Favorite Place to get Chicks

[Iluveggers]

What is your favorite place to get new chicks? There are sooo many opportunities for chicken math! Lol Which one is your favorite (& tell why in the comments if you’d like!)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I hatch my own mutts (Why buy mutts when I can make almost any kind I want [Starcombs, ripoff EEs, flytying specials, Nns, sexlinks, all can be made out of my birds]), buy eggs of the harder to get birds (mosaics, ayam cemanis, araucanas, quail), buy from tsc if I need broodybreaker pullets or they have what I need/ unspecified bins and buy from hatcheries if I want a common specific breed (rather like IDEAL, Cackle, Dunlap and Murray McMurray, like the quality I got from Hoover but I'm still sore about the lack of communication regarding shipping delays)

 

[Iluveggers]

I hatch my own mutts (Why buy mutts when I can make almost any kind I want [Starcombs, ripoff EEs, flytying specials, Nns, sexlinks, all can be made out of my birds]), buy eggs of the harder to get birds (mosaics, ayam cemanis, araucanas, quail), buy from tsc if I need broodybreaker pullets or they have what I need/ unspecified bins and buy from hatcheries if I want a common specific breed (rather like IDEAL, Cackle, Dunlap and Murray McMurray, like the quality I got from Hoover but I'm still sore about the lack of communication regarding shipping delays)

You have quite the flock! @JacinLarkwell

 

[Sally PB]

I got my first chicks from TSC. I would buy from them again, but pullets only. My 3 straight run were all boys, and I'm convinced that Townline (my TSC's hatchery) uses "straight run" as code for "we're not sure enough it's a pullet to put it in the pullet bin."

I got my chicks this year from a small brooder, but I don't think I'll use them again. I think the chicks are fine, but the experience was sub-par. And this isn't golf. Others have spoken highly of them, so I'm not going to name names; I probably just had a less than good experience.

 

[tonbetter]

I just got my first set of chicks from Cackle Hatchery. It has been a great experience other than the wait time.. I was selective on the breeds and had to wait until they cycled back around. I ordered 15 birds and got 19.. 1 extra for each breed I selected. All are about 5 days old now and healthy with knock-on-wood no signs of the pasty butt or other issues thus far. Just fed them their first taste of mash and they are devouring it. If you go the mail-order route... DO NOT trust the post office to call you when they come in.. I waited and waited but got no call. Finally, at 1 pm I called and could hear them in the background.. chirping. I drove like Richard Petty getting to them.

 

[3KillerBs]

My experience is still limited, but I've been very happy with chicks from Ideal -- I suspect that this is at least in part because they're in Texas so I can be assured that their chicks are pre-adapted to southern heat.

My farm-store (from Welp), chicks turned into good hens, but I think I prefer to order directly.

I look forward to hatching my own.

 

[Iluveggers]

My experience is still limited, but I've been very happy with chicks from Ideal -- I suspect that this is at least in part because they're in Texas so I can be assured that their chicks are pre-adapted to southern heat.

My farm-store (from Welp), chicks turned into good hens, but I think I prefer to order directly.

I look forward to hatching my own.

My TSC chicks are 100 x’s more skiddish than the ones picked up from a hatchery within driving distance from me. I wonder if farm store chicks get skiddish from being on the store display and constantly running from the hands that take their friends away....

 

[CluckerFamily]

I love allowing a broody to hatch a clutch, it is the neatest experience.

 

[Iluveggers]

I love allowing a broody to hatch a clutch, it is the neatest experience.

That would be a wonderful experience! Do you have a rooster, or buy fertilized eggs for her?

 

[CluckerFamily]

That would be a wonderful experience! Do you have a rooster, or buy fertilized eggs for her?

I have a rooster but if I didn’t have a rooster, I am able to get fertile eggs.