my pet chicken reviews

[Homespao]

The problem is more than just a $3.50 chick that turns out to be a roo...especially if you end up with a couple or even more. now that i live in town i am limited not only to hens but also not too many chickens. So if you only order a few for a backyard flock and 1 or 2 end up being roos, you cant always order another minimum quantity for limitation reasons. And the refund, if you can get it from MPC (which I couldnt), is just a pittance compared to what you spent on shipping, feed until MPC (not you) decides its a cockerel, electricity for brooder lights, shavings, chick grit, water, any treats you give, etc. after my last batch i decided no more chicks. I am now buying juvenile pullets. They are cheap from reputable breeders i have found on craigs list. About $15 ea for four beautiful 6-10 wk old sussex, blue copper marans, welsummer. I have found point of lay pullets for the same price or even cheaper. I may have to drive a bit, and im not too far from a big metro area, but it is so worth it! Luckily i found a mother/daughter breeder in lawrence, ks who has beautiful birds and a large variety of breeds who cater to the backyard chicken community.

 

[PurtyGertie]

They are actually the only place that 100% guarantees the sexing of their chicks. Mistakes do happen though and they refund for them.

same here never had a sexing issue, though I think they only guarantee 90% like most places, plus I don't think they actually are sexing the chicks. I will keep ordering from them, I usually factor in human error, there are things worse in life than an unexpected rooster.

From what I understand, your orders sexing success rate could be based on where your chicks are shipped from. I.e. they ship from a hatchery nearest to your physical location, and whomever is sexing at that particular hatchery may do a better job than someone at a different geographical location. (Again, this is just what I have gathered.)

Roosters aren't the end of the world by any means, and I wasn't overly frustrated with having received one. However, when you aren't allowed to have roosters by city ordinance and/or you are restricted to the number you can have by the space you are working with (and those 2 roosters take up a good chunk of that number), it becomes frustrating. I was also very pleased with customer service, until she didn't follow through with returning my call. The 100% guarantee is awesome and great on MPC for offering it...however, this doesn't do anything to help with the lost cost of $65.00 worth of shipping for 2 roosters that I didn't want, can't have, and that cost $3.50 a piece.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Funny, I order from them every year, you think I would know that. I guess I have not had that trouble, so it was not important enough to notice.

 

[ninjawesome]

I have a neighbor who ordered from them and overall, they seemed very pleased.

 

[doubleatraining]

From what I understand, your orders sexing success rate could be based on where your chicks are shipped from. I.e. they ship from a hatchery nearest to your physical location, and whomever is sexing at that particular hatchery may do a better job than someone at a different geographical location. (Again, this is just what I have gathered.)

Roosters aren't the end of the world by any means, and I wasn't overly frustrated with having received one. However, when you aren't allowed to have roosters by city ordinance and/or you are restricted to the number you can have by the space you are working with (and those 2 roosters take up a good chunk of that number), it becomes frustrating. I was also very pleased with customer service, until she didn't follow through with returning my call. The 100% guarantee is awesome and great on MPC for offering it...however, this doesn't do anything to help with the lost cost of $65.00 worth of shipping for 2 roosters that I didn't want, can't have, and that cost $3.50 a piece.

I understand not wanting more. You can get the replacement chicks and then find homes for the 2 you don't have room for. OR you can let them know about the mistake and they will refund you for the 2 chicks plus 1/2 the shipping costs.

 

[PurtyGertie]

I understand not wanting more. You can get the replacement chicks and then find homes for the 2 you don't have room for. OR you can let them know about the mistake and they will refund you for the 2 chicks plus 1/2 the shipping costs.

Good onformation, thanks! Maybe I'll get a little further in the process with having two chicks incorrectly sexed, and if anything get some shipping refunded. MAYBE I'll give them a second chance since so many others have great luck...

It's also really frustrating because now I'm attached to one of the roosters.

 

[RoyinIndiana]

I would not order from them again. I placed an order. one of the chicks was missing. One was hurt so bad it was not going to survive.
I asked them to send replacements, and they would only replace them if I ordered at least 15 more chickens.

Very poor way to treat a customer.

I had also ordered a bunch from Myers, I noticed both batches of chickens came from the same place. They must be linked.

 

[dekel18042]

I and some friends have ordered several times from My Pet Chicken. On the plus side all peeps that arrived alive stayed alive and the sexing errors were well within the amount stated. In fact one rooster missexed only so can't complain there.
That said, I probably won't be ordering from them or any shipped chicks in the near foreseeable future.
The first problem was definitely not their fault. I ordered chicks that were lost for a day in the mail. They arrived two full days after other MPC orders with 25% of the order DOA. These were some hard to get breeds that I really wanted and unfortunately by then they were sold out for the year so I wasn't able to get these breeds. It was the post office's fault that the shipment was misplaced for two days at the same time we had unseasonably cold frigid weather.
However when I mentioned this to MPC, they said had I ordered one or two more or asked, they would have included an extra heat pack.
They're the ones with shipping experience so they should know how many to put in.
This year my husband made up an order of 6 bantams that he wanted and 2 anconas and realized the shipping at 40.00 added over 5.00 to the price of each chick so he cancelled.
Thankfully we were able to find a local supply store that supplies all kinds of chicks reasonably priced, no shipping costs and were able to fill our order there. This store contains some interesting breeds that I haven't been able to locate in any hatchery so this is the route I think I will take in the future for new breeds plus I can now mostly sustain my own flock.
What may be a plus or minus is that they don't include either any extras, even for a decent sized order or any packing peanuts, so if you lost any you're out of luck.
They're reason for not including packing peanuts is that not everyone wants them, but if the weather turns unseasonably cold they can be a life saver so I don't see why the buyer shouldn't be given that option.
While MPC is a decent place to get chicks, I've been happy with the birds I got through them, I do think they are a bit pricey and there are better options out there, both pricewise and breedwise (But maybe not depending where you live.) for when I want to add new breeds to my flock.

 

[kcomer]

I can't say because I just ordered my first chickes from Ideal.
Reasons:
- I first started at eFowl and put together an order after MUCH research on which of the breeds they sold that are fairly good layers and winter hardy.  THEN I saw that you need to get 5 of each breed, 15 minimum. OOPS I want 2 of several breeds so I can:
  1) tell them apart
  2) tell which birds are laying

- So I found MPC. All looked good, they sell in smaller quantities and don't have a minimum per breed. OK then! Shipping for 12 from MPC is $37. I was about to order, but figured I should do as you are - read reviews of the hatchery from knowledgeable BYC folks first. And I found nothing WRONG but also a pointer to other hatcheries, including Ideal so I checked them out. Shipping for 12 from Ideal is $7 for small order charge, plus $6 for 1/4 box plus 15 cents per bird airmail charge. Total from Ideal is just over $49, from MPC it would be $76. Since I've not read bad things about Ideal, I went the 'cheap' route.

Regarding Ideal:
- I must say it was NOT easy to figure out what the shipping would be. They could do a better job, maybe a calculator like MPC has.
- They show "sold out until" but you can't order those birds. They have a "notify me" option but I think it would be nice if they KNOW they will have a breed in a month, that they let you order since you don't necessarily want the chicks 'tomorrow' anyway.  Which I didn't, but read on ...
- I was given a choice of ship dates, chose 7/17. Got the confirmation email. The next day I got the ship date email - 6/13. I'm going to be gone from 6/20 through 6/24

I sent them an email asking why the 7/17 date wasn't used and the response was that they don't know that they will have all the breeds I wanted "that late in the year".  So I understand but it might be helpful if besides the "sold out until" indicator, they had an "only available until" indicator. Called my wife, she's OK with taking care of the chicks as long as the brooder bathtub is set up and I'm there when the chicks come (like *I* have ANY experience raising chicks! Turns out she DOES, from many decades ago).

If things go as planned, my first flock will arrive 6/14 or 15 and consist of 2 pullets of these breeds:
Ameraucana
Ancona
Black Australorp
Partridge Chantecler
Blue Red Cubalaya
Salmon Faverolle

Admittedly, several of these wern't on my orginal list but they look so cool and some of the ones I originally wanted (like Barred Rocks and Wynodottes) should be readily available at other times so I went with some less common breeds. If I don't kill them with poor chicken raising, we should start getting eggs in January or February. I hope to add more in a few years, using the advice given here to keep a relatively consistant quantity of eggs as the hens age (they will live their full, natural lives) by adding birds every 2 or 3 years. 

I just want to say that I've read from many people on this site that Ideal doesn't sell "true" ameraucanas. Because of that reason I orders from MPC

 

[Blooie]

If I'm not mistaken, Ideal actually says on their website "Ameraucanas, also known as the Easter Egger bird" on their bird description chart. On their web sites MPC and Meyers do make a distinction between Ameracaunas and Easter Eggers. Since apparently MPC gets its chicks from Meyer that would make sense.