Favorite Place to get Chicks

[HappyClucker7]

I have gotten chicks from a feed store, from a small hatchery (local), and from a member here on BYC.
The chicks from the feed store were poorly bred, causing issues like heart failure, hernias, strange feather loss, etc.
From the local hatchery I got two roosters (one of which was supposed to be a sexed pullet), and a girl with deformed nostrils, which causes her breathing problems.
My best experience was getting chickens from a BYC member. They are healthy, gorgeous, and just all around really great.

 

[FlipFlopFarmer6279]

I order mine from Cackle Hatchery. They almost always send me an extra chick, they have almost every breed, and I have yet to receive an already dead chick.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I wanted to add too sometimes I split orders with people (I try to be the one they pick up from so I don't have to worry about bringing home contaminated chicks) but that helps with minimum order sizes occassonally

 

[Iluveggers]

I wanted to add too sometimes I split orders with people (I try to be the one they pick up from so I don't have to worry about bringing home contaminated chicks) but that helps with minimum order sizes occassonally

Wish you lived near me, Jacin! I know you had a TON of orders this year! None of my friends are adding on next year that I’m aware of, although one of my aunts never says no to extra animals so I can always talk her in to a few more if I raise them to feathered age lol.

ETA...actually one of my friends lost 2 birds to a hawk a few weeks ago...maybe she will be looking next year...gotta tuck that away so I don’t forget to ask her!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Wish you lived near me, Jacin! I know you had a TON of orders this year! None of my friends are adding on next year that I’m aware of, although one of my aunts never says no to extra animals so I can always talk her in to a few more if I raise them to feathered age lol.

ETA...actually one of my friends lost 2 birds to a hawk a few weeks ago...maybe she will be looking next year...gotta tuck that away so I don’t forget to ask her!

Ha, yeah. Still have hatching going on too. If you ever have an excuse to come out, I'm sure if have something you'd like

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I love getting chicks from Atwood’s

 

[bruceha2000]

at least in part because they're in Texas so I can be assured that their chicks are pre-adapted to southern heat.

At a day old they aren't adapted to anything but the brooder!

I've mostly gotten mine from Meyer. They've all been healthy but I'm souring a bit. I got 2 Blue Ameraucanas in June for big money. One is a Splash (1/4 of all offspring from Blues will be) and one is Black (same 1/4 thing). Except the Black has 5 toes per foot, an absolute impossibility if they didn't have anything else mixed in. Now I have to see if she ends up laying blue (as all true Ameraucanas MUST) or not.

And, again the Black Australorps have black legs, and yellowish foot pads. They should be slate legs and pale pads. I think someone mixed some Black Jersey Giants in somewhere in the past, perhaps to increase the size of the BAs

 

[3KillerBs]

At a day old they aren't adapted to anything but the brooder!

But their genetics should be heat-tolerant -- bred from heat-tolerant parents.

 

[BantammChick]

I order them from Cackle Hatchery, I also hatch some from my flock in the incubador, my hens also hatch some!

 

[bruceha2000]

But their genetics should be heat-tolerant -- bred from heat-tolerant parents.

That is related to the breed of the chicken, not where it is hatched. A leghorn, or other Mediterranean breed will be more heat tolerant than something like an Australorp. Being Mediterranean breeds they generally will also be more aggressive to the other birds.

That being said, I live in a cold winter climate and any heat hearty birds I've had did fine in the sub zero F temps. And the not heat hearty birds have been OK with the summer humid 90's we get.

I got my first 12 from Ideal, everything from heat hearty Anconas and Cubalayas to not heat hearty Black Australorps. They all did fine here.