Chick Order Dreaming

[JacinLarkwell]

I really like McMurrys, I got 16 cuckoo marans and a BC Marans rooster
I just placed an order,
all of the black copper marans are gone for the year, they have a SR lats in Sept. But I could end up with all roosters, how many come in a SR?

St Run is whatever they grab. Could be all males, all females or 50-50

 

[JacinLarkwell]

How many are in an order, I couldn't find that info

An order of what? Hatchery minimums vary from 15-30 depending on the hatchery and time of year, and breed/sex minimums vary from 1-5 usually

 

[JacinLarkwell]

A straight run

Depends on how many you order. Usually you have to order between 3-5 minimum, but can order over 100 if you really want

 

[NatJ]

How many are in an order, I couldn't find that info

A straight run

Straight run just means they have not sorted the chicks by gender.
It does not tell how many chicks.

From McMurray, you can usually order 1 straight run chick, or 5 straight run chicks, or 100 straight run chicks, or any other number you want (unless they sell out of that kind-- you cannot order more chicks than they expect to hatch).

McMurray has an order minimum (they will not ship just one chick), but you can buy one chick of this kind and two of that kind and one of another kind... until you reach enough chicks that they can ship them safely. I think McMurray's minimum is 6 in the summer months, and 15 the rest of the year.

Other hatcheries may have different minimum orders (how few chicks they are willing to ship.) Some hatcheries also have a minimum per breed (so you might have to buy at least 5 of one kind, instead of being able to get just one of that breed).

 

[NatJ]

Nope,,, sold out no matter the amount, I can get some next year

You can also keep checking.

I've noticed that McMurray seems to add availability again at the last minute (so you might be able to order them 2 days before hatch day, even if you could not order them 2 months before hatch day.)

I read somewhere that they candle the eggs when they transfer from incubator to hatcher (a few days before hatch), and make more chicks available depending on how many look good at that point.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I don't plan on ordering, but if I did, I am okay with straight run, or fry pan, they work for packing peanuts. Just know though, males will over welm females as far as the food dish.

 

[3KillerBs]

Other hatcheries may have different minimum orders (how few chicks they are willing to ship.) Some hatcheries also have a minimum per breed (so you might have to buy at least 5 of one kind, instead of being able to get just one of that breed).

Ideal is the only one I know of that goes by dollar amount (IIRC, it's a $30 minimum unless that changed for this year). They ask you to either agree to accept "extra males for warmth" or to buy heat packs if its a very small number of chicks shipped in cool weather. I personally am fine with free chicken dinners as "packing peanuts" but it's a problem for some people.

Some hatcheries charge small order fees, which range from minimal (Ideal), to eye-popping (Meyer).

Welp has a hard minimum of 25 chicks with a breed minimum of 5 for females or straight run and an extra charge per breed if you order fewer than 5 males (in practice you might as well order males in blocks of 5 because you can't order 8 girls and 2 males to make 10 -- which is why I ordered 5 straight run, hoping for a male-female split but ending up with 5 males).

What I did last year was to work the math for the breeds I wanted from each different hatchery I was considering to see what the best deal was -- allowing for the fact that I could only get my Blue Australorps from Welp and my in-theory-Croad-Line Black Langshans from Ideal.

 

[Iluveggers]

Murray McMurray let’s you get 1 of any chick with a small minimum as well!

 

[Windrider]

Now that you have your incubator, you could buy hatching eggs in rarer breeds that would be too costly buying chicks!

To add to your desire for more feather patterns in your preferred black and white, I can't think of any chicken more beautiful than a well bred Double Laced Silver Barnevelder. K0k0shka had good luck hatching shipped eggs from Blue House Farms. Dark brown, sometimes speckled eggs.

To add to the color of your egg basket, maybe pure bred black Ameraucanas, to give you blue eggs. Or blue Silverudd to give you green.

 

[3KillerBs]

Now that you have your incubator, you could buy hatching eggs in rarer breeds that would be too costly buying chicks!

To add to your desire for more feather patterns in your preferred black and white, I can't think of any chicken more beautiful than a well bred Double Laced Silver Barnevelder. K0k0shka had good luck hatching shipped eggs from Blue House Farms. Dark brown, sometimes speckled eggs.

To add to the color of your egg basket, maybe pure bred black Ameraucanas, to give you blue eggs. Or blue Silverudd to give you green.

That's a good suggestion.

I figure that I'll start with a mixed hatch from my own flock and select the lighter-colored eggs that will be easier to candle to make it easier on myself. Then hatch some of the purebred Blue Australorps and some sexlinks made from my Marans, whose eggs are likely to be a challenge to candle.

After the first test batches I'll see where I'm ready to go.