Has anyone ordered from Stacks Chicken Farm?

[gg706]

Well, if you are a breeder showing or selling chicks as a certain breed to buyers, you should breed to the standards. If you haphazardly breed you will, after awhile end up with a mess.
My chickens are pets as well, but I will do what is necessary for the chicken and my flock. I do not breed or sell birds so my point of view is from a buyers perspective. IF I am spending my hard earned money on breeder birds being represented as a certain breed. I want my chicks to be sound and being bred toward the standard of the breed I have bought. I bought Araucana from a "breeder" I have had alot of problems. First 2 chicks in my batch were sent that were born with to short of a back to process waste properly, I put them out of their misery. Then after raising up my pullets for 9 months 2 of them egg bound on their first egg, I had to put them out of their misery......Not fair to me as the buyer, as the birds were represented as being bred sound and toward the standard, which was not true at all. That is what haphazard breeding will get your buyer.... a bunch of problems. I will say Araucana are a very difficult breed to produce. The rumpless and tufted genes can cause problems if the breeder does not know what they are doing.
As long as you are representing the chicks for what they are to your buyer there is no problem...but I spent a couple hundred dollars for my 15 chicks and I now have 2 Araucana and 2 Wyandottes left. The Araucana were not sound layers due to too much inbreeding and the Wyandottes BLR lacing is not good quality. Not a good investment for me.
Cull does not necessarily mean "kill", cull means to remove from ones flock. You could re home, pen the "culls" separate from the breeding stock, or otherwise. Culling chickens from your breeding stock to breed toward the standard of the breed is necessary, as well as to bring in new blood to keep from inbreeding too much.
Unfortunately most chicken keepers come upon a time when they will HAVE to kill a chicken. It is part of chicken keeping, at some point injury, egg bound, or sickness will happen. Sometimes it is better for the bird to be put out of it's misery. If you keep chickens long enough...there will come a time.
What do you do with all your roosters? I am assuming you sell straight run? What do you think happens to all the roosters you sell...I am sure most of them are being eaten by someone....no one can keep a bunch of roosters in a small backyard flock. The fact is there are more roosters than homes for them...so turning them into food is necessary and a good use for excess roosters. After all people must eat. I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[RhodeRunner]

Well, if you are a breeder showing or selling chicks as a certain breed to buyers, you should breed to the standards. If you haphazardly breed you will, after awhile end up with a mess.
My chickens are pets as well, but I will do what is necessary for the chicken and my flock. I do not breed or sell birds so my point of view is from a buyers perspective. IF I am spending my hard earned money on breeder birds being represented as a certain breed. I want my chicks to be sound and being bred toward the standard of the breed I have bought. I bought Araucana from a "breeder" I have had alot of problems. First 2 chicks in my batch were sent that were born with to short of a back to process waste properly, I put them out of their misery. Then after raising up my pullets for 9 months 2 of them egg bound on their first egg, I had to put them out of their misery......Not fair to me as the buyer, as the birds were represented as being bred sound and toward the standard, which was not true at all. That is what haphazard breeding will get your buyer.... a bunch of problems. I will say Araucana are a very difficult breed to produce. The rumpless and tufted genes can cause problems if the breeder does not know what they are doing.
As long as you are representing the chicks for what they are to your buyer there is no problem...but I spent a couple hundred dollars for my 15 chicks and I now have 2 Araucana and 2 Wyandottes left. The Araucana were not sound layers due to too much inbreeding and the Wyandottes BLR lacing is not good quality. Not a good investment for me.
Cull does not necessarily mean "kill", cull means to remove from ones flock. You could re home, pen the "culls" separate from the breeding stock, or otherwise. Culling chickens from your breeding stock to breed toward the standard of the breed is necessary, as well as to bring in new blood to keep from inbreeding too much.
Unfortunately most chicken keepers come upon a time when they will HAVE to kill a chicken. It is part of chicken keeping, at some point injury, egg bound, or sickness will happen. Sometimes it is better for the bird to be put out of it's misery. If you keep chickens long enough...there will come a time.
What do you do with all your roosters? I am assuming you sell straight run? What do you think happens to all the roosters you sell...I am sure most of them are being eaten by someone....no one can keep a bunch of roosters in a small backyard flock. The fact is there are more roosters than homes for them...so turning them into food is necessary and a good use for excess roosters. After all people must eat. I don't see anything wrong with it.

There are farms that specialize in raising chickens. Farms, where the goal is to raise friendly birds for families, instead of show winners. Stacks poultryfarm is one of these places. They are a place for a family to meet a person (verses a large scale business), and purchase friendly birds that have been properly cared for.

 

[gg706]

I think that is fine as long as they are represented that way. Mine were not. Mine were quoted as the breeding stock coming from an Araucana guru...... it was not true. Actually it was a down right lie, as I found out later. As long as the seller is honest in what they are selling and the buyer is satisfied it is a great situation. If I was close enough to Stack I might buy some!

 

[Chikenbutwut]

I think that is fine as long as they are represented that way. Mine were not. Mine were quoted as the breeding stock coming from an Araucana guru...... it was not true. Actually it was a down right lie, as I found out later. As long as the seller is honest in what they are selling and the buyer is satisfied it is a great situation. If I was close enough to Stack I might buy some!

Yeah, no doubt the people you got your Araucanas from misrepresent quite a bit of stuff just to make a buck, as you're not the only one who's had trouble with them saying things that aren't true. Because of them not stating the truth, quite a few people, it seems, have been done wrong. One person on here had complained about it and was asked what they wanted them to do. What do they think they wanted? They wanted what they were told they were getting.

I understand why you are adamant in feeling the way you do...with you having to cull your birds due to health issues from inbreeding and the birds suffering due to it, and them not doing what they could to make that situation right, it's completely understandable. Those are the types that make people leery and IMO should not be doing business at all. There's a big difference in one that just doesn't know and one who purposely misrepresents. If one cannot be honest in what they tell people and cannot make situations right that were clearly their fault, they cause problems for the rest of the people who are trying to do their best and who are honest, in having jittery clients who jump to conclusions. Though it's a different situation, take for instance my experience owning a grooming salon. I can't tell you how many people were paranoid their dog would die of heat exhaustion in a crate because of other groomers setting the heat up too high on dryers and not checking the dogs, killing the dogs in the process. Or groomers accidentally slicing a dog open with sharp scissors and gluing up the area and not telling the client about it. I was also accused of the strangest things because their dogs were "acting funny." Most dogs do not enjoy a trip to the groomers and these were dogs who'd previously been mistreated by other groomers. It's not a day at the spa for them like it is us and to the dog, I'm no better than the last groomer who hurt them, until they finally learn I'm not going to do them harm. Thing is, some more sensitive dogs never bounce back from that mistreatment and never learn to trust again. Many dogs have also been improperly handled by people who didn't care and just wanted to hurry up. Unfortunately, groomers like me had to pay the price in accusations because of groomers like that. In all my 17 yrs. of grooming and previous yrs. of being a groomer's assistant before that, plus belonging to a huge grooming club that competes in grooming competitions world wide, I do not know of one groomer who hasn't been accused of doing things they haven't. The unscrupulous groomers make it difficult for all of us at times.

I'd buy from Stacks too if I were close enough. There just seems to have been confusion over the whole Ameraucana/EE thing, to where with the place you got your Araucanas from, they're just downright dishonest it seems. What you had to go through was heartbreaking and something no one should ever have to go through.

 

[gg706]

Yes it was a horrible situation. It has made me "jaded" on breeder birds to a certain extent. I am hopeful to try again...with a different breeder of course and hope it turns out differently. I am just going to get some plain old chickens for the next couple of years...then when my kids are older and not so involved with the chickens. I will try some more Araucana. I may possibly breed out some chicks at that time.

 

[LoriC71]

Hello "Overrun with Chickens", Thank God I must say that since we have been in business since 2010, we haven't had to "put down" any of our chickens. We have had some issues with predators, but no illnesses otherwise. One of our customers had a chicken that was egg bound and she was told by a local farmer to massage warm olive oil on her vent and low and behold that helped! Her hen was able to lay the egg. We don't sell straight run. All our customers want hens. Many of our customers have their chickens as pets, and for the eggs. I know somewhere down the line, our customers may want to eat our birds, but as long as I am not there to see it....What they do with the bird, once they buy it, is there business. By the way, I don't eat chicken anymore, since we raise them. I would rather have steak! We do still make sure that we keep the breeds pure and true to the APA's standards if we do happen to get a customer that is looking for a "showbird", but most of our customers don't want that anyway. They want a cold hardy bird that lays excellent eggs. One of our tops sellers is the Cinnamon Queen. They want friendly birds. We have a small chicken farm. No big farmer would be able to have such tame birds as we do, for I spend my days holding and giving the birds alot of TLC. We are probably the only farm in the US that offers that kind of treatment to their birds. Since we are a smaller farm, I can spend one on one time with our birds. Our birds are great around children. We have many roosters since we keep them as they get older. We have a separate area for them. We also post ads on Craigslist for people that may be interested in retired roosters.

 

[gg706]

I wish we lived closer I would like some of your Speckled Sussex. I had a bad run with my first chickens...it was the first time I killed anything so was very traumatic. My hens egg was stuck further into their body so I could not do anything to help. I contacted an Araucana breeder here on BYC and she told me to cull them, and that is was a problem caused by too much inbreeding. I am going away from Araucana for awhile. I want to add a few SS to my flock. they are So gorgeous! Your website is very nice!

 

[LoriC71]

Our Speckled Sussex are such calm, docile birds! They are beautiful. Thanks for the compliments. I wished you lived closer too. I am sure you take very good care of your birds. Inbreeding can definitely cause issues. Sorry to hear that you had to go through that traumatic experience. Have you ever heard of the Serama chickens? They are world's smallest chicken. I had hatched some of them out last year. I will attach a picture of them. They make great pets. I am almost tempted to bring them into the house with some diapers on!!!! LOL!!!

 

[gg706]

They are GORGEOUS! I am in a place where I "thought" I wanted perfect quality birds when I started out, now after all the stuff I went through, I want birds like yours. Bred to be family pets. As the customer I just want to understand what I am spending my hard earned money on and get what I paid for.
Wanted to add for others who may read this thread...I DID NOT buy my chicks from Stacks Chicken Farm! I don't want there to be any confusion. My problems came from a totally different breeder. Just wanted to clarify. Stacks seems to raise some very nice stock for the backyard chicken keeper and if I were close I would probably go right over there and get some pullets.

 

[LoriC71]

Thank you, "Over run with Chickens." We enjoy raising the birds up for pets. Our main goal is to raise healthy, beautiful birds. We strive to raise the breeds that correlate with APA's guidelines, but we don't stress ourselves out about the "perfection aspect".
I am so glad that I am not a chicken going to those bird shows! It must be stressful for the birds to be perfect!

It makes us feel so good to know that our customers are happy with their new pet chickens that they purchase from us.....