my pet chicken reviews

[Bweis13]

In answer to your first post: they do advertise on their website about sexing bantams but some people claim that is false advertising since it is said to be impossible and/or inhumane to sex bantam chicks.  I don't know how they do it and I have had my suspicions because if they can do it, why wouldn't other hatcheries? I should also clarify that I actually got two silkie chickens so there is the argument that they are not technically bantams.  However, they are treated the same as far as sexing...I couldn't find any other hatchery that offered them sexed.   My order was: 1 buff orpington, 1 buff brahma, 1 australorp, 1 jersey giant, and 2 silkies.  I got 6 out of 6 all female.  2 silkies is a really small sample size so I don't know if I simply got lucky or what.  I think their sexing is pretty accurate all around though since I got all six female.  I would be curious if other people ordered large quantities of bantams how the sexing would turn out.  I haven't seen anyone on here that said one way or the other.  I was very happy with My Pet Chicken and my chickens are all very healthy and friendly.  The other thing to note about sexed bantams is that they do charge you a lot more money to have them sexed (I think it was like 8$ more each silkie).  Hope this helps.  

Thanks so much! When I bought my first bantams from them years ago they only had straight run, so I'm glad to have this info for future chick purchases. I love silkies, so I wouldn't mind getting them, and the Japanese roos we've had have been so gentle that the only issue I'd have would be the money lost if they didn't turn out to be pullets. I'm so glad all of yours turned out to be female. I used to live in a neighborhood that didn't allow roosters, so I know how important it can be. We were lucky to have a friend who re-homed the 7 roos out of 10 chickens we got in our straight run bantam order.

Now we live on a farm, so it isn't as big of an issue.
Thanks for all of the great info! I appreciate it a lot.

 

[backyardflock1]

Thanks so much! When I bought my first bantams from them years ago they only had straight run, so I'm glad to have this info for future chick purchases. I love silkies, so I wouldn't mind getting them, and the Japanese roos we've had have been so gentle that the only issue I'd have would be the money lost if they didn't turn out to be pullets. I'm so glad all of yours turned out to be female. I used to live in a neighborhood that didn't allow roosters, so I know how important it can be. We were lucky to have a friend who re-homed the 7 roos out of 10 chickens we got in our straight run bantam order.

Now we live on a farm, so it isn't as big of an issue.
Thanks for all of the great info! I appreciate it a lot.

You are living my dream! We currently are living in a town with no rooster policy. We had to re-home him, hopefully only temporarily. He was the sweetest thing ever, allowed you to pet and pick him up. We even set up sound proofing so no one could hear him, but one neighbor in particular (not even very close) is one of those people who need to have a perfect life and are very self absorbed. I would love to move to a farm

 

[Beazles]

In reading these reviews I am left confused about whether to order from MPC. I want to add an experience a coworker just had in ordering chicks from them. My coworker ordered chicks months ago to be shipped 3/30 or 3/31. He received a call stating that many of the breeds he ordered "didn't hatch right". Since they had an over abundance of other breeds he made substitutions. The chicks shipped out on Tuesday 3/31 and he expected to receive them he next day. He ordered from MPC many years and expected emails and tracking info about the chicks but never got that this time. The chicks never arrived on 4/1 so he called MPC but was told they didn't know why they hadn't arrived. The chicks finally arrived late afternoon on 4/2. Out of the 20 chicks he ordered 1 had already died. He kept checking on them after putting them under the heat lamp with food and water and the rest of the chicks looked to be doing fine. They were active, eating, drinking. Within 2-3 hours of arrival 8 more chicks died. So out of the 20 he ordered only 11 survived. He said the chicks were not shipped with a heat pad as they had been in previous times he ordered. He called MPC and they said "sorry", and said that sometimes that happens when chicks get cold during transport, and offered him replacements. But I am wondering if MPC is just not as careful in shipping chicks like they use to be over the years because they are more successful now. Apparently years ago he got his chicks the 1st week of March when it is still cold and they all lived. It would be very upsetting to me to have chicks arrive dead or die after arrival. I'm prepared to pay extra for a heating pad and whatever else is needed for their survival during transport. Two of the chicks that died were rare chicks he ordered. So it's great that you can get the breeds you want but what difference does that make if they don't survive? To me all life matters and I hate to think the chicks are suffering and/or dying an uncomfortable death. I wish there were local breeders or hatcheries I could purchase from.

 

[1Cluckygirl]

In reading these reviews I am left confused about whether to order from MPC. I want to add an experience a coworker just had in ordering chicks from them. My coworker ordered chicks months ago to be shipped 3/30 or 3/31. He received a call stating that many of the breeds he ordered "didn't hatch right". Since they had an over abundance of other breeds he made substitutions. The chicks shipped out on Tuesday 3/31 and he expected to receive them he next day. He ordered from MPC many years  and expected emails and tracking info about the chicks but never got that this time. The chicks never arrived on 4/1 so he called MPC but was told they didn't know why they hadn't arrived. The chicks finally arrived late afternoon on 4/2. Out of the 20 chicks he ordered 1  had already died. He kept checking on them after putting them under the heat lamp with food and water and the rest of the chicks looked to be doing fine. They were active, eating, drinking. Within 2-3 hours of arrival 8 more chicks died. So out of the 20 he ordered only 11 survived. He said the chicks were not shipped with a heat pad as they had been in previous times he ordered. He called MPC and they said "sorry", and said that sometimes that happens when chicks get cold during transport, and offered him replacements. But I am wondering if MPC is just not as careful in shipping chicks like they use to be over the years because they are more successful now. Apparently years ago he got his chicks the 1st week of March when it is still cold and they all lived. It would be very upsetting to me to have chicks arrive dead or die after arrival. I'm prepared to pay extra for a heating pad and whatever else is needed for their survival during transport. Two of the chicks that died were rare chicks he ordered. So it's great that you can get the breeds you want but what difference does that make if they don't survive? To me all life matters and I hate to think the chicks are suffering and/or dying an uncomfortable death. I wish there were local breeders or hatcheries I could purchase from.   

I was in a group order for 15 chicks that were supposed to hatch and ship March 9. Supposedly there was a glitch that missed our order, along with several others. However, MPC gave us a new ship date for March 30 and an extra chick for free. All the chicks survived transport and have been healthy so far. My three little fluffy butts are doing spectacularly. Now I just hope the same is true for my next order, which should ship next week. Fingers crossed.

 

[Beazles]

My fingers are crossed for you 1CluckyGirl. I just wonder why such variance in terms of some folks getting their chicks alive and well and others losing 1/2 of their order via dead chicks upon arrival or shortly afterwards.

 

[Adorkable]

I've posted on here before, but I don't think I posted any pics of the MPC sussex. So here are some pics and a little update. Anyhow, I ordered 5 Speckled Sussex pullets and 1 cockerel. I lost 1 (of the pullets) within the first 3-4 days (which happens sometimes since shipping can be traumatic). So that left me with 4 pullets and 1 cockerel. Out of my 4 pullets 1 turned out to be a cockerel. So now I have 3 pullets and 2 cockerels (which is fine). What I do have a problem with is that all 5 of my remaining speckled sussex had either crooked toes or curly toes. Here are a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.

This is the most severe of the crooked toes (the pullet in the back).






This is the least severe case of crooked toes.



I didn't take a picture of 1 of the cockerels which had really bad curly toes (one on each foot), but I shall explain. He had one toe on each foot that was curled just like the letter U. Aside from this he also had a pendulous crop and seemed to have neurological problems. His head would always kind of go up and down kinda the way a female duck does it's courting (if you are familiar with ducks). His head would kind of bounce up and down several times. It was really strange.

I hatched some eggs from the 'normal' cockerel which had a light case of crooked toes (and was super aggressive toward me), but no pendulous crop, with my girl that had the least severe crooked toes and all the offspring had a slight case of crooked toes, which leads me to believe that it is something in the genetics and not just poor humidity or temp from whatever hatchery MPC uses (i'm aware that they are a middle-man).

All of these speckled sussex hens lay a very small brown egg... comparable to one of my bantam silkie eggs.
The egg on the left is from one of my 2 year old speckled sussex hens from MPC and the egg on the right is from one of my bantam silkie hens.



Good luck to those who recently ordered chicks from MPC, but as for me I was not impressed with what I received from them and will NOT be ordering from them again. I sincerely hope you all have better luck than I did!

 

[Blooie]

Isn't it funny how experiences will vary even using the same hatchery? I ordered mine last year - I got Buff Orpingtons, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Easter Eggers and Red Sex Links. All are sound, healthy, and at a little over year old they are everything I could have asked for. Bonus? I ordered all pullets - I got all pullets. 22 chicks! Now, I lost a few during shipping which put us down to 18 but MPC wasn't at fault - the weather was 19 degrees below zero and the Post Office held them up in Casper, Wyoming for an extra day. So chicks shipped on Monday that should have arrived on Wednesday (per the tracking info that I and our postmistress were following) didn't get here until Thursday. MPC was great with emails before and after the chicks arrived and refunded my losses immediately. I went to a local feed store and bought some chicks to replace the 4 we lost, and fell in love with two Speckled Sussex there so I came home with 6 more chicks. Out of those feed store 6, I got 3 cockerels. Go figure!!

 

[1Cluckygirl]

My orders of chicks from MPC are now 1 and 2 weeks old. All healthy, all active, and very cute. I do have to wait to find out if they are all females like I ordered, but I'm happy so far.

 

[Farmer Rhonda]

They sent to many roosters in my order.

 

[Pennymac02]

I am totally new to raising chicken; so I took a class with our local "urban farmer" group and one of the things they mentioned was that getting pullets that were already feathered in was a little easier. No need for a heat light or super special baby food, plus the sexing of the chickens would be easier. Sounded like a plan to me!

Craigslist is a little dicey where I live. And other than internet research, and that one 2 hour class, I was clueless. In my Googling, I found MPC, they have started 6 week pullets, were vaccinated for Mareks, and I could order them to be shipped within the next 3 days. Yes, they were a little pricey. ($21.95) About $5 dollars more a head than the local chicken raising farmer. But, since I am a chicken virgin I was wary of being taken advantage of, so I bit the bullet and ordered them.

They shipped on the 14th, arrived on the 15th in a live bird box (my postmaster called me because they label the boxes "Call recipient upon arrival") They had a bed of straw in the box, and little slices of apples for snack lol, and were cheeping and chirping like it was going out of style. They were healthy and beautiful, I fed and watered them immediately, and they settled into their new coop on the very first night like little feathered pros.

Its been a week now. They are growing like weeds and have suffered no ill effects from the shipping experience. They obviously are used to humans--they have no fear of me and are taking treats right from my hand. (All 3 disdain meal worms but will knock each other over for some blueberries) For me, the extra expense was worth it. I picked their age, their sex, and their breed and was not disappointed.

As a side note, while they were in transit, I had some questions and MPC responded quickly to my emails, and then sent another email after delivery checking up on the status of my girls. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.