my pet chicken reviews

[spotsplus]

MPC is the only hatchery that will sex bantams but you pay a high price for them (I paid $10 a chick). I ordered 2 silkies, 2 easter eggers, 1 frizzle, 2 Belgian Danvers, 2 silver sebrights. All turned out to be girls and look to be good quality and started laying right on time.

 

[Adenium]

Yes, we paid $10 each for our 4 silkies and they did all turn out to be girls who started laying right along with the large fowl at about 20 weeks. I think a silkie was actually first!

The one sexing error was with a large fowl partridge rock who we rehomed. Very glad we got the sexed bantams, as I'm not sure we could have found homes for multiple roosters.

 

[Bakersfarm]

Our experience was not good. We ordered early so i could get off work the day they arrive to make sure they gona be ok. The Day they supposed to be shipped they called us and we where told that the jersey giants are not available because of bad hatching, they spoke on the mailbox. We tried to call them back to ask what else they can offer us. We called them 16 (!) times till we reached someone. We ended up that they where shipped a Day later what already messed up my plans. After we got the tracking number we found out they where shipped regular! So they just arrived now Thursday, 6 are already dead because of no head anymore. Just 2 are active 7 are really weak and we expect to find a few more dead ones the next two days...
Bad hatching can happen but wrong shippment is just stupidety! We gona have a talk with them and i'm sure never order again there!

 

[stefan333]

I'm very sorry about your experience. I have since changed my mind about buying hatching eggs AND live chicks from MPC. At first I thought it was just the eggs, but it appears to be live chicks, too. If a company is not willing to answer the phone, and in my case emails don't buy from them. How in God's name does a company ignore customers? That'll tell you a lot right there.

Update on my hatching eggs: Yesterday they hatched. Out of 24 eggs: All the Blue/Splash were true infertiles from the very beginning (infertile blastodisc), all the lavenders were rotton from the beginning, 6 Buffs made it to hatching. One had an unabsorbed yolk sac and died. Out of the 5 who made it: A few of them are abnormally huge. They look like pancakes, because they're large and flat -not walking very well at all. One of them has no toenail on the middle toe on both feet (genetic issue). I've never seen that before. I should have just spent the $83 on ebay, and would have gotten fertile eggs that hatched out much better chicks.

 

[enel 1]

They dropship for Meyers so just order from them, they have the same deals and will ship small orders.

 

[Bakersfarm]

Thank's for that advice, think we go with Meyers from now on. Two more died yesterday and last night. Had the vet over who gave us some electrolytes and vitamins for food and water. He couldn't do much. The way to long shipping was the problem....

 

[Jakoda]

I ordered my first batch from MPC last June, I have had nothing but a good experience with them, their phone calls were answered , always received good help if I needed it. I am in CT, my chicks were shipped on a mon pm, got them on a tues am.

I really think getting shipped chicks this time of year is 'iffy' at best.

Would I order from MPC again? Yes, I would also order from Meyer, however, this year, what I was looking for sold out to fast, and I'm going with a local breeder to avoid the stress of shipping..
Diane

 

[stefan333]

The problem I've been reading is that they're not CONSISTENT. Some people say they're great, others have horror stories to tell. I do believe that sometimes things do go wrong, post office will screw up, but the kind of problems I had and others have had are unacceptable. If you went to McDonalds and bought a hamburger 10 times, and ONLY twice the bun was missing, but the other 8 times the burger was great would you even bother going back. I wouldn't. I've worked in retail quite a bit, and one of the most important, and unpleasant, parts of having a successful company is dealing with unhappy customers. Yes, sometimes things are just defective or damaged, and sometimes customers can be picky and loony. It happens, but when you are unwilling to even respond to complaints something is VERY WRONG! And if they are just too busy this time of year that they can't get to them, then they are overwhelmed and need to adjust their management practices accordingly. It seems to me that MPC thinks their job is done once the product leaves the hatchery. Very bad business practice, especially since word of mouth is the best advertisement. And since I was unable to resolve my complaint with them (because they flat out ignored me), I am more than happy to advertise for them.

 

[Adenium]

I have no vested interest here - we have our 6 hens from last June and are not needing to order again. But I still follow this thread as I'd posted in it. A few things to keep in mind for people ordering from MPC or hatcheries in general:

1) Shipping is iffy inherently - they have to be shipped via USPS and the process is out of the hatchery's control.
2) Shipping in very hot or cold weather (or when there's bad weather between the hatchery and you) adds danger for the chicks. Every year at this time you will see many stories of poor outcomes.
3) Many places have one or two shipping days in which they have to hatch out the chicks, sort them, make replacements if some expected hatches were poor, pack them up, and send them out. They are busy shipping chicks, not answering phones.

When I ordered from MPC they explained that and mentioned that you should put a list of alternate orders in so they can easily replace a chick from a poor hatch etc. without trying to get ahold of you on the phone....and if you need to be called and don't answer they will likely not be able to get to the hundreds of voicemails on time. I spoke to them well in advance of my ship date as I was changing an order, and they were very friendly and also very clear on how they work and what they can and can't do. If my chicks hadn't hatched, they already had a list of acceptable alternates. No one can control nature.

I have worked in customer service and do expect good service within reason. But I feel like there's a tendency when things don't go right to declare that an organization is bad. I think any time you do business with anyone you need to read their suggestions and policies and not expect things to deviate from that. MPC in particular spells a lot of this stuff out - I ordered from them partly because they had a good website and answered so many questions and were so clear on their policies. I also got lucky in that all of mine shipped on the day of hatch, arrived safely, and had only 1 sexing error. But the above points still hold.

 

[stefan333]

I have read bad reviews about hatcheries where I thought people were way too picky, expecting too much, blaming the hatchery instead of the Post Office. I worked in Loss Prevention and can assure you many people are mistaken and many more want something for free. But the majority of people who do complain have legitimate complaints, and it should be handled. I have hatched out many shipped eggs, have orderred chicks from many hatcheries/breeders, and currently have over 70 baby chicks under 2 months old, and more in the incubator. Sometimes you get wobbly air sacs, sometimes the eggs are cold or hot, a few will be infertile, sometimes an egg or two will be dirty, sometimes the hatch rate is great, sometimes not so great, sometimes chicks die, and those are things that are expected to happen. But when over half the eggs were never fertile to begin with (I do know how to check fertility, and you can do it after incubation has started) and others have rotted, it doesn't matter how careful the Post Office is or what the weather's like outside -THEY WON'T HATCH! And when the only ones that do hatch are common Buff Orpingtons with genetic issues something is wrong. They never explained in their suggestions and policies that I could possibly get infertile and rotton eggs and deformed chicks. I have no clue how shipping has anything to do with my issue. And I have no clue how they could be so busy as to not answer two emails 3 weeks later? This has nothing to do with things not going right, and not understanding their suggestions and policies. It has to do with them sending out a defective product and ignoring a customer, which in my book does make them a bad company. There are other hatcheries and breeders I would highly recommend, but not MPC. Just as an added note, they do drop ship from many different hatcheries (not just Meyer), and that could be a reason for inconsistency, but it is their responsibility to monitor who they are getting chicks and hatching eggs from, and when one of their hatcheries has so many of the same complaints (like Gabbard Farms where my eggs shipped from), then they absolutely should not do business with them. To do business like this does make a company bad.