Chick Shortage?

[Jess_me]

Hello everyone! It has been a great while since I have an posted. But has anyone noticed in 2023 Chicks are hard to get in Texas. Is it everywhere too? I tried going to my local stores where I usually get them and they keep telling me they sold out I have never seen it like this. I thought well I will order from hatchery, even their chicks are not available until May 1st or later. I have ran around for 2 months now and finally found a few, 9 to be exact, 3 New Hampshire Reds and 6 Cream Legbars. But as soon as I got them home with in an hour 2 Legbars died. I called the place I got them and they have no type of warranty on livestock. Who would have thought the world would come to this. So I will continue to listen for the sound of chirping chicks and maybe someday I will find some more, some how, some place, somewhere eventually!

I ran into this problem the other week looking for meat birds. Most of the hatcheries I looked at online said they wouldn't have any until sometime around May-July. Finally found one and we are getting a delivery sometime next week. But the fact that most of the hatcheries had nothing available for so long is crazy. Not sure if they just sold them weeks/months ahead of time or what.

 

[nuthatched]

Egg prices are already going down....not that raising hens for eggs is cheaper than buying eggs.
Man, we are going to have easy pickings come October for pullets from folks who realize that keeping chickens isn't as easy as they thought ....

 

[SueT]

This week I went w my husband to several farm stores in the area, he was searching for a certain size shackle. Every single store had chicks available. I see on Facebook that a local hatchery sets up their regular ‘chick days events’ every weekend at area stores as well (People can preorder specific breeds). I don’t see a shortage here.
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