minimum order

[thylton]

Is there any where to order chicks that has a small minimum. I only need 5 chicks; Mypetchicken.com has a minimum of 5 but the chicks would be $22.00 and shiping $35.00. The shipping sounds high, is it? Does any one know where one can get a small order with less shipping.

Thanks
Tony Hylton
Sulphur, La.

 

[Katy]

Do the feed/farm stores in your area sell chicks in the spring? You can buy any number you want/need from there.

 

[debid]

Ideal has a $25 minimum rather than a number of birds but they'll fill the box with cockerels to keep your 5 warm so you have to plan on that. There are the farm stores, of course (usually a rather limited selection and the chicks are often mixed breeds and sometimes only straight run). OR, you can do what I did when I got frustrated with the minimums and order from a local source. The birds were slightly higher in cost but overall, I'm paying less than I would have with MPC and only slightly more than Ideal with no packing peanut birds and no shipping stress. Worth it for me!

 

[JustOneMore]

Meyer Hatchery also has a small minimum order. You could compare prices.

I suspect that the high shipping is due to additional expense in special handling while in transit.

We ordered from MyPetChicken a few times last year ... chicken math ... we wanted 6 then 5 more then 8 more. With all those orders we paid a LOT in shipping. However, all of our chicks were healthy and ALL of our chicks were pullets, as ordered. YIPPEE!!

To me it was well worth the shipping expense to get healthy guaranteed chicks. We could have gotten some from Tractor Supply (walking by their chick tanks last spring was what had my DH say, "Hey let's get chickens"). However, I had concerns for overhandling of fragile babies by customers and also was worried about biosecurity. If we brought a virus home to our new coop we could have paid a lot more in replacement chicks.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Katy]

MyPetCHicken gets their chicks from a bigger hatchery....Meyer I believe.

 

[teach1rusl]

I agree with justonemore...to me the high shipping is worth not having to deal with more chicks than what I want, or roosters (because I buy them sexed), and they put a heating pack in the box rather than extra chicks for warmth. So it comes out to $11 a chick overall

You pay that for finches, hamsters, lizards, etc. in a petshop, and they don't produce anything for you like your pullets eventually will.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
I agree.
There's a well establish reason for requireing 15- 20 chicks. They need each others body heat to survive. Personally I dont see how any order or 3-5 chicks from these places make it to anyone, even with 100 heat packs and express shipping, it'd still be a risk. As we all know day old chicks need to be kept at 95 degrees, hard to do that without body numbers in a box.

Find a feed store and just buy what you want. Within the next 3-4 weeks every one in the country will have chicks peeping away in them.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
I agree.
There's a well establish reason for requireing 15- 20 chicks. They need each others body heat to survive. Personally I dont see how any order or 3-5 chicks from these places make it to anyone, even with 100 heat packs and express shipping, it'd still be a risk. As we all know day old chicks need to be kept at 95 degrees, hard to do that without body numbers in a box.

Find a feed store and just buy what you want. Within the next 3-4 weeks every one in the country will have chicks peeping away in them.

Agreed. I dont understand the point of trying to order such a small amount when the shipping cost so high for so few chicks that you could fill the order cheap chicks and have enough to meet the minimum for priority shipping and come out at around the same price for 15-25 chicks as you do for 5 chicks and once you get them you could sell the exstras and make a little off of them, or give them away. Or grow them off to eat.

So if you only need a few, it would be much better to buy locally, or heck, since you are already having to pay exspress shipping for 3-5 Dayolds, it would be a little better to find someone who has some started ones that they could ship since there wouldnt be a huge differenc in the price and they would have a better chance of making the trip.

 

[thylton]

Thanks for all the replys. I think I'll check the local feed stores and TSC and if I don't find what I want then just bite the bullett and pay the shipping.

Tony

 

[happyhensny]

In our area-residential with some sorta' rural mixed in, chicks listd on Craigslist sell quick. Easy way to get rid of extras or an auction?