ideal hatchery

[kitten6566]

I ordered 6 chicks from ideal and they sent me 15 EXTRA MALE CHICKENS.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Yep, they love to pack the box with packing peanuts.

 

[Chicken Crazy12]

I hate Ideal because of the quality of chicks are not very good. My sister uses them a lot and they've got packing peanuts that had cross beak, crooked toes on their chicks they paid for, one of their frizzle cochins last year was half naked because it was super frizzle gene, half of the D'Anvers died shortly after receiving them, The self blue d'uccles ended up being non bearded except for 1 hen. My sister always gets chicks from them that didn't fare the shipping so well and they won't eat so have to be nursed back to health. They are just a mess. This year they didn't want to ship her entire order and told her they didn't hatch right so she would have to take another breed instead or wait till her breed came around to hatching again. She said she wouldn't take the substitution and then suddenly they had the chicks and were going to ship them the next day. I went in on an order with my sis probably 6 years ago for cuckoo marans and all the pullets (paid for pullets here) turned out to be roos.

As you can see I don't care for them at all. I would rather pay for extra chicks to make up the minimum and go with a good quality hatchery vs Ideal.

Just my 2 cents and my/my sisters experience with ideal.

 

[lovesgliders]

I've had great results with them, always healthy and lively birds!

It should be noted that you can request to not have the "packing peanuts" added to your order. You just have to purchase insurance (very inexpensive--around $1.75--and I think the post office is a little more careful with a box with an INSURED MAIL sticker on it). They pack the insured boxes well and on my latest shipment of ducklings, included free grogel.

 

[DB_Tex]

My first hatchery experience I ordered 12 khaki campbell duck-letts from Ideal. When I opened the box half were DOA. I think it was kind of my fault for shipping from Texas to Phoenix in July, and it was also just before july 4th postal holiday weekend (I got them on the 3rd or something- more on that later.)
Rather than risk lives needlessly I had the remainder of my order refunded rather than re-shipped. The customer service was excellent... because my "48 hour live guarantee" fell over a holiday weekend I sent off an email AND left a voicemail, and I had a service rep reply to both by 10 am the very first work day, and I got my refund quickly.

Of the 6 birds, one was runty, and slipped a hock as an adolescent. She was a plucky one legged girl, and laid regularly but I never shook the feeling that something *off* in her health made her bantam sized. Eventually a dog got her. (Don't worry, I got the dog.)
One of the others had an excessively large breast. She was adorable like an overstuffed stuffed animal, but her center of gravity being off balance impeded her walking. I placed that one in a pet quasi-house duck home so she wouldn't have to be so physical... sometimes she would fall over on her back like a turtle and get stuck... precious yes, but very bad trait for a free range duck so I removed her from breeding via rehoming.
The remaining 4 were beautiful little birds, built short and squatty-- and daily layers. I have a campbell from a different hatchery and they are interesting to compare-- very different types of the same breed.

In the winter I decided I wanted geese. I learned from my summer chick experiences that I needed to order as early in the year as possible for the health of the birds. Ideal was the first place hatching geese so I ordered 10 hatchery choice goslings in order to try different breeds (and they had them on special for 6$ each.) Also added in 2 cayuga ducklings to the box.
This time I got the birds in TWO DAYS and I didn't lose a single bird at any point in development.

I suspect that on my first order 1.the heat was to blame for my losses and 2.the post office got sloppy on the handling side around the postal holiday. I also had a similiar delay of an extra day in transit around labor day and veterans day, so I will never order a hatch that coincides with a holiday ever again.

My only complain was that for a hatchery choice assortment, I only ended up with 2 africans and 8 white chinese. I kind of expected a third variety in there by ordering so many. The male/female ration was excellent with a high number of girlies. (The two cayugas were one of each.)

Ideal is definitly honest about their straight runs-- they really seem to come at random as they hatch. Many hatcheries high grade out the females people pay extra for first, and then "straight run" is truthfully what is left over.

I also have 3 pullets that came from Ideal via a feed store and they are doing exceptionally well too (2 silver laced wyandottes and 1 RiR)
I think they run their business side well. They hire good employees for customer service, and are really good about disease control.

They offer a huge variety of breeds and species and they are all hatched in house on site, not sourced out. The variety they offer is the tradeoff with the "big hatchery" methods they have in their breeding and big business practices. In some cases they are the only source by mail for some breeds. (Pomeranian geese, Black East Indie ducks)

They are not a bad place to get birds by any means, but if you're ordering just waterfowl, Metzer has better birds, similar prices, and "the staff" is more invested on a personal level.

If you're ordering for a breeding program or for showing, choose birds from a breeder, Holderread, or Sand Hill Preservation. Holderread is more dedicated to genetic diversity and true to type birds. I can't speak for any others.


For me, I'd like to *have* holderread birds, but I have a very slim safe shipping window and the waiting list can be rough.

Metzer is my usual "go to" hatchery, and Ideal is my back up for birds Metzer doesn't breed.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Country girl, you are in Ohio, and there are some excellent breeders of ducks and geese in Ohio.

For what you pay for the minimum price order, you could get a small number of top quality ducks from a breeder in your state. You will get better looking birds and very probably better temperaments on your birds by buying locally from a show breeder.