cheapest/best place to get some meat birds, either by local farmer or online hatchery. . .

[snooptwomey]

trying to figure out the best and cheapest place to purchase day old meat birds, I am guessing cornish x because of the FAST growth? I would really like to pay around $1 per bird of possible. And I dont need a large qty, at most 25. I live in Front Royal Va

 

[Oregon Blues]

You are going to have to get them from a hatchery.

Central has them for under $1, but I think you have to order 100 of them. Maybe someone would split an order with you?

Some of the other smaller hatcheries on the East coast sell them pretty cheap. I'm drawing a blank on hatchery names, but you will find them if you do a little bit of reading in the meat bird section. (yes, do some research)

 

[JenellYB]

CornishX you will have to get from a hatchery because a cross between two specially bred strains of Cornish and white rocks. They do not breed true, so you won't find anyone producing them individually.

If you are not set on CornishX, there are some other possiblities for you. Often people that order a few of a specail breed chick from hatcheries receive extra male chicks thrown in to keep them all warm, (some call them packing peanut), and may give them away of sell them cheaply. often on places like craigslist. Or if you know someone that might be ordering, that will get them and not want them, you may get them there. You will, or course, have no choice of breed.

Another possilbity is if you know or can find someone keeping chickens as a hobby or eggs only that don't want to butcher and eat their cockerals, that are hatching their own eggs, you may strike a deal for their extra male chicks.
You might find someone raising a heavy breed that hatches their own chicks in greater abundance than they can use, males or femals, for the purpose of offering them for sale for supplemental feed money. The quality and health of such chicks are as variable as the people offering them, so you'd need to check them out, and that's often just not possible. People like that do not have the business repuation to protect that a hatchery does.

Many hatcheries do seel smaller numbers of chicks, but you are going to pay the smaller order pricem you can;'t expect to buy 25 chicks for the same price they offer if you buy 100 chicks. Setting your expected price at $1 a bird definitely limits your options. Most the hatcheries do offer "fry pan specials" that will be male chicks of heavy breeds of their choice, and that's about the cheapest way to order meat chicks. You might want to consider revising your plan to raise a larger number than 25, both for the cost of chicks, and, from my own experience, taking in account some mortality losses, you've put in X amount of time and work to end up with quite a small number of birds for the freezer and/or canning jars. It's not much more work to raise 50, or even 100. Just need a bigger brooder and growing pen. Then you don't have to raise another batch anytime real soon. Of course, this depends a lot on size of your family and how often you eat chicken, too.

 

[booker81]

Schletch has the best prices I've seen for smaller quantities (under 100), $0.95 each for straight run, but looks like based on your zip, shipping would be $21 for 25 chicks, for a total of $1.79 per chick.

Welp might be better - $1.65 for straight run, and that includes shipping.

There are lots of other hatcheries, just have to sit down and make a list to see what you can get for chick prices and shipping.

 

[jdywntr]

You can get 25 cornish rock from Welp hatchery for just under $40 with shipping. Unless you order a large number you won't find them for under $1 each.
You can try posting an ad on craigslist to split an order or ask friends, that way you can order more, pay less and only keep the # you want.

 

[snooptwomey]

Thanks everyone, my desired price of around $1 would essentially be if I was able to find someone local and buy baby chicks I think. Going through a hatchery I can expect $1.50-$1.75 per, and if I go that route, I will reach out to people near me to see if anyone wants to go in on an order and make it a little cheaper.

 

[SC-ChickMom]

Tractor Supply has them for $1.99 but if they go past a week or so they discount them heavily to get them out of there.

 

[snooptwomey]

If they are still doing chick days once I am setup for some meat birds, I will try to get a discounted dozen or so. I need to build my new bigger coop and then the one I use now with attached 8' by 5' run will become "stew city" for meat birds, and the transition coop for the young chicks I have.

 

[JenellYB]

A lot of times when we add something new to an existing set-up and operation, it really does work better to make readjustments to the existing to incorporate the new, rather than just add something on, trying to keep the pre-existing intact, as it was..

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[snooptwomey]

wont work for what i am trying to do. The coop I have now is one I built from free materials from work. Its approx 3.5' by 2.5' and like 4' tall. Only needs to house my 2 sex link hens, and 1 EE roo currently. But I am moving as of yesterday and at the new house I am building a coop from pallets and other freecycle materials that will be somewhere between a 6' and 7' square coop, thats over 6' tall that I can walk into. So adding on to the small, quickly built coop I currently have wouldn't really benefit me. I am going to end up using it as-is, to house the young chicks when they are ready to be outside but not big enough to hold their own with the adults. I am going to stick the older coop inside the run that the new coop will get since I am going to make the run approx 50' by 50' so space wont be an issue and the little ones can get aqcuainted with the big ones.