Hatchery vs. Local Feed Store

[misfitchick09]

Picked up 6 ducklings and 6 amercunas today at tsc. Heading to champion feed tomorrow for some buffs

 

[CamarilloChickN]

I was able to get my chicks from a local farm a couple of hours from my home, called Dare 2 Dream Farms. We went to the farm and were able to pick out the exact breeds that we wanted. They sexed the chicks so we are hoping all 5 of them are hens. We picked up a Rhode Island Red, Brahma, New Hampshire Red, Australorp, Barred Rock. We have had them for a couple of weeks and they are getting along great. If we have any questions we can email the farm. It was great seeing the whole set up and knowing that the chicks had a great start. It was also nice to support a local small business.

 

[clankeyes]

The question from me is not so much what varieties are available, or how soon I can get them- it's more about the ethical treatment of the animals- including the hens that lay these hatchery eggs (local feed stores almost all get theirs from commercial hatcheries), the handling of newly hatched chicks by the gender-separating workers (not to mention the quality of their lives at the conveyor belt!) and lastly, the poor little roosters that get culled and tossed into the dumpster like garbage- still alive and peeping!!

The REAL question would be- where can I find a local breeder who uses humane methods and systems???

Let's change this system that treats animals like a consumer product, and start respecting the living beings that they are, and treat them accordingly.

Thanks for listening

was surfing around on you tube the other night and came across that show " Dirty Jobs' they showed a commercial hatchery. WOW is all I am saying. since I made my order at a local feed which does order from a hatchery i found some local breeder. but my order has already been made. the video's i watched opened my eyes.

 

[WaterfowlWierdo]

I have worked at a small town feed stores for three chicks seasons now, Most stores do order from hatcheries, some may from a local breeder but unlikely. Chances are there is one person in charge of all chick orders, at my store we do special orders where we order anything the customer wants that the hatchery offers. Sometimes there is a 5 bird minimum but not always.

Check your local feed store, dont go off of what they have right now or are getting next week, Ask the person in charge of the orders to see if you can place a special order to get exactly what you want. We loose so much sales because people think they can only buy whats in front of them, not whats in the catalog from the hatchery.

 

[AmazingChickens]

I agree with you, sometimes they just throw the little roosters into a grinder while they are still alive!!

 

[alldembirds]

I don't quite get what you are showing as a way to sex chickens? Are those tail feathers? Wing tips? What breed? I have always sexed by opening the vent gently and feeling for the tiny 'horn' found in males. Heck sometimes it pops right up and voila you have a cockerel. Always be careful however to handle the chicks gently. My neighbor Sue Lee (Vietnam) can go through a whole boatload of newborns in just minutes it seems and she is always right with this method. Its what she taught me as a child. I know of no other, though if I could learn one that doesn't require me to turn the poor little thing over and pop out its butt I'd love to know - plus it would preclude me getting pooped on, too as often happens.

Happy to learn in Tennessee
Mikelyn

some chickens are auto-sexing, like the Salmon Faverolle or the Niederrheiner , they have been bred over time so that the male/female chicks look different within a couple weeks. others are sex-link they are first generation crosses between two specially selected breeds , when they hatch males and females will look very different from day one. For example a Red sex link chicken is a cross between a Delaware chicken hen and a Rhode Island Red Chicken Rooster and when the chicks hatch the males are light colored almost regular yellow and the females are very orange/rusty from day one. if you continue to raise your sex link chicks for a second generation you wont be able to sex by color. hope that helps.

 

[GalloSiSupieras]

I would check BYC sale pages, search engines, and even craigslist. You'd be surprised how many breeders, some of them with really good quality lines, may be nearby you. For me, a 1-2hr drive has always been worth avoiding the hatcheries.

 

[manychitlens]

I am a first timer so my criteria was lots of day old chicks in the breeds that I was looking for, and vaccinated for only Mareks. I ended up going 45 minutes away rather than local place. All the chicks came from Ideal and all looked VERY healthy. I got to pick out of around 50 of each breed. In order to get all 4 on the same day only made one breed change. I am at one week and VERY happy.
I have: 1 Buff Orp, 1 Blk Aust, 1 Ameracauna, and 1 Barred Rock HAVING A BLAST!
In terms of Roos I would be afraid to sell them here in fear they might end up as cock fighters..........

Yikes. Is that what happens around here?? I'm having a hard time deciding what to do. The local feed store is really helpful and the girls that work there are super nice, and they get small orders of two types of chicks per week from Belt. One of the girls gave me the list of what they were getting and when so that I could see. I like that I can get all females (or, hopefully anyway) if I go that route, because I'm not sure what to do with the roosters.

On the other hand, I like the idea of getting heritage breeds since we can only have a few hens here in the city. I've found a couple of breeders on BYC that are 'local' (1-2 hours) from me and I would be willing to drive and pick them up, if they would sell in small quantities, but I'm finding that even the breeders are selling with a minimum of 10. I'm afraid to go to some of the small breeders that I've seen advertising on CL etc because I don't want them to be sickly. Also I've seen the hatchery videos on YouTube and they really are sickening to watch. Watching all of those chicks get tossed by the wings into the chutes, fall through the conveyer belts, etc etc makes me nauseous. How any of them survive and then arrive safely after shipping is a miracle to me. I have time to decide because we're just starting to secure our yard and we're taking our sweet time, but I'm researching like crazy. Likely I won't go the hatchery route, though.

 

[Silver Silkie]

Honestly, it doesn't really matter. Most feed stores buy their chicks from a hatchery, so they will sell them to you a little bit more expensive than from the hatchery. I have heard Ideal Poultry and Murray McMurray are some of the best. I will be going through Cackle Hatchery, because the other two hatcheries don't have the breeds I want available until May, and I'll be selling at the local county fair in August.

 

[GalloSiSupieras]

I've found a couple of breeders on BYC that are 'local' (1-2 hours) from me and I would be willing to drive and pick them up, if they would sell in small quantities, but I'm finding that even the breeders are selling with a minimum of 10.

Welcome to BYC ! As far as order minimums from small breeders, might be worth calling to see if those numbers apply to pickups as well. I recently bought just six little ones from a nearby breeder whose website said 10 minimum, because there aren't the same heat & safety concerns when they've only got a short drive straight to the brooder.