Meyer hatchery reviews???

[Melabella]

I think that Meyer's customer service is great, they ship quickly and on time and I had a great experience as far as that goes, but unfortunately a few of the chicks have not been doing so well. They were hatched just this past Monday (4/28) and arrived on Wednesday (4/30). One was dead on arrival, one had a severely deformed leg, one died a few hours after arrival. Meyer's credited my account without any hesitation. They have a 48 hour guarantee which was Friday morning for me. This morning (Saturday) there was another dead one and I have been fighting to keep another alive all day so far. I don't think it is going to make and I have done everything by the books. If this one dies, it will make 5 out 20 in less than a week that did not make it. That seems like a pretty high percentage to me.

So sorry to hear that. I wonder what could have gone wrong. I would hope that the post office workers were careful with them. I just received hatching eggs and when the mailman delivered them he drove up my driveway to deliver the box. I wish that the breeder wrote "Live Embryos" on the box instead of "Fragile" He took the box, and twirled it right in front of me...I almost freaked on him!

I ordered the minimum of 3 from them from the same hatch day and all arrived great and in good health. I ordered the very last Austra White that was available so I was lucky.

Good Luck with the remaining little ones,
MB

 

[cassbickford]

Thanks. I am not sure what it is going on. I got 17 last year from a different Hatchery and never lost one and they are all now one year old healthy little maniacs.

 

[cassbickford]

I see you said your out of the 48 hour mark, but I had ordered an assortment of about 26 breeds and because babies usually look the same I had a problem identifying a couple of the ones that died. When they were about 4 weeks I emailed myers and told them that the one we thought was ..... Was actually my .... And they credited my account for the difference. Some of the ones I ordered were 20 to 30 a piece.

Thank you. I was able to tell them apart because the breeds I got were easily recognized. I definitely didn't order any that expensive. Mine were all about $3.50-$4.50 each.

 

[KMBs Critters]

We picked our chicks up at the hatchery on March 17 and all are doing great so far.

2 RI Reds
2 Barred Rocks
2 Blue Red Lace Wyandottes

At 24 hours:

 

[mammat]

All of my laying hens came from Meyer. I always make the 1.5 hour drive to pick them up I dont think I have ever had one die. I think shipping is just too hard on them. I ordered from ideal and lost 2 out of 10 but they were shipped to Ohio all the way from texas.

 

[maggiemo]

I ordered 21 (20 plus one meal maker) that were hatched on April 1st, I got them April 3rd. THey shipped 21, one was DOA. It was smashed in the packing material, I am positive it was killed during packing. It was smashed flat.
I ordered 6 Delaware, 3 marans mix, 3 olive eggers and 4 golden comets, 3 polish and 1 meal maker. The meal maker didn't make it like I said. All are supposed to be pullets.
1 of the marans died on day 3 so I won't get reimbursed for that. I have no idea what happened to it. They all seemed fine and I found this one dead in the morning, on its back legs stretched out.
So. I guess the main reason I am writing my review it to report that now, 6 weeks into this I have 2 Delaware roos, 2 polish roos, 1 marans roo, and 1 olive egger roo. 8 of the 20 "pullets" I ordered are roos. I paid A LOT of money and waited a long, long time for the 'pullets' I wanted to fill the order. Worse, I don't have the number of birds I need for eggs production.
I am just so sad and bummed I wasted so much time and money trusting I would get what I ordered, and what am I going to do with all these roos?
My advise is to order twice the amount you need in straight run, or order started pullets.
Someone at Meyer doesn't know how to sex birds there, or pack them either.
My .02.

 

[amandarc]

My spring order last year was from Meyers.

The chickens were good.

No complaints.

As to SQ....... I thought that the white leghorns, white cochins, and bantam buff brahma looked closest.

The others were true to breed, but a bit further from the mark color wise....LF light brahma and bantam d'uccle

I also got golden comets and rhode island reds, which look true to breed, as long as you remember that most hatchery RIR are production reds, and these are production reds, not heritage RIR. I guess they both lay well, but neither the production RIR (marketed as RIR) or the golden comets, have been laying ANYWHERE as well as those white leghorns!!!

could you or someone else educate me on heritage breeds?

 

[Alaskan]

That is a big question actually.

People use 'heritage' in lots of different ways, so you do have to be careful with it. With the Rhode Island Red (RIR), people use heritage, as in HRIR (heritage rhode island red) to make clear that they are breeding towards a different standard of perfection (SOP) than the regular RIR, or Production RIR. The HRIR is trying to follow the older SOP for RIR that asks for a very different kind of bird. A very dark mahogany red and the rooster is supposed to have a very low tail. There are several breeders out there who breed HRIR.

There are other people that use 'heritage' whenever they talk about any breed that has been around for more than 40 years. Or, they use it for any breed where temperament, vigor, and a healthy long life are bred for instead of super early and prolific production.

There was a good discussion in this thread, about the use of the term heritage as well as how breeds should be classified, I am pasting in some of the more interesting pages.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/437570/old-and-rare-breeds/1920#post_12676001

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/437570/old-and-rare-breeds/350#post_5494695

 

[ELauraD]

This series of pictures are self explanatory.
I ordered eight Easter Eggers as they were the only pullets available from Meyer Hatchery at the time.
The hens arrived the morning after shipping. I live in Washington state so was pretty happy they got here so quickly.
Their health was good though they are very wild, not used to people. It's been a full week since they've arrived. I can't let them out into my fenced field until I clip one wing each as they are able to fly over and just nervous enough to do it.
I raised my last batch from chick so I miss the friendly element but that will come.
I did order the electrolyte additive and I think that helps a lot.
I do wish I could have mixed the breeds up for the variety of pleasing the eyes and egg colors.
As you see we got our first egg yesterday. The hen laid it in the chicken run even though there are fresh laying boxes in the coop.
That reminds me, they wanted to stay in the coop all the time so I shut their door, now they only go in the coop at night or when spooked - that doesn't take much either!
They are beauties though and I know they will warm up to me sometime.

 

[kenzier093]

This series of pictures are self explanatory.
I ordered eight Easter Eggers as they were the only pullets available from Meyer Hatchery at the time.
The hens arrived the morning after shipping. I live in Washington state so was pretty happy they got here so quickly.
Their health was good though they are very wild, not used to people. It's been a full week since they've arrived. I can't let them out into my fenced field until I clip one wing each as they are able to fly over and just nervous enough to do it.
I raised my last batch from chick so I miss the friendly element but that will come.
I did order the electrolyte additive and I think that helps a lot.
I do wish I could have mixed the breeds up for the variety of pleasing the eyes and egg colors.
As you see we got our first egg yesterday. The hen laid it in the chicken run even though there are fresh laying boxes in the coop.
That reminds me, they wanted to stay in the coop all the time so I shut their door, now they only go in the coop at night or when spooked - that doesn't take much either!
They are beauties though and I know they will warm up to me sometime.

Looks like you got a nice big coop for them! How much was it for each pullet?