Heartland Hatchery :(

[tadpole98]

Every year for three years I have bought ALL my chickens from them.
The first year I lost none to illnesses (yet later after very poor predator proof pen something killed all them
the second year I lost 5 to sickness, out of 135
this year I lost none.
They always include extras and have very fine chicks.

 

[Krista15]

I actually signed up just to reply to this post!! LOL!! so there is my disclaimer I actually was just googling Heartland to see when their chickdays were going to be down here this spring and found this thread. I had great luck with my chicks. I bought 50 and lost 2... One I think just got smothered by the others. I've purchased chicks from many different hatcheries and that is about equal to the mortality rate I get with them as well- my chicks are raised organically with unmedicated food, and unfortunately they are not the most hardy creatures.... I thought his chicks were as good as any chicks I have gotten and he was so nice to answer questions and not freak out about my kids with their grabby hands wanting to hold the ducks. In fact, he threw in some extra chicks and then gave both my kids their own "special" chick. The only complaint I have is instead of the wellsummers i wanted being pullets they are roos! LOL!

But I would give him a break with the communications...I think he is just a one man operation out there. my parents are in the little town next to his and there is NO service at all out there. So it's not like he can just keep connected with his Iphone like the rest of us.... they are pretty much landline only ;( I know if that was me I wouldn't even ATTEMPT to return emails!! LOL!!!

Overall, if he is the one doing your chick days, I'd say your pretty safe getting them there. Plus he has some fun breeds and banties, which is why I went there in the first place, as the Fox got my mille fleurs and wellsummers.

 

[isis]

To be fair, some of the negatives are newbies as well as some of the positives ;-)

 

[heartlandhatch]

Hi, my hame is Jackie Nieder, Alan Nieder's wife. My husband owns Heartland Hatchery and I saw this post when working on his website and doing some marketing research for him. I joined this group this morning to respond to this post. First, I would like to say this is the first time Alan or I have actually seen this site and read the comments. We have in no way every sent anyone here or asked anyone to join this group to respond to this thread, nor have we ever been members of this site before today.

Second Alan would like to tell everyone that he does not communicate with his customers through e-mailing. As other posters have stated above, he does state that in his Craigs Lists adds. Alan is a dairy farmer, a row crop farmer as well as operating Heartland Hatchery. We are in the country, located about 3 miles east of Amsterdam, MO. Due to the high demands of being a farmer and the sole operator of the hatchery, Alan isn't always able to answer his phone. If you call and don't get him, leave a message with your number. He tries his best to get back with everyone that calls. Sometimes he loses numbers or the call is dropped and the caller ID doesn't pickup the number. There are a number of reason he might loose connection with you. Please make an effort to call back if you have this happen to you. We do have a landline but only use it for messaging and internet since both of us are not in the house during the day much. The best way to catch Alan is through his cell.

As for his website, there was an issue with his .com provider and in order to gain total control of his website and cut costs, it was unfortunately necessary to change his website address.

In regards to any issues you all might have had with the chicks you purchased from Alan I cannot personally speak as to what might have happened. Although I am sure you understand that Alan has no control over how the chicks are cared for after they leave his presence so he cannot guarantee them. He does try to help people if there is an issue, but cannot give away free chickens, refund money or sell them for less than profitable all the time. For the most part he has very satified customers that return time after time for his chicks. He does not sell diseased chicks. His breeding stock is NPIP blood tested every year. NPIP stands for National Poultry Improvement Plan and they blood test every bird that is used for laying hatching eggs. He also is subject to routine inspections from the state vet. It would be virtually impossible for him to sell you diseased chickens. Again a hatchery does not have total control over a chick that dies 10 days after purchase. I am not here to say what might have happened to any losses that were incurred, but hope that people will understand that Alan does try his best to please his customers.

 

[blkwdw]

Hey jackie, looking forward to doing business with your husband this Saturday.
I called today, decided to not leave a message when I got voice mail, but your husband called me back within minutes (the benefits of caller id)
We chatted for several minutes about the different breeds, and mixing them with my 2 wk old chicks. I look forward to getting some more babies.

 

[City CluckCluck]

Hi Jackie & Alan; Missouri hen myself.
By any chance do you provide chicks for TSC and Orschelns in Saint Joseph, Missouri too ?
And I did find your name & number in 2 books, one is Chicken Coops (45 Building Ideas for Housing Your Flock) By Judy Pangman & Guide To Chicken Breeds. From The Editors Of Hobby Farms magazine. Both very wonderful material to have on hand for vast info. for us new-bees like myself.
I have 3 (Ameraucana) hens & 1 rooster. They are now over a year old.
We live in the city so needless to say my rooster has been sent to a friends farm to keep her girls happy.
My girls are laying and so far this year I have gotten 2 dozen plus eggs from them since the 1st of this month; Which for Ameraucanas is quite good I have been told.
By any chance would you have a list of the different breeds that you & Alan have to sell ?

 

[heartlandhatch]

Hi,

I'm sorry, we do not go to Tractor Supply or Orshlens in St. Joe, we set up at St. Joe Agri Center. We try not to go to more than one farm and ranch store in each town.

Sorry for not responding to this thread sooner. I didn't know there was a post. Not sure if I have the setting correct, but I didn't receive a notification via e-mail.

Thanks for your interest!!

Jackie Nieder

 

[cluckadoodledoo]

Like Krista15 notes above in her reply, I was doing a google search for Heartland Hatchery and stumbled on this thread by accident. And then felt compelled to create a user profile just to add my two cents worth. Interesting that this thread has been going on for three years! Wow. In Feb 2013 of this year I made a 100 mile round trip drive to attend a Chickdays at Bluestem feed store in Emporia KS. Heartland Hatcheries was the company supplying the chicks and I had never heard of them before, but figured it was worth the gamble to make the drive and try a new hatchery to get my chicks started early this year. As many others have noted, Alan was always prompt with returning phone calls, he had a wide selection of chicks available for purchase at the chick days, and he threw in a few "free" chicks. I say "free" because even with my free ones thrown in, my 45 pullets cost me an average of $3 EACH, which is about double what I usually pay later in the Spring through a different hatchery. I thought the price was a bit steep, but decided to just suck it up and make up that money on the production end of things. It is now about 18 weeks later....the hens are just now starting to lay.... And it appears that out of 45 chicks I ended up with over 20 Roos. Just about half are roosters. We have already butchered several, but the cost of the chicks plus feed up to this point averages out to about $10/bird. So that means I have over $200 invested in roosters that give me no return on my money. This of course does not include the amount i paid in gas, as well as time and energy in caring for these chickens. I called Alan and spoke with him yesterday and expressed my disappointment. I also clarified that at the price of THREE DOLLARS per chick that I had indeed purchased pullets and not a straight run. He agree that I had purchased pullets and seemed a bit unfazed that I had received so many roosters. We both agreed that a few Roos in a group is understandable. Batting .500 when it comes to purchasing pullets is just unacceptable in my book. I asked if he had any started pullets he could swap me out and he said no. Then he offered to take a buck off my next set of chicks that I purchase from him at a future Chickdays (also another 100 mile round trip from where I live). Needless to say, I won't be purchasing any more chicks from Heartland Hatcheries. The chickens I did purchase are healthy and robust. No complaints there! But I purchase chicks from experts trusting that part of what I am paying for is their expertise. When it came to sexing the chicks, I got the short end of the stick and am pretty much left high and dry. The little side business of selling eggs with my kids is pretty much a flop this year and my husband isn't too thrilled that we are eating over $200 in roosters. All in all I am pretty disappointed and will just stick with ordering my chickens by mail from my usual place (Cackle Hatchery) where I have never received even one rooster with my order of pullets!

 

[heartlandhatch]

Cluckadoodledoo,

In response to your recent post, We are very sorry you did not receive a greater percentage of hens than roosters. Offering you more chicks at a discounted price is his way of trying to rectify the situation. However, having said that, 50% is not a good percentage as we all can agree. I'm not sure it was Alan's chick sexing that went awry as much as the chicks got mixed up in the pens. In a selling medium such as a chick day sale where all chicks are on display and are handled by children and adults, sometimes the chickens get picked up and then returned to the wrong pen. Sometimes customers will take a box around pick chicks up and then decide they don't want any and will dump them all in one pen. Unfortunately when Alan is by himself at these sales, which is pretty much all the time, he can't see and control everything that happens. Alan recalls your situation and phone conversation, and said he knew after your call that the chicks that day had really must of gotten mixed around. It happens sometimes, and unfortunately, a great number of your chicks were male and should not have been. Alan would like you to please call him back to discuss this matter further since he was not under the same impression that you got all pullets and half were roosters per your earlier conversation. I think he was under the impression that out of your total purchase only a small amount were purchased as pullets. Hopefully another conversation will clarify the matter, and maybe you two can come to some sort of agreement. In regards to the price of our pullets, That's our price. We are a small one man operation and we have to cover our overhead. I understand larger hatcheries can offer more for less. They are bigger, can ship, etc. I understand that you are 100 miles away from the chick day sale where you purchased the chicks, and returning to that location again may not be feasible or cost effective for you. We are probably farther away than that. Unfortunately, because we are small, we have to drive around to various feed stores and sell the chicks to make a living, and we hope that the majority of our customer base is local to that area.. Anyway, please give Alan another call, 660-424-0408. I hope the matter can then be resolved.


Jackie Nieder
Heartland Hatchery

 

[mbradly98]

Ok does heartland hatchery give u something to haul the chickens in like a cardboard box or something because they are gonna be there at my local feed store tomorrow