Free left over chicks from hatcheries?

[kbhear80]

I was doing some reading and came across an interesting article and wondered if anyone else has ever done what these people did to get there chickens?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1979-01-01/Free-Chickens.aspx

Do hatcharies really do that? And i know the article was from 1979 but i was wondering if it was worth checking out. There are a few in my area and if this is true im wondering if i should contact them and let them free range on my farm (our show birds stay cooped up)

Thanks

 

[9 Feathers Farm]

WOW... closest hatchary to me is about 3hrs away, but that would almost be worth it for free chickens.

 

[kbhear80]

Oddly enough i was born in st.john's michigan and that where most of my family still lives....small world lol Get to take a trip home around thanksgiving and i would like to get some Partridge Chantecler's from a hatchery'breeder in birch run. There is two hatcheries right by us here in kansas but i jsut wasnt sure about contacting them so i though i see what others thought.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

yes most hatcheries do have free or almost free cockeral chicks available if you contact them in advance. Just make sure you want to eat WLH, RSL and EE cockerals before you pour feed into them, they're free for a reason.

 

[lilwhispers]

There might not be alot of meat on them but meat is meat. Peaceful Valley seed co. has a pasture blend designed for poultry that coult help offset the feed cost.

 

[CypressValleySouthern]

kbhear80

I grew up in Enterprise and went to school in Chapman. Is there still the hatchery between Enterprise and Abilene. On the high road. Can't remember the name of it.

There also used to be one on 43 in Enterprise.

I liked the one on High Road, we always got eggs from them. Never from the store.

 

[roverjohn]

How much cheaper than $0.35/ea would they need to be for this to work? I just read the article and was kind of surprised they never mentioned any fighting between the birds.

 

[kbhear80]

My son is going to school out in enterprise. nice little town. There are still two that i know of, Stirtz Hatchery and Kidwell Hatchery. Neither of them have websites that i have found a link to though.

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
If there are no hens around, generally cockerals will get along w/out any fighting once they establish their pecking order.

 

[Ariel301]

Mount Healthy Hatchery gives away 25 free cockerel chicks (I hear they are mostly sex-links) with every 50 regular-priced birds you order. I'm sure if you live near a hatchery you can pick up tons of free males, seems like they hand them out like candy with the mail-order chicks, when I had to get some replacements for some of mine that arrived dead, they sent me my 13 replacements AND 10 freebies! It wasn't cold enough to really need them in the box for the body heat lol.

If you live in an area where lots of people raise chickens, you can also get roosters of eating size for free pretty easily if you watch craigslist. I've even gotten free laying hens that way, and ducks. I pick up a lot of free food for my family that way, too many people giving away their poultry/goats/sheep etc because food costs too much to keep them and they can't bring themselves to butcher.