn't broody but the black one was ONLY broody.

SO, after all that if you chose to go with that Ohio hatchery, (I think it is Ohio), then I would be happy to get a couple of their Red Star pullets to fill out your order! That is were I got my last one and she was awesome friendly and laid giant eggs 29 days a month.. Kept everyone in line in a gentle way. Loved her! I will post again when my memory kicks in with the name.

AS Ron said, its not the granite, but what they DO to the chinese granite that is the problem. ANY granite that has glue can be a problem, however, so that is anything that is pre cut with a lip or overhang (some gets shipped to China, lipped, then shipped back, what the ....). If you can get local granite, it might be pricy, but will be fine. Also stuff from SOuth America is good. But ASK where its from.

If I had the budget for it I would have gotten soapstone to go with the focal granite piece. It would have been overwhelming to do the entire kitchen in that stuff, its a bit TOO spectacular. The Ikea stuff was so inexpensive I got to buy a crazy sink .


I took a crappy picture last night, I'll take better ones when they counters are installed and they are not outside covered in plastic . If you DO decide to go with the ikea countertops, PM me. There are tips to it, and some of them are problematic in California.

The quails are not laying much since I moved them. They SHOULD be back up in time for the NYD hatch if you want some. The James MAries are in with the italians so you'd get both eggs.

 

[chiqita]

Not counter tops:

 

[juststruttin]

Thank you Ron. I really appreciate your input and your willingness to share it so very much. I am curious how SH would compare to say Murary Mc Murray or MPC as far as quality. Since the two breeds I am planning to focus on (not for showing or breeding to SOP but for the heck of it) are the Dels and the New Hampshires and I have Nor Cal contacts for both I don't have plans to add those from SH so I am feeling like as long as the other birds arrive healthy and hardy and I can eat them I am OK with type being a bit off.

I am thinking of Sand Hill for a couple of reasons...#1 I would be getting from them what I couldn't find hatching eggs for or get from you guys...ie LF frizzles. #2 I like the idea of supporting their preservation efforts, #3 I saw a video on big hatcheries that vent sex day-olds and it made me sad so I want to only get SR and I wanted to go with a hatchery that didn't vent sex at all.

I know that the decision to order from them is based on sentiment more than anything

but since these won't be breeders for me...well I just figured why not

Under these circumstances, how concerned should I be about quality?

From my limited experience with SH I would say their quality is likely very similar to the larger commercial hatcheries.

Personally, I would buy the best birds I could find. You may only be wanting to breed for the "Heck of it" now but you may change your mind in the future. There are Delaware and NH breeders on this No. Cal. Forum that may have eggs or chicks available.

 

[tommysgirl]

Check this out!

I used my little Canon camera and the high intensity ovascope.

That is soooooo cool!

Sorry, this will likely be a long post.

I grew up on 40 acres with 20 acres of Prune trees. We moved when I was 17 and we always had chickens. We also had Rabbits when I was very young, Pigs and Cows\steers for meat. One of my first chores was collecting the eggs and then getting them their food and water. It was a huge shock when we had to move to the City and I had to start eating store eggs...Gross(it was the 1970s). In all of those years growing up there was never any talk of Egg eating hens.

When I was in my 20s, my Father in law bought a place near us that had about 15 acres with a pasture and an Olive grove. The place came with chickens and my Father in Law was old school--he did not feed them anything but the odd bit of scratch. He started finding broken eggs and would shoot any hen that he found with egg on her beak. That one was a dreaded Egg Eater! I could not convince him to stop. He went on vacation and we took care of the place for a month. I picked up some chicken layer and got them laying regularly again. That lasted until they returned from vacation.

The hens lasted another several months and then he killed the last of the Dreaded Egg Eaters.....

Poor hens!

Egg eating hens are so rare that most will never have one. Eggs will break and the hens will eat them. It is normal hen behavior to peck an egg to see if it is viable for hatching. If it breaks she will eat it. Hens close enough will eat it too.

The point to all of this is that 99plus% of egg eating is an indication that something is wrong with the egg. Correct the problem and there will be no more eggs eaten.

There will be broken eggs and Pullets\hens just starting back to laying or reaching point of lay will have eggs that are soft shelled or broken. When this happens it is normal for them to eat the egg.

To correct egg shell problems:

Give them Calcium(adding food grade Diatomaceous earth to feed is a good way to add calcium--then give them free choice oyster shell after the eggs are hard again)
Check for Mites, lice and worms
Give them a good pro biotic every couple of weeks
Give them vitamins every week of so

Cheers!

This is a great story. Thanks for sharing it. I was in despair last spring when I thought I had two egg eaters and your story made me know that I had a shell issue, not a pullet issue so thanks!

I took the video 5 months ago and it was a Dorking egg from capayvalleychick's flock. The chick that hatched may be one that went to Tommysgirl's place.

Keeping the batteries fresh is important with the high intensity ovascope. I use enloop rechargeable batteries.

and it just got cooler. Hatch dates on my two were May 20, and July 9 I think give or take so that would look like it may be Joan Baez in that egg.

Breese skin is thicker then most other chickens ( but they are very easy to pluck) It is not considered a roasting chicken, but a braising/basting/salt crust chicken. In order to get it to be yummy and crispy you have to pay attention to it. Otherwise its goopy.

People roast them all the time and enjoy them, but its not when they are at their best.

So after 2 years of having 1/2 counters i'm getting my counters put in Tuesday! The bad news is I have to waterlox the area the sink is going a few more times so its a 2 part deal, leaving me no sink for Thanksgiving. Its gonna be interesting!

Chiqita I would love to get Bresse but the issue is getting a dozen or so boys all at once and inexpensively. Maybe when I get my Brinsea I will hatch a bunch but I don't know who will sell me a SR of 15 Bresse chicks without it costing me all four of my limbs...although I am open to suggestions

I would bet that goopy skin is why they taste so good......

I would really love to see a picture of the color of your counters. I Googled images of stained IKEA counters and they can be really pretty.

Does the geiger counter comment apply to Quarts too? I don't like it as well as Granite but I don't really want to glow in the dark. One funny thought though is that Penryn was basically founded because of the granite quarry they started here in the 1800's. There is a pile of granite in this area.

Edit: Totally forgot to ask how your quail are laying this time of year? Do you have a list for jumbo Cots eggs started for Spring? I need to be on your list.

Or MAYBE if you have any for the New Year's Day Hatch Along with Ron!

Well I do know that MPC gets their stock in our area from someone in Ohio I think. Since you want straight run there would be no point in going through MPC, since their main claim to fame is the small order pullet only options. Unless of course there is something on there you can't find on the Ohio hatchery website..... I am stalling here waiting for the name of it to come to me.

Their stock quality was fine. All except for the Silkies. They were disappointing in quality but laid pretty well. 3 eggs a week and the buff one wasn't broody but the black one was ONLY broody.

SO, after all that if you chose to go with that Ohio hatchery, (I think it is Ohio), then I would be happy to get a couple of their Red Star pullets to fill out your order! That is were I got my last one and she was awesome friendly and laid giant eggs 29 days a month.. Kept everyone in line in a gentle way. Loved her! I will post again when my memory kicks in with the name.

Are you thinking of Mount Healthy? I have a friend who does the "buy, brood and resell pullets" thing and she gets hers from there. I also think Meyer is in Ohio...or maybe it is MM?

I ordered Chicks on January 3rd 2012 and received them in May 2013 - 17 months later. Here's my story.

I really wanted Gold Brabanters and SH was the only place I could find that carried them. I sent my order in Jan 3rd, 2012 with a check. They do not have on-line or phone order systems. You have to print an order form, calculate shipping and send in a check. In Feb. I received a letter that my chicks would be sent on 3/12/12. I waited for the call from the post office on 3/13 and 3/14 and no call so I decided to call SH on Thursday between 2-4 (only phone hours for the week) Yes, in case you missed that. SH only answers the phone on Thursday between 2-4.

The line was busy and then I finally got through. Linda answered the phone and I told her that my chicks had not arrived. She snapped at me and said "if you did not receive a call then they did not ship"...... She asked " Did you read your contract"?" then said. " it says that on the contract!"..

Wow, I was blown away by her attitude.

I told her that I had read the contract but when I had received the letter stating that they would be shipped March 12th I thought they would be shipped March 12. She repeated "if you did not receive a call from us then they did not ship!"

I asked when she thought they might be shipped and was informed that they would ship on one of the other 2 requested ship dates written on my order form.
For reference: on the order form they ask you to write down 3 possible ship dates.

The next two ship dates came and went and no chicks. I decided to call again to check the status of my order because it was now summer and we had camping plans etc.. and I did not want the chicks to randomly arrive while I was out of town.

Luckily Glen (Linda's husband) answered the phone. Glen could not have been any nicer or apologetic. He explained that they had low fertility and poor hatch rates across the board and informed me that he would not be able to fulfill my order. He offered me a refund.

I told him I understood production and hatch related problems and told him that he could hold my $ and fulfill my order in 2013 instead. He told me that all the breeds I ordered should be available in 2013 except the Gold Brabanters. They had a significant loss to the Brabanter flock and they were not going to offer them in 2013. I asked that he substitute for Cream Brabanters and he agreed.

In January, I got a letter with an estimated deliver for March 11th. From past experience I new this letter meant little or nothing. The March date came and went and no birds. April came and went no birds and then in May I got a call from Linda saying the chicks had shipped. She said they had shorted the MF Leghorns and Brabanters and gave me more Jaerhons as a replacement. The chicks arrived and I was indeed shorted Brabanters, but I had extra MF leghorns. I also shorted a couple Norwegian Jaerhons and was given extra Flame Jaerhons.

I toe punched the MF Leghorns because I had already acquired a flock and wanted to be able to identify the different lines. By the time the MFL were 8 weeks old I realized they were very poor quality. They had white legs, poor type and few spots. I sold them all as pets since they were not worthy of being used for breeding. One of the Brabanter roosters was definitely not purebred. He looked like Brabanter X gamebird cross

My overall experience with SH was very frustrating. It is a shame because Glen seems like a genuinely good and hard working man and I would like to give him my business but doubt I will order from SH again.

Holy Crow what a nightmare!!! What do you suggest as far as getting a large number of SR chicks that are NOT from vent sexing hatchery???

Do you think because I am mainly ordering the LF assortment that it will easier to fill my order if I do order through them.

Also I am hankering for LF Frizzle and have found 0 in the way of hatching eggs anywhere you think I should hatch some bantams then breed them to one of my boys and make my own? Does that even happen? We had a Labrador retriever that mated with a Dachshund when I was a kid would it be like that??

Hmmmmm more to think about.

 

[tommysgirl]

From my limited experience with SH I would say their quality is likely very similar to the larger commercial hatcheries.

Personally, I would buy the best birds I could find. You may only be wanting to breed for the "Heck of it" now but you may change your mind in the future. There are Delaware and NH breeders on this No. Cal. Forum that may have eggs or chicks available.

Thanks. I have a pair of Dels from Kim and am looking forward to when I may be able to get some culls from her new birds from Kathy in MO. Plus, Deb and I have been in communication re NH pullets and/or hatching eggs. What I wanted with SH was the LF frizzle and a bunch of misc boys for my meat tractor. But I am pretty sure now that it might not be worth the aggravation.

Since my current plan is to only hatch with broodies, getting a dozen or so boys at once will be a crap shoot at best.

I think I will look at Privett and see what I see. I have been very happy with the chicks they shipped this spring. I have never shopped for anything but egg layers before so have no clue.

Thanks so much for sharing your story.

 

[Ali707]

AS Ron said, its not the granite, but what they DO to the chinese granite that is the problem. ANY granite that has glue can be a problem, however, so that is anything that is pre cut with a lip or overhang (some gets shipped to China, lipped, then shipped back, what the ....). If you can get local granite, it might be pricy, but will be fine. Also stuff from SOuth America is good. But ASK where its from.

If I had the budget for it I would have gotten soapstone to go with the focal granite piece. It would have been overwhelming to do the entire kitchen in that stuff, its a bit TOO spectacular. The Ikea stuff was so inexpensive I got to buy a crazy sink .


I took a crappy picture last night, I'll take better ones when they counters are installed and they are not outside covered in plastic . If you DO decide to go with the ikea countertops, PM me. There are tips to it, and some of them are problematic in California.

The quails are not laying much since I moved them. They SHOULD be back up in time for the NYD hatch if you want some. The James MAries are in with the italians so you'd get both eggs.

Okay these were your pictures, but BYC is working a little strangely for me the last couple of days.

That is a lovely set of Turkeys you have there! lol JK! That must be the infamous Mario an I am wondering what he is doing? Practicing the catch for Thanksgiving?

 

[Ali707]

Are you thinking of Mount Healthy? I have a friend who does the "buy, brood and resell pullets" thing and she gets hers from there. I also think Meyer is in Ohio...or maybe it is MM?

Yup! I think it is Meyer. Their birds were pretty good, but that order was about 5 years ago? Maybe more? Time flies I swear.

 

[chiqita]

Thanks. I have a pair of Dels from Kim and am looking forward to when I may be able to get some culls from her new birds from Kathy in MO. Plus, Deb and I have been in communication re NH pullets and/or hatching eggs. What I wanted with SH was the LF frizzle and a bunch of misc boys for my meat tractor. But I am pretty sure now that it might not be worth the aggravation.

Since my current plan is to only hatch with broodies, getting a dozen or so boys at once will be a crap shoot at best.

I think I will look at Privett and see what I see. I have been very happy with the chicks they shipped this spring. I have never shopped for anything but egg layers before so have no clue.

Thanks so much for sharing your story.

Tommy are you going to stockton? If so I can try a hatch for you. PM me and we can figure. I'm a big breese pusher! You can also eat the girls, but girls are easy to find homes for too.

You could get a decent result with Ill take anything at sandhill, but it all depends on fertility and bator issues. I would not chance it. plus, you want big birds for processing, and hatchery style birds are smaller. ESPECIALLY from a regular hatchery, where they have crossed everything with leghorns to get chickens that lay every day.