Has anyone ordered from Sandhill Preservation?

[SOrsucci]

Let me tell you about my experience with Sandhill Preservation. I ordered 36 chicks from Sandhill Preservation months ago. Their communication is terrible and you will only hear from them weeks after you send in your order and only by snail mail. When I received my order 6 chicks died within 24 hours. Plus my order for 25 mixed chicks was totally mixed up with the breeds I specifically ordered, even though the box had partitions, so I have no idea what breed is what. They won't replace or refund for the chicks that died because they said they included 4 extra birds. The 4 extra birds were breeds I did not order. They also do not return emails, phone calls, or texts in a timely manner (if they do at all). They instructed me to give the chicks limited water the first day and remove the water from the brooder for hours at a time. That is unbelievable to me as it took 3 days for me to receive the chicks.

Edit: I did get a response from Sandhill and it was nothing but nasty. I was accused of several things I did not do but in fact they actually did. He (Glenn) also said that he will not do anything about my order because I left a bad review. One should have nothing to do with the other!! I offered to change my review if he would decide to make things right, however it has been almost 2 weeks and I have heard nothing, and I assume I will not hear anything!! From my point of view, I WOULD NOT NOR WILL NOT EVER ORDER FROM THEM!! You can see from other reviews, I am not alone in my experience.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have been looking into ordering from them and have talked to a couple people here who have had good experiences with them. They are very clear that they are NOT a typical hatchery. Their birds are very specific and their mission is very different than, say, Hoover’s. Everything you are complaining about is clearly stated at the bottom of this page:

https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/poultry

I am not trying to be patronizing but it sounds to me like your expectations would have been reasonable if you were ordering from a large online hatchery than from a hatchery more concerned with preserving rare breeds on a natural breeding schedule.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I plan on ordering from them next spring and getting an assortment as they recommend. I will also order more than I want because shipped chicks is always a risk and the more I order the more chance I will have of getting breeds I am particularly interested in. I don’t think they are for everyone that’s for sure

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

@LaurenRitz @cubalaya
You both ordered from Sandhill, correct?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@LaurenRitz @cubalaya
You both ordered from Sandhill, correct?

I think @The Moonshiner did too

 

[LaurenRitz]

@LaurenRitz @cubalaya
You both ordered from Sandhill, correct?

Sure. Recieved 25 healthy chicks two weeks ago, two doa, so they included extras. When I had questions on my order Glenn got back to me within 24 hours. He's got a full time job on top of all his preservation work, so I wasn't sure I'd get a response at all.

They are very clear that all orders and order changes must be done by snail mail. This is NOT a traditional hatchery, and they don't pretend to be.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Yes I've ordered from them. They suck imo.
I understand they're not a typical hatchery but imo they aren't doing anything to "preserve" a lot of the breeds they sell either.
I split what I wanted into 3 orders because it seemed like that would give me the best chance of them being able to fill my order.
3 orders and a couple years later I ended up with some very poor examples of some common breeds. Some that weren't the breeds they claimed they were.
Yes communication was poor and slow at best. I can get that part. In the end I got substituted for some just so I could get something. I also got a refund check for the ones they could never send. The check bounced.
I've bought chicks from many hatcheries going back to the days before internet when you got a catalog in the mail and everything was snail mail and checks or money orders.
I understood how they operated and understood when they explained how they were different then typical hatcheries so I didn't go in blindly or have the wrong expectations. I did expect to receive what I ordered and I did expect them to be a decent enough representation of what I ordered that I could work with them.
And I did expect to have them make things right when they couldn't fill what I ordered.
Never again with that place.

 

[SOrsucci]

I have been looking into ordering from them and have talked to a couple people here who have had good experiences with them. They are very clear that they are NOT a typical hatchery. Their birds are very specific and their mission is very different than, say, Hoover’s. Everything you are complaining about is clearly stated at the bottom of this page:

https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/poultry

I am not trying to be patronizing but it sounds to me like your expectations would have been reasonable if you were ordering from a large online hatchery than from a hatchery more concerned with preserving rare breeds on a natural breeding schedule.

Bad service is bad service! There are many complaints about this company. I am not the only one. I understand preserving rare breeds, but the customer should get some consideration. Also, I followed the instructions specifically given to me by his wife. If she tells me one thing that is different from the website, then that is on them. I am just sharing my experience.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Bad service is bad service! There are many complaints about this company. I am not the only one. I understand preserving rare breeds, but the customer should get some consideration. Also, I followed the instructions specifically given to me by his wife. If she tells me one thing that is different from the website, then that is on them. I am just sharing my experience.

Thank you for doing so. I will definitely keep it in mind. If they aren’t doing it as a full time job then I can’t fathom how they do it at all. Seems like quite an undertaking. If I can find the birds I want full grown then I won’t need to order chicks but if I do need to it will be from Sandhill and I will keep my expectations low

 

[SnackMeat]

We ordered the farmyard mix which is at minimum 25. We got included 36 chickens and 6 ducklings. Three chicks had died on the way, and five ducklings had died. The sixth died within an hour of arrival.

This was the first week of May so possibly on the colder side. However the mail central location a few hours from me is really horrible and held them for 12 hours (versus the one maybe 90 min further that will get packages in and out in 3 hours.) and then the three or so hour trip on the truck then took twelve hours. So that extra 18 hours really took a toll.


Since then we've had 5 die from coccidiosis (our fault for looking for red poop. They had other symptoms but not that,) and 2 or 3 have gone missing when it comes to coming in at night. We have otherwise been impressed with the stock and the ones we got that we were initially bummed about have turned on to favorites. For birds that didn't get to us until 4 or so days after birth, they are many that are quite social and compared to those I raised from eggs.


I will say the wildest ones are the Ancona and the Polish. Complete assholes but on par with what I expected all of the chicks to be for not getting socialization in those early days.

We already put in an order for a second box and hope that the summer heat will hopefully work in our favor and not against us.


If you know your mail sorting centers closest to you and which ones are good or bad, if you can change your mailing address to ones that are processed by the good locations and then make the drive day of, I would recommend it.


I've also gotten seeds from them and been very happy with them. If you email you might not hear from them for a week but then the details and info you get are concise, old school (not trying to hide hybrids or what their goal is with hybrid plants), and useful.


I get they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm completely fine with their style and honestly they're criminally undercharging themselves, in my opinion.