June Hatch-A-Long

[jolenesdad]

Anyone else here cull the chicks that aren’t up to par? Say a defect of some sort... I don’t like selling defect chicks to customers and I don’t like them in my flock because I don’t want to breed in defects

It depends on the chicks and the situation and the defect. Like marans with fused feet I don’t kill. I don’t keep them for my flock. If I’m doing meat birds I’ll keep the boys for that, and if I’m not, I’ll give them to the family I give most of my grow out heritage boys to.

if theres an appearance defect I also may not kill. like I just hatched out a couple of Legbars with feathered feet. Not entirely uncommon but a huge fault. Who cares.... pet only situation.

most all defects I’ve ever tried to raise have eventually died. And it takes so much time and energy. It’s not worth it unless you have just a few chickens and they’re 100% pets and you just want to give yourself to a chicken.

culling chicks is the WORST of them all, but necessary if you’re even gonna hatch one time. I’m the admin of a large local chicken group on FB and we also have a large sellers list for Houston and separate seller network. I see people all the time who hatch and sell chicks offering a “special needs chick”.

like who SEEKS out a special needs chick? I just assume they can’t cull chicks.

 

[jolenesdad]

I hope Meyer will make this right for you. With the losses and problems I'd say you need a whole new shipment of ducklings. Back when I used to order from them because I lived so close they had excellent customer service and a few times we even picked the chicks up. Now though, I'm beginning to wonder about them...
I saw where the ducks are shipped from somewhere else, but still, their name is on them.

They’re from Metzer. If a hatchery sells sexed waterfowl, it’s a fair guarantee they’re coming from Metzer in California.

 

[jolenesdad]

They’re from Metzer. If a hatchery sells sexed waterfowl, it’s a fair guarantee they’re coming from Metzer in California.

My geese I bought from Meyer they have the Meyer hatchery sticker on it, the Meyer NPIP statement, and return address of Meyer hatchery. But on the box is the transport sticker from the postal service from Oakland.

with Covid I assume air is a mess for the USPS. I never even registered that or I probably wouldn’t have ordered the geese anyway. The USPS doesn’t have planes, they hop onto freight and air from commercial to UPS and FedEx. With so much less air, and so many flights reorganized to go through hubs instead of direct, no wonder it’s taking so long for chicks. :-(

 

[SnapdragonQ]

........ I see people all the time who hatch and sell chicks offering a “special needs chick”.

like who SEEKS out a special needs chick? I just assume they can’t cull chicks.

Depends on where in the country you live. If you were in the PNW, any special needs anything pet gets snatched up in a heart beat! Different communities have different mind sets. (I used to live in PNW)

Many of the more hard core agricultural places people just can't be bothered with or waste the resources on irregulars so they are culled without so much as a bat of an eye. (Lived in these places too)


(I've moved a Lot )

 

[FortCluck]

That is what I do, the customer needs a good experience. I've never heard someone say, can I have your problem chicks.

Cull the bad ones. I never keep bad ones anymore. I have a reputation to withhold now

 

[Cturber]

Our first Father’s Day chick! 1st time broody mom is doing great!

 

[FortCluck]

It depends on the chicks and the situation and the defect. Like marans with fused feet I don’t kill. I don’t keep them for my flock. If I’m doing meat birds I’ll keep the boys for that, and if I’m not, I’ll give them to the family I give most of my grow out heritage boys to.

if theres an appearance defect I also may not kill. like I just hatched out a couple of Legbars with feathered feet. Not entirely uncommon but a huge fault. Who cares.... pet only situation.

most all defects I’ve ever tried to raise have eventually died. And it takes so much time and energy. It’s not worth it unless you have just a few chickens and they’re 100% pets and you just want to give yourself to a chicken.

culling chicks is the WORST of them all, but necessary if you’re even gonna hatch one time. I’m the admin of a large local chicken group on FB and we also have a large sellers list for Houston and separate seller network. I see people all the time who hatch and sell chicks offering a “special needs chick”.

like who SEEKS out a special needs chick? I just assume they can’t cull chicks.

Not me, I don’t need a special needs chick. Too much craziness for me to care for that and I’m always the one who gets stuck with them.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Good morning and hope everyone is having a great week-end so far!
DAY 14 and just candled what is left of my 33 eggs I started with 2 weeks ago.
3 of 7 Silver Laced Orpingtons look great, the little chicks are dancing in their shells! Pretty excited about these! One has a jiggly air cell still, has been upright the whole time and will hatch that way, too. The chick looks strong though, fingers crossed!
1 of 8 Marans is left , one of the BCM and I THINK I see something moving, but who knows with that dark shell, could just be a mind trick, because I WANT to see something move!
0 of 13 Lavender Ameraucanas are left, total bummer, but I did buy 2 Ameraucana pullets 2 days ago from a local breeder, one splash and one blue, and they are the sweetest birds!
And lastly 2 of 6 grocery store eggs look great, excited to see what these look like!
Had the best air cells in the bunch!
So 6 eggs left that will likely go to lockdown in 4-5 days. We will see...

 

[ShrekDawg]

Wow I didn’t realize most came from Metzer! Seems like if that’s the case, one may as well just order directly from Metzer

 

[jolenesdad]

Wow I didn’t realize most came from Metzer! Seems like if that’s the case, one may as well just order directly from Metzer

Yes but it doesn’t entirely work that way..... Metzer has wholesale contracts that are paid for up front so they may hatch 1,000 of a breed but Meyer has already bought 200 or whatever, just an example. the Africans I ordered were sold out at Metzer but Meyer still had some.

a lot of things are this way.

if a meat bird requires an order of 25, they’re not coming from the hatchery, they’re coming from somewhere else. Anything that says “can’t be mixed” or “cannot be picked up” is drop shipped.

almost every single guinea in the entire country comes from one hatchery.

most waterfowl comes from Metzer, but for sure most sexed waterfowl. If it’s not sexed it comes from the hatchery selling it usually. It’s weird to me that waterfowl is supposed to be easier to sex but they don’t do it. Like ideal. They hatch lots of waterfowl bit don’t sex any. neither does Hoover.