Chicks from the local feed store

[BarkerChickens]

We got 3 Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers) and 3 Barred Rocks from a local feed store a year and half ago...all turned out to be pullets and we haven't had any problems. There are some feed store in our area that I won't even buy the feed from, but this particular feed store has been amazing! I wouldn't hesitate to buy again from a feed store (provided I like the feed store to begin with). Good luck!

 

[speckledhen]

As I said, my entire original ten ladies and a handful of others over the last couple of years have come from Ideal via the feedstore. The good thing is you can buy one chick or a hundred chicks, as long as you are willing to pay her prices.
I do have a Lt. Brahma because she had a brooder full of mixed Brahmas, but the owner thought that all Brahmas were called BUFF Brahmas, which is what I wanted. I had looked up the differences in the chicks online, but they varied so much, I didnt really know which type she had in there. That is when labeling should be correct, though I like my Lt. Brahma girl just fine. At least most of the time, she'll listen to me when I tell her something is wrong. All except ones labeled roosters are sexed pullets.
I just saw she had a bunch of started birds in her cages, almost at laying age. The label said "Domineckers". The birds were barred with large single combs and white legs, so I know they were mixed, which often happens when people buy mislabeled birds and aren't astute enough to see the differences, or just plain do not know the differences.

When I got my Lt. Brahma, I actually got two of them. One was a sexing mistake, which I took back for her to sell for me about the time he began to crow. She got a great price for a 3 month old cockerel, so that turned out okay.

 

[gapeachy]

Quote:
The feedstore with the little Dominecker thing gets theirs from Privett. Privett mislabeled the shipment, I believe.

The tidbit about Dominecker vs Dominique was just that, a side comment. Some feedstores are labeling Barred Rocks as Domineckers just because they are barred. In that particular case, the hatchery sent the BRs with a Dom label. I tried to get them to understand that they are BRs, that I breed them and know, but they couldn't believe the hatchery would mislabel them.

The breed is Dominique. The nickname "Dominecker" is applied to any barred bird around here. If someone wants purebreds, they wont get them if they aren't very observant and dont know the difference themselves. A Barred Rock is not a Dominecker, no matter how you slice it. I do not like Barred Plymouth Rocks being called a different breed, so no, I dont like the word because of that. They can say Dominecker all they want, but they'd better be talking about a Dominique.
It's no different than calling these Easter Eggers "Araucanas".

EDITED TO ADD: People in general can say anything they want, but someone selling chicks as part of their business should know what they're selling and label it appropriately, which is really my point.

I am also come across people calling barred rocks domiques.....anything barred was a dominque.....I use to say rose comb dominique or straight comb dominique......people who know their chickens know the difference....mine are true dominiques with their rose combs and dominique hens are a little smaller than the barred rocks....I have had both.....I did not get mine from a feed store we dont have a feed store around me that sells chicks only grown chickens.......mine came from breeders....around here the barred rocks are easier to come by than dominiques......dominiques are a more rare breed.....just my 2 cents

 

[speckledhen]

gapeachy, I agree that real Dominiques are more rare. And an excellent quality Barred Rock is becoming more rare as hatcheries just keep producing inferior specimens.
So many times someone comes to my place and sees my Barred Rock rooster then says, "Oh, that's a Dominecker". I tell them, no, they are two different breeds. Maybe I should start saying, Oh, no, that's the very rare "Dombarrockinecker", LOL.

Feedstores main advantage is that you can get one or two chicks, usually, and some of them do sell sexed pullets. One place near me also gets birds from Ideal, charge very low prices for them, but they are all straight run. Then one day during the season, they have a "Pullet Day", but you have to reserve a certain number of those, and they only get maybe three breeds, one being a sexlink.

 

[Apopka Cluckers]

I'll have to ask at this feed store but they (the chicks) are labelled hens and he said that they order them as pullets from Ideal.

I don't know if he gets a real discount because he wouldn't be making much money at the price he is selling them at. Ideal charges 2.14$ per pullet plus shipping and packing. He is selling them for 2.75$ a chick which is a very small markup unless he sells hundreds upon hundreds of them.

Well, he did charge me 5$ for 100 crickets so maybe he is offsetting the chick cost elsewhere

 

[speckledhen]

That is a good price. The Murphy NC store sells straight-run as $1.95 each--I helped a couple sex the BRs once, LOL. Bet they didn't want me hanging around there long. They only have them for about a month, though. The higher priced one in Blue Ridge sells sexed pullets and they have chicks 10 months out of the year.

 

[gapeachy]

I have a guy that gets about 500 chicks then he puts them in a brooder and raises them on a light and vaccinates them I buy them when they are about 3 weeks old and we can tell hens or roos and I dont have to worry about diseases....but I got some chickens from a friend who had some sick ones and it brought some disease to mine....I have not lost any but they looked puny for awhile.....I am not going to get anymore chickens from other people again.....

 

[gapeachy]

oh and also if anyone out there wants to buy from this guy I can hook you up .....

 

[riley]

i ordered mine from ideal the bigest reaswon why is i only want rhode island reds and if you get them from a feed store you have to take what they got

 

[JennsPeeps]

I got my standards at the local feed store. It's also how I met Dena (coffeelady3) on craigslist: in our county you have to buy a minimum of 6 chicks. Dena and I met b/c we split a 6-pack of chicks! I think that this is the prevent us urbanites from buying "cute baby chicks" for their kids then not taking care of the chicks.

I've been really happy with my chicks from the feed store. I'm just a backyard flock raiser and not breeding them for show: eggs only. That said, I am ordering some chicks from MPC this spring b/c I want a couple of breeds that aren't available at the feedstore.

The feed store where Dena and I got our girls had an advertised special a few weeks before we bought the babies: "buy 6 chicks and get a free carrying case".

It was a flimsy cardboard box similar to one that a happy meal used to come in.