Ideal Poultry's chicks and ducks, this happen to you?

[tebs78]

I have hatched my own poultry out...And infact I have 24 healthy chicks running around that are 16 weeks old that I hatched and raised myself. I decided to Order some chicks from ideal and out of the 50+ I have ordered I have lost over half my flock now slowly they die for no apparent reason. I care for them the same as the ones's I have hatched myself. Its very furstrating. I had 10 ducks and now down to 4!! I am down to 20 or so chicks. I am just ticked. This isn't my first rodeo with ducks, chicks, geese, or anything and I can't seem to do anything right to keep them alive.

 

[elliemay0305]

i know what your saying. i order from them alot and i loose a lot. we last got 25 bantams from them but i have to say we only lost about 3 i think and they were acting sick when we got them. if you let them know within 3 days they will credit your account for any you lost but when we got our chicks we also got 25 baby ducks and i have lost more than half!! i dont know what it is with the ducks but its like all the smallest ones they sent me have died. they said it souded liek they were getting water logged but i dont know. i have them for the first few days and they were doing great! i was actually saying how amazed i was we hadnt lost any. then one day i had a large amount like 5 or 6 die at once!! it was horrible they were quacking and flopping around in thweir box because they couldnt stand up then they just died. i started buying soem chicks from mt healthy last year. great chicks, i never recieved any dead ones and i had a good success rate with them. you can get like 200 heavy chicks for $60 i think. check them out! oh also my chicks seemed to do better this time when i gave them some layer mixed with starter! i dont knwo if that had anything to do with it but mine are doing great! as far as i know it cant hurt them.

 

[ThreeGlovers]

I can say I have never had that kind of trouble with Ideal.

Last year I Ordered 5 D'uccles, 2 B. Orp, 2 Drk Brahama, 2 E.E. I also got 7 extra as packing peanuts. I only lost 1 chick and it was an extra D'uccle as they had sent 6 when I ordered 5. Also 1 of the peanuts turned out to be a hen.

This year I ordered 8 dark egg layers( got 4 feather footed cookoo marans and 4 barnvelders) 2 golden phoenix roos, 2 red cochins, 2 salmon favoreles, and 3 Black East India ducks. They sent 8 RIR roos as peanuts. I have only lost 1 of the barnvelders, so I can't say that I can complain.

In my opinion anyone can have a bad experence with any hatchery out there. Some people swear by Ideal and some swear at them. I think that you can find the same opinion from people who have used Murry McMurry or Cackle or any hatchery.

I'm sorry for your losses but that hasn't been my experence with them.

Bo

 

[havi]

Ive ordered from them 6 or 7 times now and love them. I really love the fact that there is no min. order on chicks, just a min. order of $25 dollars. Once I ordered a couple of frizzles and one turned out to not be a frizzle, one of the other chicks also had a deformed toe. I emailed them and let them know what happened and I got a nice email back stating they were sorry and gave me a prompt refund for the two chicks plus a little extra(maybe for the taxes?). But other than that I havent had really any problems. I love them. They are about an hour away from me too.



Maybe it was the time of year you ordered them? Too cold and stressed? Maybe how far away you are?

 

[tim_TX]

Never ever ever give chicks layer ration. They cannot process the extra calcium, and it can kill or seriously injure them. Talk about a mass die off .....

 

[Featherland]

I am curious to know; did any of you have your chicks vaccinated?

 

[Axona]

I ordered 11 chicks from Ideal. They are now 5 weeks old and have all been thriving. No problems whatsoever so far. I also didn't get them vaccinated, although I think vaccination is a good idea (I'm still learning here).

 

[crazycluck]

I am wondering the same thing! I just order from Ideal (to be delievered on 5-13) do I want them to get vaccinations?

 

[gritsar]

All of my birds from Ideal have been healthy and super hardy from day one.

 

[Kimiko]

My chicks from Ideal are doing well.

If you have Marek's in your area, get the vaccine. Otherwise you will watch your flock die--one by one.