my pet chicken reviews

[PatQ]

Excellent experience in every way with MPC. I went with them instead of direct through Meyer (their hatchery) just because I liked the web interface so much more - very easy to see what was available and when. I added 3 chicks about 5 days after my original order of 4 - they were so helpful and didn't charge me for changing my order - just added it on to the original order. 7 chicks left the hatchery on May 6 at 4 pm and arrived at my post office the next morning at 10:30 am - about 17 hours en route. They arrived happy and healthy and I've not had a single problem. They are now 10 days old and enjoyed being outside in the warm sunshine today - already good bug hunters
So all in all it couldn't have gone better!

Here they are back in the brooder box after their outing today....I brought in a clump of sod since they loved it outside so much

 

[jchod]

what ever you do, do not buy hatching eggs from them! we had received 15 eggs of 3 differant breeds. We purchased them for a local daycare that hatches eggs every year for 12 years, this year i said i would donate them so i could add some diversity to my flock. i had 6 easter egger, 6 barnevelder, and 3 sussex. out of all the eggs only 2 of the three sussex hatched. The other eggs we opened up to find out they werent even a fertile egg. They did not respond to any emails.. so i my opinion live chickens great luck eggs 2 out of 15 not good odds especially the price of them cost 80 bucks to get 2 chicks!!

 

[Deleted member 94844]

I just received an order from My Pet Chicken (Meyer) last week... four sexed chicks were shipped USPS Express with a heat pack and were so healthy and vibrant they jumped out of the box when I opened it. Packaging was clean, safe, and outstanding. The seller emailed me *multiple* times to update me on the status of my order and confirmed the moment the chicks left the hatchery with tracking. They also had happily rescheduled my original ship date owing to a death in my family... no penalty, no problem, and I even got the exact breeds requested. The chicks are beautiful and extremely personable.

I could not be happier with the experience... customer service was incredible.

 

[buddhabrahma905]

They seem to succumb to cocci pretty easily

 

[Deleted member 94844]

They seem to succumb to cocci pretty easily

More so than other hatchery chicks or as compared to chicks raised by hens?

 

[informative]

re: My Pet Chicken - I had a good experience with them. Of the 5 Australorps we ordered only 2 survived. They sat at the post office for a few hours in 70 degree air conditioning and had no heat pad in the box. MPC customer service was excellent and we got a free reorder shipped four new birds and again one was lost in shipping so we wound up with the full healthy order of birds (just took two shipments).

The quality of the hatchery Australorps does not appear to be quite on par with good breeder stock (may partly explain why we lost 60% of the first shipment). As they grow I am seeing lots of abnormalities or defects, funky feathering, crooked toes, crazy personalities. Quality breeders cull deviations from the desired genetics - hatcheries "ship" them instead of "culling" them.

Their Langshan's stock are excellent as is their Red Sex Links. The Langshans are just a bit small and slow growing but GREAT stock - hardy, smart, good personalities and very few defects. The sex link red are very fast growing and hardy and good personality my favorite red "Nugget" at five weeks will come right up and let me pick her up and sit with her in my lap she is a sweet bird with no visible defects.

I would recommend them and deal with them again. Keep in mind My Pet Chicken is not a true hatchery they are more like a hatchery broker. Like a travel agent who does the communications for several actual hatcheries. At least this was my takeaway from all of this. The extra you spend insulates the buyer from the drama and reality of hey sometimes you are just going to have a box of half dead and dying baby chickens show up regardless of how great the nursery is because not all mailmen will be bothered to give your package the TLC it needs. I liked having that insulation on my order because nobody at a larger hatchery will take time on the phone to tell you what to try to save a dying baby chick. "Give them a little sugar water to see if they perk up" and that sort of stuff.

 

[informative]

Had a question about breed substitutions in a shipment.
I ordered 6 Easter Egger...
Australorp
Golden buff
Plymouth Rock
... so I decided to be indecisive and said 2 of each.

I was thinking this same thing on my replacement order and then decided to simply go with all Langshans and was glad I did. My thinking was, from the perspective of the hatchery how much added complexity and "risk" to the baby chickens am I adding by having them go OK two of these in the box then have to walk over to the next barn and go OK now two from these and so on.

If they all arrived and survived you did great and probably got lucky. If I had it to do again I would probably get just all Langshans and Red Stars and skip the Australorps from MPC - I'm just super happy with those other two breeds.

 

[ayersmegan]

I ordered my very first batch of chicks from mypetchicken.com, and was pleased with the amount of breed information and the varying ship dates I could choose from. I ordered four chicks, each a different breed, and received them on the day they told me I should expect them. All of the chicks arrived alive and chirping furiously.

I had also ordered their "starter kit" and it arrived a week before, so I was able to set it up and be prepared for my first flock.

Within 24 hours, I lost one chick, who was pretty sluggish from the get-go, and it was sad, but I understand that buying chicks through the mail runs this risk. When I called customer service to report the death, the woman on the line was very sympathetic and refunded the amount of the dead chick.

The remaining three have grown into beautiful, fun, healthy hens who I'm expecting eggs from any day now.

I've ordered five more from mypetchicken.com, and am expecting them in the middle of August. I can't wait! I hope that I have the same positive experience I had with MPC on my first batch, and will follow up once they arrive...

In a perfect world, I could get day-old chicks around my area, but most of the people who sell chicks don't have the variety of breeds MPC offers, and since I'm a relative newbie, I didn't feel confident in picking on my own. It breaks my heart a little to think of the stress the chicks endure during shipping, but when I stop to consider how the majority of the U.S.'s commercial chickens live, I feel better about giving them a good life and home.

 

[Adorkable]

I ordered 17 day old chicks from MPC. I lost a White Silkie and a Speckled Sussex within 24 hours which was fine cause I didn't expect them all to survive.

I'm pleased with the 4 White Silkies, the 5 red sex links, the 1 Partridge Plymouth Rock. They all seem happy and healthy now at a little over 2 months old, however I am extremely disappointed with most of the remaining Speckled Sussex. One of the Speckled Sussex pullets has a curly toe (it looks like a U) as well as some crooked toes. Another one of them has several crooked toes. The third one has an abnormal comb. It looks fine until the comb reaches the back instead of ending in 1 point like most normal single combs it seems to have 2 points on each side of the last point which looks really bizarre. I've never seen anything like this before in any of the chicks I've raised. This leaves me with 1 Speckled Sussex cockerel and 1 'normal' pullet. I'm kind of scared to breed them because I'm not sure if any of these things are genetic. I can try and take pictures of them all if anyone would like to see.

I will probably not be doing business with MPC again.

 

[Adorkable]

errr double post