Minimum chick quantities at TSC, RK or online

[bruceha2000]

True, but at least at the store i can take them home right away Are there any hatcheries online then that will sell a min quantity of 2 or 4?

If you get them mail order from a hatchery you get to take them home SOONER than if you pick them up at a farm store. You drive to the PO and pick them up, the clerk will call you (because you left your number with them and it should be on the shipping label) as soon as s/he gets in the building. They don't want to listen to unhappy chicks peeping any more minutes than they have to. I saw in the tracking that mine had left the local USPS sorting facility about 4:30 AM so I headed to the PO at 6:45 (they open for box holders at 7 AM). Got there just after 7, got the chicks home and found out I had missed their call.

As the clerk said when I told her I knew she didn't want to listen to the birds any longer than necessary she said "People think it is cute. Um, no". 15 minutes in the car was more than I needed as well but as soon as I put them in their Mama Heating Pad cave in a large cardboard box in the bedroom they went silent. Happy chicks don't peep loudly.

Meyer will sell as few as 3 this time of year. The downside of getting small orders from hatcheries is the shipping cost. The farm stores can spread shipping cost over a lot of chicks so it is minimal to you even after you pay whatever markup they need to make a profit on the chicks.

 

[RhodeRunner]

If you want four hens, I would recommend coming home with at least 6 chicks.

Chicks just die, and there is nothing you can do about it. Shipped, or from the feed store, I generally loose a few chicks within the first few days of their arrival. The looses from shipping can be more dramatic...especially, if they arrived late.

Chicks are sexed incorrectly. I bought six chicks from TSC this year that were all sexed pullets, three of them are cockerels. This isn't the first time this happened to me from feed stores or even from buying sexed chicks from a hatchery.

You will like certain chickens more then others. If you luck out and get six pullets, you will probably have favorites. Now you can select four pets, and get rid of the two that aren't as friendly.

When the chicks are ready to go outside, and township limits are a concern, you can find homes for the other two chicks, or cockerels if you have them.You put those babies on craigslist for free and they will be gone in a day. If you try to sell a cockerel, it might be at your place for awhile.

 

[mamabear6810]

If you want four hens, I would recommend coming home with at least 6 chicks.

Chicks just die, and there is nothing you can do about it. Shipped, or from the feed store, I generally loose a few chicks within the first few days of their arrival. The looses from shipping can be more dramatic...especially, if they arrived late.

Chicks are sexed incorrectly. I bought six chicks from TSC this year that were all sexed pullets, three of them are cockerels. This isn't the first time this happened to me from feed stores or even from buying sexed chicks from a hatchery.

You will like certain chickens more then others. If you luck out and get six pullets, you will probably have favorites. Now you can select four pets, and get rid of the two that aren't as friendly.

When the chicks are ready to go outside, and township limits are a concern, you can find homes for the other two chicks, or cockerels if you have them.You put those babies on craigslist for free and they will be gone in a day. If you try to sell a cockerel, it might be at your place for awhile.

We have 72 chicks currently, all from feed stores, and we had ONE chick die out of all of those. Out of the 35 that have been sexed, 1 was a cockerel from pullet bins.