Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[NotableNancy]

Ha ha, great! Thanks, Maxie is a good dog. She was an abused abandoned neighborhood dog that just wander up one day. My husband said we had to keep her since she smiled at him. My son and husband rescued her by cutting a collar off her neck that had grown into her neck. Whomever had her put a collar on her when she was smaller and never changed it or loosened it. She has a sad past but is all smiles now, especially since we fenced in the backyard. We only put a collar on her now when she goes for walks. Maxie seems to suffer in the summer too but loves this cold weather. I didn't realize Marrock has a double coat too, he is all set for this weather too.
Those are beautiful. I saw this link on another thread. You all should check out these chickens and eggs. I wish I could order from them, but they're in Florida

http://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/

Awww, I didn't know you rescued her. Another reason to like your DH... he knows a dog smile when he sees it!!I can't believe someone would do that to such a beautiful animal.
Gorgeous chickens on that link you posted! Someday I'll have a Wheaten Ameraucana... they're one of my favorite breeds!!

Hi all! I wanted to jump on this thread. All the great pics and reviews was why I ordered my juvenile Golden Buffs from them, which came two days ago and are doing great! I can't wait to integrate them in with my 11 other ladies. I just placed my spring chick order too, March can't come fast enough! I have my first rooster, a Buff Orpington coming, as well as more Golden Buffs, Wellsummers, Columbian Wyandotte, Australorp, White Leghorn, Exchequer Leghorn, and EEs. So excited!

Welcome.... glad your birds arrived healthy!! Nice selection you ordered. My 2 Exchequer Leghorns are 16 weeks old tomorrow.... can't wait for some more eggs
Any pics of your Buffs? Can you tell how old they are?? Mine are 15 and 16 weeks and wondered if yours look like mine or if you can tell yours are going to lay soon.

I am seriously considering purchasing a few birds from Meyer. Just wanted to know, from those who have dealt with Meyer before, does the quality of their birds justify the higher price? They have some breeds that I have been wanting but they are not exactly cheap.

Are you going to show them or just for eggs/pets? I don't think they're prices are that high but when you figure in the shipping it is. And of course a few of the specialty breeds are pretty pricey.
Overall, I've been very happy with them. A couple of duds here and there but for the most part nice birds. But I've only had them for 1 1/2 years so I don't have much to compare to.
Our feed store buys from Ideal in Texas and I have 7 birds from them. All nice.
My neighbor buys from Murray McMurray and quite frankly, I haven't loved their stock. They had 4 EE's and they all looked the same! Maybe just dumb luck but they were all just plain brown. Can't attest to the egg color because their whole flock got eaten just as they were starting to lay. Actually, that happened to them 2X this year! But that's another story. They also include packing peanuts and as someone else said, what am I going to do with all those males? I consider that an inconvenience when hatcheries do that. Their Leghorns lay huge eggs though; but I assume most do.

I also know someone that ordered from a breeder here in PA (they do ship as well so if you want to know who NOT to order from you can PM me. I don't want to put it out there) and it was an absolute disaster. She paid a fortune to buy them at 6 weeks old rather than 2 day old, they had mites when she picked them up, she didn't get the breeds she ordered, he said they would all be female and she ended up with 3 male out of 12 total chickens, 2 have died and now the flock has been diagnosed with MG!!!! And she had 2 other roosters on her property for over a year and were healthy so it was most def. from the breeder.
So, from now on I will only be going with reputable hatcheries which I know Meyer and Ideal are. AND the customer service at Meyer is amazing!! So many of us called and changed our orders (some more than once

), dates of delivery etc all with a wonderful attitude!

I've heard about those packing peanuts....

I know... that's the last thing I need ... to find a home for lots of roosters.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

I love my Sebrights. They are fully grown now and ready to go outside but I am hesitant to move them because of the weather. I know they are actually hardier than you might think but even full grown they are just barely the size of a small dove and so delicate looking. Problem also is that I ended up with two extra Golden males that I am going to have to find a home for. If it is not one thing it is another...

I had a Golden male this spring. He was a spunky little bird. Unfortunately I had ended up with 5 roosters so he had to be re-homed, thankfully he ended up at a place where he could live out his days happily.

I would be hesitant as well if you were having weather like around here.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Quote: My mom ordered from Murray Mcmurray last year? I think. And all of the chicks but one died within a week, then they survivor seemed to have breathing problems. But that was believed to have happened because we think they were being loud and were put outside in the cold March-April air.

Yeah, I still need to get rid of a roo, don't need more!

 

[jtn42248]

Are you going to show them or just for eggs/pets? I don't think they're prices are that high but when you figure in the shipping it is. And of course a few of the specialty breeds are pretty pricey.
Overall, I've been very happy with them. A couple of duds here and there but for the most part nice birds. But I've only had them for 1 1/2 years so I don't have much to compare to.
Our feed store buys from Ideal in Texas and I have 7 birds from them. All nice.
My neighbor buys from Murray McMurray and quite frankly, I haven't loved their stock. They had 4 EE's and they all looked the same! Maybe just dumb luck but they were all just plain brown. Can't attest to the egg color because their whole flock got eaten just as they were starting to lay. Actually, that happened to them 2X this year! But that's another story. They also include packing peanuts and as someone else said, what am I going to do with all those males? I consider that an inconvenience when hatcheries do that. Their Leghorns lay huge eggs though; but I assume most do.

I also know someone that ordered from a breeder here in PA (they do ship as well so if you want to know who NOT to order from you can PM me. I don't want to put it out there) and it was an absolute disaster. She paid a fortune to buy them at 6 weeks old rather than 2 day old, they had mites when she picked them up, she didn't get the breeds she ordered, he said they would all be female and she ended up with 3 male out of 12 total chickens, 2 have died and now the flock has been diagnosed with MG!!!! And she had 2 other roosters on her property for over a year and were healthy so it was most def. from the breeder.
So, from now on I will only be going with reputable hatcheries which I know Meyer and Ideal are. AND the customer service at Meyer is amazing!! So many of us called and changed our orders (some more than once

), dates of delivery etc all with a wonderful attitude!

I know... that's the last thing I need ... to find a home for lots of roosters.

Hey, I don't have chickens as pets, the hatcheries just ship me the spoiled birds.

But from what I am hearing I think I may order a few Cream Legbars from Mayer. Others I can order from Ideal. They are only about 300 miles from where I live and I have dealt with them in the past. Except for the packing peanuts I have been really happy with them. I ordered once from MMM and ended up with 3 roosters out of what were supposed to be 25 females. I expect some mistakes in sexing but it was a bother. One of them turned out to be their "free rare breed" who actually has turned out to be a great little guy. He is gimpy on one leg because one of the other roosters tried to kill him...and he is the only one to survive being sent to freezer camp.

 

[jtn42248]

I had a Golden male this spring. He was a spunky little bird. Unfortunately I had ended up with 5 roosters so he had to be re-homed, thankfully he ended up at a place where he could live out his days happily.

I would be hesitant as well if you were having weather like around here.

We have been having really unusual weather...even for West Texas this time of year. One day it was almost 80 the next it was in the teens and snowing. Today we had almost 9 inches of rain in about 6 hours. Lots of flooding in the area now. I have built them their own pen and "coop" which is inside one of my old chicken runs that has a Mimosa tree and a Peach tree. They will have it to themselves. I picked it because they evidently like to fly around and this coop has the trees and is covered.

 

[Mofassa]

Hi from South Africa.
The pictures of the speckled sussex looks excactly like a breed native to sa. Here we call them Boschvelders. They are great layers.

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Quote: Wow. We had rain up here today, but not that much.

 

[konachicks]

Just wanted to fill you all in that have been following my chicks. I was on another board for my BCM's and in one of the pictures Isis (my blue Ameraucana from meyer) was behind my BCM and someone mistook her for that breed saying she looked like a roo. I said she was a BAM pullet and after speaking more via pm I was told Isis looked like she had a straight comb not a pea comb, and no beard or muff. I sent that question along with the following pics to Meyers and their respond is below the pics

Reply from Meyers
Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for the cute pictures of your chick from your Order # xxxxx. It is hard to tell, but it does not appear that I see any extra feathers/down for the muff and beards that Ameraucanas have. I do see the slate colored legs, which is correct.

You are correct, Ameraucanas have pea combs. Their ear lobs are also small and round. Your little one hasn't developed enough to see the comb, but it does appear rather small to me at this time, which is correct for pea combs.

I am going to put a note on your order that you are not sure you received a Blue Ameraucana. What I would like to do is wait until she has grown and matured a little more. Would it be possible to email pictures in a few weeks? We may also need them a few weeks after that too. If we did in fact send the wrong breed, we would be happy to issue you credit, of course.

Thank you for choosing Meyer Hatchery and I look forward to hearing from you again

So I guess we will wait and see as she gets older how it goes

 

[konachicks]

No matter what though we love her, she is such a sweetie

 

[trsturself]

I love my Sebrights. They are fully grown now and ready to go outside but I am hesitant to move them because of the weather. I know they are actually hardier than you might think but even full grown they are just barely the size of a small dove and so delicate looking. Problem also is that I ended up with two extra Golden males that I am going to have to find a home for. If it is not one thing it is another...

Just think of the little song birds out there without a coop! Your sebrights will be fine. If you are worried about them, acclimate them by leaving them out longer and longer so they get used to the cold.

Just wanted to fill you all in that have been following my chicks. I was on another board for my BCM's and in one of the pictures Isis (my blue Ameraucana from meyer) was behind my BCM and someone mistook her for that breed saying she looked like a roo. I said she was a BAM pullet and after speaking more via pm I was told Isis looked like she had a straight comb not a pea comb, and no beard or muff. I sent that question along with the following pics to Meyers and their respond is below the pics


Reply from Meyers
Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for the cute pictures of your chick from your Order # xxxxx. It is hard to tell, but it does not appear that I see any extra feathers/down for the muff and beards that Ameraucanas have. I do see the slate colored legs, which is correct.

You are correct, Ameraucanas have pea combs. Their ear lobs are also small and round. Your little one hasn't developed enough to see the comb, but it does appear rather small to me at this time, which is correct for pea combs.

I am going to put a note on your order that you are not sure you received a Blue Ameraucana. What I would like to do is wait until she has grown and matured a little more. Would it be possible to email pictures in a few weeks? We may also need them a few weeks after that too. If we did in fact send the wrong breed, we would be happy to issue you credit, of course.

Thank you for choosing Meyer Hatchery and I look forward to hearing from you again

So I guess we will wait and see as she gets older how it goes

If that's a pea comb, then it's definitely a male. A female pea comb at that age would look flat with barely discernible ridges. They have great customer service but it's still annoying to not get what you ordered!


I have chickens from Meyer, Cackle, local breeders, and other hatcheries. Meyer has good quality (if you aren't looking to do serious shows) but I lost A LOT of chicks from the shipping. I've gotten at least 5 orders from them and lost nearly 50% of the chicks. Good news is, of the ones that lived I think only 2 were roosters (out of 30+). There are others out there who have had similar experiences but a lot who have had no issues. I'm at high altitude and ordered in the spring, so that may be a large factor. Overall, while I'm happy with my remaining birds from Meyer, I won't order from them again since I have so many feed stores near by and local breeders where I can get healthy chicks from. That said, I have a partridge rock from an unknown hatchery and I'm very disappointed with her quality, but have a D'Uccle from the same hatchery (or at least I'm assuming since I got them from the same feed store shipment) and she has won big at the county fair. So it can vary by breed in the same hatchery. I think if you are going to have chicks shipped, I've seen a lot more people happy with Meyer than other hatcheries.

For the person that was asking about LF and bantams... yes, Meyer ships them all together. I ordered 25 rare breed assortment and 5 bantam EE and they were all mixed together.