Is Meyer Hatchery good?

[Browniethechicken]

I am ordering chicks. Is Meyer hatchery good? Good reputation? And what is your experience with their chicks?

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I ordered chicks from them across country to here in California. 19 were ordered and 3 were lost to shipping stress but other than that everything was great. My chicks from them are now 20 weeks old and absolutely gorgeous and healthy! Out of 16, only one was not a pullet (ordered all pullets) and they gave a full refund for the $40 lavender Ameraucana. If I were to order from a hatchery again I would definitely go with Meyers.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I've ordered a few times from them, in fact, I'm expecting some chicks next week.
For me, I'm in NC so normally chicks arrive the next day, so not too long in transit. They arrive healthy and eager to get on with chickening.

We'll see how this next batch of chicks are, but overall, I've been satisfied with chicks from them. Seem to be fairly decent hatchery quality chicks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I've ordered from them twice, I believe, and been very satisfied both times. One year the week they delivered coincided with a freak blizzard (early spring, end of February, I believe) and my entiire order was lost to the cold. They immediately replaced the order and all but three arrived in good health; they refunded me for those three. I usually order both pullets and cockerels and get exactly what I order. I've also had good results ordering from Cackle and Mt. Healthy; all are very professional and have wonderful support teams, in my experience. The only reason I switched was in order to get varieties Meyer did not carry; I would certainly order from them again.

 

[Browniethechicken]

I ordered chicks from them across country to here in California. 19 were ordered and 3 were lost to shipping stress but other than that everything was great. My chicks from them are now 20 weeks old and absolutely gorgeous and healthy! Out of 16, only one was not a pullet (ordered all pullets) and they gave a full refund for the $40 lavender Ameraucana. If I were to order from a hatchery again I would definitely go with Meyers.

Thank you!

 

[Browniethechicken]

I've ordered from them twice, I believe, and been very satisfied both times. One year the week they delivered coincided with a freak blizzard (early spring, end of February, I believe) and my entiire order was lost to the cold. They immediately replaced the order and all but three arrived in good health; they refunded me for those three. I usually order both pullets and cockerels and get exactly what I order. I've also had good results ordering from Cackle and Mt. Healthy; all are very professional and have wonderful support teams, in my experience. The only reason I switched was in order to get varieties Meyer did not carry; I would certainly order from them again.

Thank you!!!

 

[Browniethechicken]

I've ordered a few times from them, in fact, I'm expecting some chicks next week.
For me, I'm in NC so normally chicks arrive the next day, so not too long in transit. They arrive healthy and eager to get on with chickening.

We'll see how this next batch of chicks are, but overall, I've been satisfied with chicks from them. Seem to be fairly decent hatchery quality chicks.

Thank you!!!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I ordered from them a bunch. (not my avatar) I also ordered from Cackle a surprise box recently. I would say I liked the experience of Meyer's better between the 2. But as far as chicks go, Cackle's were very plump, and lively. I have also bought from the feed stores before, the one near me gets their chicks from Hoovers. I have yet to get a pretty SLW from a feed store. I got one from Meyer's recently and I will wait till it gets grown-up feathers before I comment.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've ordered from Meyer, Cackle, and Ideal. All the chicks have shown up alive and were healthy. They lived. They "guarantee" a 90% correct sex rate in sexed chicks. All of them did that well or better.

None of these hatcheries are breeding to produce show quality chickens. Their goal is to mass produce chicks pretty close to general breed description. Their prices reflect that. Breeders that try to produce show quality chickens are going to charge a lot more, as they should. It is hard expensive work breeding show quality chickens. If you are looking for show quality chickens the hatcheries are not for you.

Each hatchery has their own people that decide which chickens get to breed and can have some differences in the appearance of the same breed. I noticed some of that but the differences were pretty minor. Since I wanted hatchery quality chicks I was very happy with all three.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

There's a lot of competition among the hatcheries and service is the name of the game. A hatchery that doesn't provide that isn't going to stay in business very long.