Eggcellent service at Efowl

[CaptMom]

I was hesitant to use Efowl, since they are a broker and not an actual hatchery. I looked on here saw good reviews so I ordered my chickens from them last year. I had a good experience with them, so this year, when I needed to purchase more chickens (bad experience with my dachshund) I decided to go with Efowl again. I ordered 25 chicks, 5 varieties of 5 each. They should have shipped last week, but didn't due to low hatches. The chicks shipped yesterday and I should receive them tomorrow. I received an email today notifying me that, due to the low hatch rates they substituted Rainbow chicks for my Speckled Sussex, so that my order wouldn't be further delayed. Fine by me, as long as they are hens and they lay! Additionally, they offered me the option of giving me a 100% refund of the 5 Sussex or a 120% refund as a store credit! Considering I had selected the option to accept substitutes, and they did in fact replace the Sussex with another breed, I feel offering me a refund goes above and beyond to ensure "egg"cellent customer service.

On a side note, is anyone familiar with the Rainbows? Based on the description, they sound like "mutts". I'm ok with that, I'm not a breed snob, lol, just not familiar with them.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I've never heard of efowl before, but that's good to know! I'm very glad to hear you had a positive experience!

I would imagine that "rainbow" is another name for Easter eggers. I rather like Easter eggers and the hens are pretty much like any other standard size breed. Not too flighty and I've have some very friendly ones over the years. Egg colors can be anything from light blue to green or even pink. The hens are very pretty as well!

 

[EmtheFishLady]

You gotta watch those Doxies. It's in their nature. We have two, and the male is probably the best ratter I have ever seen in my life. The downside is, I can't seem to convince him that everything that moves is not in fact a rat. He even tries to eat our hedgehogs.

 

[drumstick diva]

As a greeter - we hear from lots of new members that their doxies( Chihuahuas & yorkies) rack up the most impressive "chicken kills" of the small breeds. If they've done it once they will always be looking for a chance to repeat. The best way is to make sure dogs & chickens NEVER meet.

 

[CaptMom]

I agree! The first time she went on a killing spree, it was my fault. I seperated them and twice more she broke out and went on killing sprees. I was finally down to 2 chickens, so i gave them to my parents across the street to go with their 4. The next day, she dug out of our fence and went actoss the street and killed somw of theirs. At that point i had to rehome her. Broke my heart, but there was just no stopping her.

 

[Bunnylady]

We think of them as funny little wiener dogs, but this is a breed that was originally bred to hunt. "Dachs" is the German word for badger, and if you think about it, it would take a pretty fierce prey drive to take on a badger! When I was a kid, I knew someone who had a Dachsie that was a trained hunting dog - this was in Germany, and they hunted rabbits. So yeah, however cute they may be, they need to be taken seriously.

I'm not sure what this particular hatchery/broker means by Rainbow. Years ago, a friend got a "Rainbow Laying Mix" from a hatchery (don't know which one) and it was chicks of a variety of different breeds. Some of the chicks were identifiably Easter Eggers, but there were RIR's, Buff Orpingtons, and some we hadn't a clue what they were.

 

[CaptMom]

Doxues are awesone. My dad recently went on a bear hunt, and the tracking dog was a doxie!
From the description on theor website, Rainbows are mutts. They're a mix of various breeds, therefore "no 2 are ever the same".

 

[4paws]

I am having a similar experience with eFowl right now, even the delayed shipping, but so far, it's been a horrible experience. The hatchery is Hoover, and they substituted Rainbows for Welsummers. They are nothing like Welsummer nor any other, and less expensive. They are not like Easter Eggers (which I ordered and didn't get, neither a substitute). I don't recall allowing substitutes.

Shipping was horrible. Hoover did not get them to the PO until Thursday am (not Wednesday as indicated), where our 200 chicks sat for 12 hours. We got tracking information after 12 noon on Thursday via eFowl. We finally got the chicks just after 9 am on Saturday - no call from the post office, but they were en route at 5:22 am and the destination PO was less than an hour away with only one other small USPO stop. We were told the PO would call as soon as the chicks came in, open or not, but that did not happen.

Six were DOA - one so decomposed hard to tell it was a chick. In the first 24 hours, 28 died, 7 more since then, for a total of 35 dead out of 200 ordered.

We ordered

• 25 Black Austrolorp Pullets and 50 straight run. NONE MARKED.
• 50 SR Barred Rock and 3 Pullets - NONE MARKED and Mixed with Australorps (very hard to tell apart)
• 5 EE pullets, none came, invoice listed Americana, not available.
• We wanted Black Jersey Giants, but not available when we ordered on Jan 6, so went for 9 White pullets and 3 cockerels. We got 7, not marked. Invoice indicated +1. Rec'd an email saying Black were substituted for White, but then we got White.
• 5 Brown Leghorn pullets - rec'd, one died first day.
• 5 Welsummer pullets - got none, substituted Rainbows (not at all the same, cheaper bird), BUT first, rec'd an email that they were substituting Rainbows for Speckled Sussex, which we did not order.
• 5 Rainbow pullets and 35 SR (not for me, but for others in out group buy) - none marked.
  

I'll let you know how things all work out. Efowl is responsible for making the situation right, but I sure would never use Hoover Hatchery again!

I'm very glad I paid for this order with Paypal, as it gives me another recourse. As it is, all the pre-paid buyers have dropped out. The SR were ordered so we could get the best discounts, with the idea we'd sell them fast (and had customers already lined up for lots of 10). At this point, I have no idea how many we even have left.

What a mess!

 

[Tumbling K]

we ordered the presale also......

our original ship date of early Feb, got delayed until early Mar.......

can't comment on anything else yet....

 

[CaptMom]

That is aweful! Im sorry youve had such a horrible experience. I ordered:
5 GL Wyandotte
5 Australorps
5 California White
5 Easter Eggers
5 Speckled Sussex.
They substituted the rainbows for the Sussex, but i remember selecting that i would accept substitutes. I agree, about the Rainbows, i think they're just mix breed chicks, but I just want eggs, so thats not as big a deal to me. I hope eFowl makes it all right for you. I didnt get my shipping notifications either, but thats on the post office. I saw when they left Hoover, in Iowa and when they arrived in Minnesota. No more tracking updates after that. They shipped Wednesday morning, so yhat friday morning i called my post office right away and they had arrived. All were alive. 1 looked a little puny and died yesterday, but theyd shipped an extra, so i still all i ordered.