Favorite Hatcheries/ Least favorite Hatcheries? Opintions?

[Azhtann]

I have not ordered chicks from hatcheries through the mail. My post office is a bit unreliable. I've always done local places for my chickens.

 

[NagemTX]

Personally, I don’t like those big mail order hatchery businesses. I got my first few generations from Rural King, and I like TSC, but now that I have an incubator, I only get chicks there if I have to.

Those stores get their chicks from the big hatcheries.

 

[Bobmc914]

We gott chicks from Meyers long ago with no issues.
Got broiler chicks from https://moyerschicks.com last year and they were as expected. Fat and fast growing, but not disgusting mutants like the Cornish Cross birds we got from somewhere else this year. McMurray's big red broilers are more like Moyers' chicks. They grow slower than the CC, and are more active.
All the chicks we ordered from McMurray arrived alive and seemed healthy. The problem with McMurray is that I ordered 4 Whiting true blues and 2 appear to be black australorps (black, single comb, no muffs, clean slate legs) and one of the true blue 'pullets' is a rooster. Also both of my barred rock pullets disappeared, but I don't know if they died due to some hatchery or breeding issue or something got them, or they got left out of the coop at night. I noticed one was missing, then the other one disappeared.

Also we got chicks from our local feed store Agway who gets them from Hoover's. Only lost one GLW chick, but they were also a few weeks younger than our other chicks at the time.

We hatched eggs from a local farm this spring. We hatched 3 out of 6 in our Nurture right 360, and 5 out of 6 under a broody hen. 2 of the 8 were male and they are in the freezer now. Only 2 of the 6 females survived to now, and one is now broody.

We have also had good luck with a local place Freehling FarmsThat's where we got our first chicks and they did well. We still have several of them years later. We also got CC meat birds and their color yield broilers this summer. The CC are kind of gross, fat, poorly feathered. The color yield birds are noticeably smaller, but they also look and act more like chickens.

 

[SourRoses]

Those stores get their chicks from the big hatcheries.

Yep, and they use the hatcheries with the least focus on breed specific traits.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Those stores get their chicks from the big hatcheries.

I know. I meant I'm trying to hatch my own, and I go to TSC if I hatch a single chick and/or want to get more pullets.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I’ve never actually had chicks shipped to my house. I have gotten chicks from a feed store when Heartland Hatchery came to one of the local stores to sale chicks. I will absolutely never buy from them again. We got $45 worth of bantams. So roughly 7-8 at that time. We brought them home, gave them food, water, and heat. After having them not even for 48 hours they all died. After contacting the company explaining to them that our chicks died and we wanted a refund or more chicks shipped to us they refused. Told use we don’t know how you took care of them and such. When in reality it was most likely the hatcheries fault. When we bought the chicks the hatchery guy told use the chicks were 3 days old. They where stuffed in chick boxes in his van with all the doors open on a 32f day, OUTSIDE, he had all the poor babies outside. No wonder they died. They were cold and hungry and just didn’t have enough energy to keep going by the time we go them.

I will buy from Atwood. It may not be the closest feed store but they always have the best option of bantams and the cheapest. I have gotten wonderful breeds from them like, OEGBs, Japanese bantams, Brahma bantams, polish bantams, sebrights, Cornish bantams, Cochins, and silkies. Other feed store I’ve been to they will only get three different breeds to whole chicks season so I like that Atwood gets a verity of breeds and colors within the breeds. Some of them have been fairly good quality and some have been horrible quality, to be expected from hatchery stock. I even got a rare bantam from them about 4 year’s ago, a brown red Japanese. Atwood also has the longest chick season I’ve seen compared to other feed stores.

 

[Azhtann]

I do have to admit I'm really sort of interested in the Dunlap hatchery (only because the name is my family name). It would be kind of cool to have a Dunlap bird. Lol.

 

[my spoiled chickens]

I have never actually ordered from big hatcheries through mail but the birds I got from Agway were always healthy and dhetzel's hatchery was helpful in my search for

 

[zenaghia]

My favorite is Sea Breeze Hens in San Leon TX - www.seabreezehens.com
I was originally reluctant to have chicken shipped by USPS and was considering driving 3 hrs to pick up. But after talking with the owner on the phone my nerves were settled. Sure nuff my local post office called me at 7 am the next morning saying I could pick up my package. My hens are now 4 yrs old and the healthiest ones I've had. When others in the flock struggle these hens keep going strong.

 

[BCushing]

I have ordered from Mt. Healthy for the past 3 years. Had RI Reds, NH, Columbian Rock cross (excellent layers), Barred Rocks, Austrolorps. Excellent stock, good large birds. Five stars in my opinion.