Help! In California and afraid to order from hatcheries 1400 miles away.

[Painted Calls]

What about a smaller breeder - Alchemist Farm is in Sonoma County and their ladies lay gorgeous eggs. I'm not sure if they're sending any chicks anymore this year, but they'll start doing so again in the spring.

Pretty sure @JustBabyMargo has multiple birds from them with varying deformities. I wouldn't order from them if they were the last breeder on earth.

 

[JustBabyMargo]

Pretty sure @JustBabyMargo has multiple birds from them with varying deformities. I wouldn't order from them if they were the last breeder on earth.

That is correct.

We ordered from them twice (the second time to make up for all the chicks that had died the first time). The second time a couple of them still ended up dying. I now have two crossbeaks from them and a few with bent up toes. They are all very sweet, but not worth the money considering you can get perfectly sweet birds from any other hatchery (like Murray McMurray). The package that the chicks were sent in had a heat pack and chick sized cups in it. The heat back was not connected to the box whatsoever, and the cups were filled with some kind of green substance. Many got trapped under the heat pack and my Shelly was completely all curled up and shriveled in one of the cups. We thought she was dead. She really is a miracle baby considering how she couldn’t even walk or eat without throwing up or falling over. Overall, it was quite the traumatic experience, and I don’t plan on ordering from them again.
What Shelly looks like-

And my poor Kevin-
(She’s from the second batch)

They both got beak trims before these pictures were taken^

 

[Aunt Angus]

Exactly why I won't have birds shipped anymore. Too risky.

And the last time I grabbed random birds from the feed store, I ended up with three fantastic birds representing three really great breeds (Naked Neck, Lavender Orp, Spitzhauben). Zero stress. No shipping fees. Couldn't be happier!

When I lived in the Sacramento area, there were a couple of great feed stores that carried many, many different breeds. There might be a few like that in your area, too.

 

[Poshlissa]

I’ll put in a second recommendation for Patrick at https://hilltopfarmspoultry.com/.

We got our four from them this last summer. Not cheap, but not bad either. Was $90 for (1) gold laced polish, (1) silver laced polish, (1) welsummer, (1) crested cream legbar. They were also 2/5 week olds. He has a vet that sexes the polish. And he’ll hold your order if you want- which is why mine are aged different. He was out of polish, and they don’t get sexed until 1-2 was old, so he held the welsummer & ccl so I could pick them up all at once.

Was the only place where I could get literally only one sexed of whatever type. He also will take back roosters if there’s a slip. And he’s excellent if you have any issues. We did lose one of the polish the first night, she never shut up, so something was wrong… but he replaced her no problem.

They are just outside of Corona, a few minutes off the 15.

The wellie and ccl are laying. The polish not yet.

If you need a quieter chicken, heed the threads abt welsummers. My welsummer is a loud mouth & she doesn’t sound like a chicken. She barks, hollers, moans, hisses & growls if there is ANYTHING not to her liking. Lol. Water not cold enough? She moans. Food bin not full enough, she barks. Someone looking at their eggs, she hollers. If the dogs look at her, she growls. She is ridiculously hilarious though. If she’s quiet, she’s up to no good.

Good luck.

Oh my gosh your Welsummer sounds hilarious. I love it!!!

 

[Alohacayo]

Oh my gosh your Welsummer sounds hilarious. I love it!!!

She’s a hoot. My mom (who is 73) actually named her after my sister because sis sounded just like this chicken when she was a teenager. It’s weird because the other 3 are REALLY quiet, and then there’s big mouth. For a while we thought it was the dogs making the barking noises, but it’s Carla. And before she actually got the barking down, it sounded like someone was knocking on the door. The moaning could be used as a sound track for a haunted house, and it’s LOUD. It’s also her egg song and it sounds human.

So I’ve got 4 chickens and none of them make chicken noises.

Just for what it’s worth re the cream legbar (from hilltop/Patrick)- she lays a pretty green egg. But definitely not blue. So if a blue egg is important, I’d ask… we were disappointed, but and ccl’s can be green layers. The welsummer is definitely very dark brown egg with speckles. Both consistently at 55g, the wellie 5-6 a week, the ccl 3-4.

Good luck!

 

[ncomp]

That is correct.

We ordered from them twice (the second time to make up for all the chicks that had died the first time). The second time a couple of them still ended up dying. I now have two crossbeaks from them and a few with bent up toes. They are all very sweet, but not worth the money considering you can get perfectly sweet birds from any other hatchery (like Murray McMurray). The package that the chicks were sent in had a heat pack and chick sized cups in it. The heat back was not connected to the box whatsoever, and the cups were filled with some kind of green substance. Many got trapped under the heat pack and my Shelly was completely all curled up and shriveled in one of the cups. We thought she was dead. She really is a miracle baby considering how she couldn’t even walk or eat without throwing up or falling over. Overall, it was quite the traumatic experience, and I don’t plan on ordering from them again.
What Shelly looks like-View attachment 2910836
And my poor Kevin-
(She’s from the second batch)View attachment 2910848They both got beak trims before these pictures were taken^

Oh no! I had no idea. Thanks for sharing. I've only ever seen their stuff from their website or their Instagram. Was planning possibly ordering from them in the future, but I'll likely refrain given this new information! My girls are all from McMurray and they're healthy and happy.

 

[joydix]

Have you ordered from them and had a good experience?

I’m in N CA. and have ordered quite a few times. I usually can find chicken people nearby who will go in with me. Papas poultry is great. Or have some real fun and get hatching eggs!