my pet chicken reviews

[ehmoody]

I ordered 5 chicks from MPC last year (Blue Splash Marans, Welsummer, Speckled Sussex, White Crested Black Polish, EE) scheduled to arrive this May. I ordered early because some of the breeds I wanted sold out quickly. I went with MPC because: 1. they has the breeds I wanted available at the same time. Some hatcheries had the creeds I wanted, but I had to consult complicated hatching/availability schedules to see if ALL the ones I wanted would hatch at the same time. 2. They have a good sexing track record (even for silkies) and I wanted to avoid raising and feeding a roo only to have to find a home for it later. 3. The customer service is excellent. Their website had all the info I needed to pre-set up my brooder (including turning the heat lamp on before I left for the post office so we would return to an already warmed brooder). One chick was a little squished up in the corner when they arrived and I paid close attention to it for the next 3 days. I called MPC constantly for advice and they were always patient and kind. In retrospect, they must get thousands of these calls and I was never treated like my sick chick was just another problem for them to deal with. Eventually the chick did die, but I knew I did everything I could to save it and based on my reading it isn't exceptional to lose a chick once in awhile. We were not sure if it was the speckled sussex or the welsummer who died as we could not tell them apart. MPC tried to help there but even they couldn't find enough distinguishing marks between the two so they credited me the price of the more expensive chick. I will definitely order from them again, I plan to add/replace every 2 to 3 years to keep the egg production consistent.

Pros: good selection of breeds, excellent customer service, can order small amounts of chicks compared to other hatcheries, sexing accuracy is high.
Cons: chicks come from off site hatchery (they are a broker), prices can be higher than other sources, high shipping costs for supplies, chick starter supplies are frequently sold out.

Erin

 

[KelsiNS]

Those of you eho have ordered-how long after the shipping notification did your chicks arrive? My 30 chicks shipped yesterday, and i live in texas, so i was wondering if i should expect them later in the week. (The waiting is killing me!)

 

[FergieChick]

I ordered from MPC at the end of March and my chicks just arrived today (July). The delay was due to some breeds (Silkies) being back ordered. I ordered 6 Silkie Bantams, 1 Australorp, 1 Speckled Hamburg, 1 Golden Buff and 1 Barred Rock. I received all of those and three extra Barred Rock! All females. (The Silkies they only claim 80% accurate on the sexing so I could have roo in there). The all arrived alive and appear to be very healthy and happy so far! I am happy with MPC thus far.

 

[applecore5]

i am expecting an order of babies from MPC (meyer) to be shipped out on the 12th of August.....at this point i'm more nervous than excited (and i'm pretty excited). i hope they make the trip to colorado! some of these delivery stories are just so sad.

 

[FergieChick]

I forgot to mention that my shipping notice was sent Monday morning and my chicks arrived at my post office at 10:30am Tuesday. They apparently were shipped from Ohio (even though I thought MPC was in CT?) and I live in Maryland. About 24 hrs in the mail.

I'm on day two and all 13 are still alive and appear to be happy and well Yay! So far so good.

 

[FerrariSvcGuy]

I placed my order yesterday, the 4th of August. I am expecting my Barred Rock chicks to ship on the 12th. I also ordered a bunch of chickie startup stuff that must be shipping from multiple places. My total shipping charge was as much as all of the items ordered! I called this morning to discuss importing chicks to Florida to make sure there wasn't anything special I needed to do in advance. No one picked up the phone. I then sent an email to [email protected]...as of this post...no response. Not going to get too excited just yet, but I will keep everyone posted on the rest of the ordeal.

 

[walkerbrens]

Placed an order of 6 that arrived on July 22. All arrived nice and perky. One chick died at 1 week....just a failure to really get going chickie. All others doing just fabulously. Do have roo that was mistakenly sexed that I will need to find a home for but otherwise, no complaints.

 

[buddhabrahma905]

Placed an order with them for some Blue Ameraucanas, Bcm's and EE's. Thisnwas really great for me because the Ameraucanas and Black Copper Marans are next to impossible to get! So far, they've given me great chicks and customer service.

 

[BB3]

My order of 8 mottled cochins, 2 RIR, 2 bared rocks were shiped Monday I got them the next day.

 

[KelsiNS]

My order arrived the 30th. Ordered 30, got 34. One DOA, two died that night. Two more got droopy at five days old and died, then one died day 6. So out of 30 ordered, i ended up with 28. Since one that died was a roostrer(and my other roo looks like it may be a bantam), i ordered more with Ideal (they are much closer and i felt safer shipping a smaller order). I ordered the vrown egg layer assortment and 2 EE roos, and it appears i have 12 barred rocks or dominiques, 4 red stars, 3 RIR, 4 buff orps and 4 white rocks. Tge ones that passed were EE, looked like RIR, australorp, and white rock.