central hatchery

[Ace_king_brahma]

Quote:
No can't speak any german here.

I would love to come but, I have family visiting currently. I do plan to try for next year. I had the day off and everything but then my aunt calls saying they are coming to see me.

 

[TommyVT05]

True, they looked sort of crammed but @ least it looks clean. Haha. But who knows...I would stick with a well known hatchery. More selection.

- Tommy

 

[SterlingAcres]

Never heard of them, but the pix look nasty. I'd rather buy my eggs or chicks from birds that have grass and sunlight. Cramming them like that is a crying shame... Looks like the poor turkeys from that Dirty Jobs episode.

 

[BayCityBabe]

I think the dismal pix are just evidence of poor marketing. It doesn't mean that the "pretty" websites have better practices.

 

[simba49450]

i agree with some of the others. there is absolutely no grass, sun or room to move. i know we can't save them all but there are plenty of hatcheries that are like that. many people don't relize that the pictures that they may see are the nice setting, and the truth is far away from the camera. it is truly sad when i see pics like that.

 

[blue90292]

ya'll crack me up. how else do you think these hatcheries can supply all the orders that they get throughout the year and make any profit?

and...have you ever thought that maybe they took the picture at night when they were in their coop, but during the day, they do get to go outside?

you guys remind me of people that only buy pullets and then scream bloody murder when they find out the cockerals get sent to a lab or get ground up into dog food or worse, just get thrown away in the trash OR omg! they get colored and become easter chicks!

our actions produce the way items are supplied to us. i guess it's good that this information about how hatcheries are, are shown so that people get informed and change the way they want their items produced. but i don't think it's right to condemn someone when your ignorance is what creates the way the items are supplied and you were fine with it before.

"What seems to us more important, more painful, and more unendurable is really not what is more important, more painful and more unendurable, but merely that which is closer to home. Everything distant which for all its moans and muffled cries, its ruined lives and millions of victims, that does not threaten to come rolling up to our threshold today, we consider endurable and of tolerable dimensions"

 

[corancher]

I have ordered cornish cross from them in two separated years. They were great birds and very healthy and the price is better than anywhere else. I ordered my birds and was billed after the chicks were delivered.

 

[TommyVT05]

hummm...I would go with name brand even if they cost a little more : )

- Tommy

 

[Vcomb]

Quote:
Actually its quite a small hatchery. Its just a local hatchery down in Madison, NE - if I recall its not far from a large apple orchard. See, most large hatcheries like McMurray farm out their operation, which means that guy "a" raises all of one kind for them (with a flock numbering in the thousands) and then guy "b" does so with another breed, and so on. With Central they actually own the birds. Now they could make bigger pens yes, but that means the price of the chicks would go up in order to make improvements. Last time I checked, people aren't that willing to spend $8 a chick. (that's why McKinney-Govero was and Sandhills is so expensive, they had to figure int he cost of actually keeping the birds.

Part of the reason the chicks are kept together in the photos is to ensure they stay warm, but also to get a bunch of them in the photo to show you the consistency of their flock.

Back to the original question. We've ordered from Central, got a very good batch of egg layers. Perfect "barnyard" chickens in my opinion. Plus the man who sexes the chicks was 100%. He said we'll have 4 roos and that's all we got, rest were pullets.

 

[Baybrio]

I have not ordered from Central but I thought the adult and juvenile birds looked healthy and clean. I appreciate the fact that they have photos of their actual birds in their real living conditions. I may have missed them but I've never seen photos of the breeding stock in their actual living conditions on the web sites of the more popular hatcheries, I'm assuming because those photos would not be picturesque.