Has Cackle Hatchery Ever Sold You Diseased Chicks?

[Liza728w]

I have a closed, disease free flock. They are like my little babies. I want to add a few more chicks from cackle hatchery, but I'm concerned that it would introduce disease. Thoughts on this? I emailed, and it looks like they don't generally test unless they are testing for AI and Salmonella. They are a part of NPIP, but that doesn't mean they don't have mycoplasma or coryza or cocci in their facilities. I don't know if it's even possible to buy chicks anywhere guaranteed to be 100% clean. Wondering if anyone has had any issues with disease buying from cackle hatchery.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

A commercial, reliable hatchery is the closest to 100 safe as most people can get without just hatching your own eggs from your own flock

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have a closed, disease free flock. They are like my little babies. I want to add a few more chicks from cackle hatchery, but I'm concerned that it would introduce disease. Thoughts on this? I emailed, and it looks like they don't generally test unless they are testing for AI and Salmonella. They are a part of NPIP, but that doesn't mean they don't have mycoplasma or coryza or cocci in their facilities. I don't know if it's even possible to buy chicks anywhere guaranteed to be 100% clean. Wondering if anyone has had any issues with disease buying from cackle hatchery.

Well, I'll help you with one of those.

Cackle has coccidia. So does Murray McMurray, Ideal, any other commercial poultry op you can name. So do I. So do you.

There is essentially no place on the planet where humans have been that we didn't help spread coccidia into.

The key question is whether or not they overwhelm, briefly, your bird's gut biome and its immune system generally. If it does, we call that condition coccidiosis. But coccidia are esssentially ALWAYS present.

The only guarantee in life is that none of us get out alive.

But as a general matter, the commercial hatcheries present some of the best chances of recieving a disease free bird, as there aren't many diseases passed vertically from mother to chick in egg, and many of the larger hatcheries don't have parent lines on site - they are usually hatching eggs supplied to them under contract by smaller specialist breeders. That added step actually assists in their biosecurity.