Getting more chicks next week

[PeckingAround]

Chicken math!

I ordered some chicks and they will be here mid next week. I have never mail ordered chicks before. Any tips?

I ended up getting a mixture of chicks (15 total) I've already had and one new breed to see how they work. Ordered from Cackle Hatchery. I got black australorp, white leghorn, barred rock, easter eggers....and the new one black laced silver wyandotte. I had a hard time picking between the wyandotte and a maran breed. But I had to limit myself on chicks lol. And of course after I hit submit I get the regret of not going ahead and adding the maran, or questioning if I should have picked it over the wyandotte. No reason why, just me over thinking it all. We got chicks in February and some of them are already starting to lay. But we went ahead and decided to get more and cull our old ladies in a few months. It's time for them to retire, a couple of them are looking like it's time and the heat doesn't help.

I'm excited for my chicks to get here!

 

[Hannahnic14]

So excited for you!! My experience with mail order chicks is to put electrolytes, probiotics, and some nutridrench in their water for the first 3-4 days to help them recover from the ride and Jumpstart. start. I also give each chick a drop of Nutridrench directly in their beak as soon as I get them home. With my last 3 batches of mail order chicks I only lost 1! My first batch we lost several just from stress. I also do this when I buy them locally, just to give them a boost. Congrats on the new babies!!

 

[PeckingAround]

Thank you! I got some electrolytes and probiotics.

 

[riss]

This will be super exciting. Would love to see pics of the babies when they get here! I’ve always been so nervous mail ordering chicks just cause of survival rates

 

[PeckingAround]

I've been nervous to mail order too. So it will be a learning experience. Hopefully it ends up ok. And in my area the only time to get a variety of chick breeds is Feb-May. So if you ever want some later in the year or a better variety you usually need to mail order.

 

[Hilltopchick76]

I just got a batch from Mcmurrayhatchery.com and they came 3 days ago. I had a broody hen and took the opportunity to grow my year old flock of 7 lovely ladies that I also ordered from crackle hatchery. I chose McMurray because they would sell small orders (with a $45 up-charge). That was worth it for me since i only wanted 2 female Pekin ducks for my lonesome drake.. So far all 16 chicks are running around being extra cute with their new momma and my little ducklings arrived yesterday and eating and drinking up a storm.

 

[PeckingAround]

I was going back and forth between McMurray and cackle and finally decided on cackle. They had a minimum order of 15 chicks but you could combine breeds with each breed a minimum order of 3. That worked for me since we wanted at least 15 anyway.

I haven't had chicks in the summer before so this will be a bit different.

 

[PeckingAround]

The girls are here! All arrived alive and looking good. No dropping wings, all peppy and ready for water and food. Of course they had to jump into the water. Their chick heating pad is ready to go too if they want it. I'm also trying the table idea I read on here, to help them not be so scared when checking on them. So their see through box is on an old card table in our garage. And yes I'll be adding bedding. What's in there right now is what was in the shipping box.

 

[PeckingAround]

Just some pictures of the cuties. So far these have been the happiest and peppiest chicks I've gotten. All previous chicks I've gotten came from a local feed store. They would always be very skidish and flee anytime you reached in the box. I don't know if having them up on a car table with a some what see through box is helping the most or if it's being shipped straight to me and not having a bunch of people hovering and grabbing at them, or maybe both? In the past I'd pay attention to arrival dates for the feed store, so I would get them usually the same day they got to the feed store. So they weren't there very long. In any case, I think I'll be ordering my chicks from now on. I like my feed store and they do take great care of the chicks while there, but this has just been so much easier and nicer.

 

[Karm]

Just some pictures of the cuties. So far these have been the happiest and peppiest chicks I've gotten. All previous chicks I've gotten came from a local feed store. They would always be very skidish and flee anytime you reached in the box. I don't know if having them up on a car table with a some what see through box is helping the most or if it's being shipped straight to me and not having a bunch of people hovering and grabbing at them, or maybe both? In the past I'd pay attention to arrival dates for the feed store, so I would get them usually the same day they got to the feed store. So they weren't there very long. In any case, I think I'll be ordering my chicks from now on. I like my feed store and they do take great care of the chicks while there, but this has just been so much easier and nicer.

Great photos, they are adorable!