Mt. Healthy Hatchery selling day old chicks as started pullets

[ernndbrtt]

My awesome wife returned wednesday afternoon from Mt. Healthy Hatchery with our 16 ladies and 1 gent and imagine my surprise when she brought in all 17 birds in ONE box. They sold her day old chicks and told her those are started pullets. From the reading we've done we know that technically, chicks up from a day old to one year old are considered pullets, but we've also read that STARTED pullets should be within a definite age range of 12-16 weeks. So my wife had a choice. She could get back in her car and drive back to our home, 3.5 hours away empty handed or she could take the day old chicks and become a chicken mommy.

My wife is now the new mommy of 17- 4 day old Buff Oprington chicks. They are cute, but they are a bit of work. My wife thought it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to get used to raising chicks as next year we do plan to raise some from eggs for meat birds that she is now having second thoughts about

.

Is this a common thing that hatcheries do? This is our first time being chicken people so we have no experience with other hatcheries.

 

[Jakoda]

don't know if it's common or not, but wanted to say, I have a couple of Buff's, and they are my fav babies at the moment

 

[r devries]

Should not be, what did you pay for chicks, or started, maybe just a communication thing.

 

[ernndbrtt]

Should not be, what did you pay for chicks, or started, maybe just a communication thing.

We ordered and paid for started pullets and the lady at Mt. Healthy said the chicks we got were started pullets. My wife argued with her a bit about it and almost left without them but decided she wanted them bad enough to take the chicks.

 

[madamwlf]

Usually the price for started pullets is much higher then the price of chicks. I would have spoken to a manager or someone higher up.

 

[r devries]

Wow hope you got a receipt or something, you probably paid an extra 5-10.00

 

[Fred's Hens]

Very odd. Started pullets mean to me that they are brooded out. 6 weeks old up to 12 weeks old. After 12 weeks, they bring even more money.

On average, a chick is $2.50. A brooded chick normally costs $5-$6 because of the labor and feed to get them to that point. Pre-point of lay, 12-16 week pullets often bring as much $10-$12, again because of the labor and feed consumed.

If your wife only paid a couple of bucks a piece for them? That's fine. Not what she went for, but it's fine. Not too sure this wasn't an inexperienced clerk? Very odd.

 

[chicks4fun]

Hummm, my cornish-rock X came from Mt Healthy (via a feed store) and I was disappointed. They are suppose to grow-out in 6 weeks, processed 12 week old birds this week and got 2.5 - 3.5 pound birds. I also heard of other issues with this hatchery. I won't be buying from them again anytime soon.

 

[chicks4fun]

"This is the second time in less than a year that Mt.Healthy Hatchery is associated with multi-state and multi-strain Salmonella outbreak. The two strains involved in last year's outbreak were Salmonella Altona and Salmonella Johannesburg."
http://www.rttnews.com/1897092/mt-h...to-multi-state-salmonella-outbreak-again.aspx

 

[capsicum]

It sounds like this was a simple cash on delivery/pick-up type of deal, in which case you could only complain about unseen problems that pop up later, like getting the wrong breed, diseased animals, or the wrong sex. However it's good for mail order folks to know what the company is pushing, as that could turn into a rather big issue.