Meyer hatchery - never again

[OasiVerde]

I am SO upset.
Ordered 16 chicks (and a meal maker) from Meyer hatchery in Ohio and they arrived 8 days ago.
Within 48 hours, 4 chicks died.
Then another 1 died two days later, and another 1 two days after that.
Last night 3 died, this morning 2 more. Some have trouble breathing, some have diarrhea (started Corid), some just die. I have them under a heat plate in a heated room (room temperature - advise from the hatchery). I keep them under the same conditions as I did with my previous batch of chicks with 100% survival. IMHO, and I am not an expert at all, if chicks keep dying under these conditions, there is something wrong with them. They either have an illness or it is genetics.
From the 17 chicks total I am down to 6 left . And who knows if they are going to make it

Chatted with the hatchery and of course they will only replace the 4 that died in the first 48 hours. That is their policy. Well, thank you. I will NEVER order at Meyer hatchery again.
Just my experience, unfortunately.

 

[Big Red Roosters]

Coccidiosis is what killed my chicks like that, it's good you started corid, that's what I would do. Make sure they are ALL drinking, dip the tip of their beak in if you have to. Sorry for your bad experience, I hope the rest pull through.

 

[Kiki]

You mention you started Corid, did you have it on hand because you had to use it in the past?

From now on you may want to start Corid the day you bring any future chicks home.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My experience with Meyers... was the best out of all the hatcheries I ordered from... and My pet chicken resulted in two shipments of over 30 chicks with ONLY 2 survivors! While I won't be ordering from them again, I do recognize that my shipping route played a role. Their chicks were just MUCH weaker... and yet there are people who happily order from them every day.

Your chicks aren't old enough to have symptoms of coccidiosis yet. That isn't it. Shipping can be VERY hard on chicks. Plus a chick that looks perfect at hatch can have internal issues which can't yet be detected.. such as digestion or absorption issues. Sometimes they don't even appear until after the chick has ran out of yolk and working to digest regular feed. I have had some that were simply too stupid to connect with feed no matter what I did for them short of tube feeding. And I used to use poultry nutri drench in the first water... until I learned the nutri drench itself was keeping them alive until I switched to regular water and they (some) would fail quickly after. I do believe in getting the best start possible, but... Since I quit using the nutridrench my results are no different. I think that supplement is best used as needed. Which shipped chicks do need a little extra help sometimes, depending on how shipping went. My guess is this is a difficult time of year.

If I hadn't hatched so many chicks and had things like this happen at home... 100% hatch and survival or several just dropping off... I would be a lot less understanding.

Anyways... I am so sorry for your loss. Having experienced it in the past, I know how frustrating and sad it can be.

I also no the fear of who will fail next or will ANY survive.

The ones that are having trouble breathing... that is a symptom of failure and not illness (in this instance). The organs are shutting down.

Hang in there. I hope the rest of your babies turn the corner and start to thrive... helping to fill your heart with JOY!

 

[N F C]

So sorry for your losses. I hope the remaining chicks thrive and do well for you.

 

[Acre4Me]

Very frustrating indeed. Sorry for your losses of the little chicks.

Our first chick order was last year from Meyer. They are 3 hours away from me by car, but I didn't have approx 7 hours to devote to a round trip, plus pick up, so I had them shipped. 25 chicks, assortment, mailed by USPS. ALL arrived dead, after 36 hours in transit (in January, but weather wasn't extreme). I refused shipment at the PO when I went to pick them up and they were dead, so PO sent them back to Meyer. Meyer refunded me the price (other than shipping), and were nice enough to remind me that I should retrieve the grow-gel & electrolyte packets that were also in the shipment, as they would not be refunded - so I went back to PO and was able to get them out of the box. They also were surprised that the chicks did not arrive the next day after shipping since I am located in Ohio.

In my situation, I am pretty confident that USPS mishandled the shipment. They left Meyer (packed cozily in the shredded stuff with heat packs) and went to Cleveland as expected as it is the closest distribution center to Meyer. Then there were NO USPS updates until arrival ... 36 hours later. Chicks were still warm (but dead), and hardly a poop in the container and hardly a shred of the packing material was out of place...telling me that maybe they were incorrectly shipped with Dry Ice which would suffocate them with Carbon monoxide, or perhaps the air holes were completely covered...also suffocating them (remember, all 25 arrived warm so I don't think they were frozen to death). So, overall, your chicks may have also been unusually stressed by the shipping in some manner.

Just this past Sept we had a very broody hen. So we either needed to give her chicks or we needed to break her. As it happened, we were driving through Cleveland on our way back home from visiting PA relatives. I remembered Meyer was in the area and so we stopped and picked out a few baby chicks to introduce to the broody when we got home. We picked out of their random/extra bin (which is supposed to be all female) and all were accepted by the broody and are now about 10 weeks old and healthy. Unfortunately 1 or 2 might be male (holding out final judgement until they are 14-16 weeks old and sickle feathers are obvious), and while that is disappointing, The chicks were healthy, and served their purpose of fulfilling the deepest wish of our broody hen!

Do you have hatcheries or breeders near you where you could pick up in person? You can check the NPIP website and search by state on the NPIP website. And if you are interested in certain breeds, you can cross-reference the breed codes in their NPIP list with the breed code listing they have separately linked on the NPIP website.

I wish you luck in when you next get chicks!

 

[Chickassan]

I didn't have any issues with them but I was a holy terror before they shipped mine so they'd probably have wrapped them in bubble wrap and deliverd them on their own backs just not to have to deal with me anymore. Iv'e never had good luck ordering living things November-March seems like peoples brains go on hiatus from the supplier to the postal workers. So sorry you've had such a crap experience this time.

 

[OasiVerde]

Thank you all for your replies. I just feel sad that the hatchery blames me for all of this. As if I am doing everything wrong with these chicks. I believe some just didn't have a chance as soon as they were hatched. It is sad that people breed chicks with such low resistance, just to make money.

 

[FishMtFarm]

I had a bad experience with Meyer with started pullets. They did not thrive and I even gave them corid and probiotics. They all died. Now I have a lot of birds here and none died except them, but they were also quarantined. Who knows what happened but I’ll never order from a hatchery again.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Hatcheries are getting worse over the years since ive boughten them ...ive ordered from meyer few years back only because my order from mcmurray all came doa is why i ordered from them all came alive at the time ordered from mpc last year bought 3 chicks all came alive seems chickens are getting more weaker every year that its not even worth the money as most hatcheries stock is sick friend ordered chicks from mpc and ideal last year most died week later as most had cocci