my pet chicken reviews

[HopeL]

The chicks I ordered from MPC arrived three weeks ago, one was DOA and another one died that night, I just received my second shipment of chicks today and I had two DOA. All in all, shipping chicks is a stressful process for them and some do die. If you want to order from MPC I suggest ordering at least two of each breed you want and selling the extras on craigslist or give them to your neighbors or friends, or don't get very attached to getting all of the breeds you want. I haven't had a very good experience so far but, they are the only place to get a small order of chickens shipped to you that I know of.

 

[FerrariSvcGuy]

To follow up on my previous posting...I finally received an email response very early this morning. They informed me that they do in fact take care of all necessary paperwork needed to import chicks to Florida. I was quite relieved.

Now I am waiting to see if any of the startup supplies arrive before the chicks are scheduled to. Chicks ship on Monday the 12th. We shall see!

 

[FerrariSvcGuy]

Final post on my experience with "My Pet Chicken"...I received all items the day before the chicks arrived. My chicks arrived today! All alive and well and full of energy.

Overall, I would say that I would order from them again. There could be a little more info on tracking packages and what not, but this forum really helps prevent a lot of the needless worrying.

 

[5LexingtonHens]

I ordered four chicks from MPC, two light brahmas and two easter eggers, along with a bunch of supplies. The chick supplies arrived in a timely fashion and the customer service representatives were very nice when I called them with questions regarding the order.

At the time that I ordered the chicks, I didn't know what hatchery they would come from, but I was aware that they did not come directly from MPC. The price of the chicks seemed quite reasonable, but I live in New England where everything costs twice as much as the rest of the country anyway; so 'reasonable' is probably a relative term.

The chicks left Meyer hatchery in Ohio yesterday and arrived at our post office in Massachusetts this morning. Thankfully they were not in transit for long. All four chicks were alive and chirping upon pickup at the PO. We got them home and they seemed to settle in the brooder nicely. They all are quite spry, running about their new home-eating, drinking, pooping, sleeping (repeat). One observation I made is that the two brahmas seem to sleep a little more that the EEs but spring back into action after they have rested.

Overall, I would say that I had a very positive experience with MPC and would order from them again. For the first time chicken buyer or hobbyist they provide the convenience of ordering everything in one place and have good customer service.

 

[5LexingtonHens]

One thing that I forgot to add regarding tracking for my order. I didn't get much info from MPC via email which was initially a little concerning. However, I found out that I could pull up my order and all of the tracking information for each item in that order by logging into my account online and clicking on "past orders". Tracking for the chicks was sent separately to my email account.

 

[informative]

The chicks I ordered from MPC arrived three weeks ago, one was DOA and another one died that night, I just received my second shipment of chicks today and I had two DOA. All in all, shipping chicks is a stressful process for them and some do die. If you want to order from MPC I suggest ordering at least two of each breed you want and selling the extras on craigslist or give them to your neighbors or friends, or don't get very attached to getting all of the breeds you want. I haven't had a very good experience so far but, they are the only place to get a small order of chickens shipped to you that I know of.

My order of "mixed" chicks didn't do as well as the order of "all the same breed" chicks. I would suggest that the process of having to pick out, vaccinate and then take your chicks from one barn to another to get some other subsequent breeds is adding stress and time being jostled and shuffled around that might reduce their chances of making it all the way through the already stressful process. I will definitely do business with MPC again but will probably stick to one breed orders. Chicks are not a box of chocolates =)

Plus there are others that claim they will ship small orders such as
http://www.meyerhatchery.com/
http://www.strombergschickens.com/prod_detail_list/Small-Quantity-Chicken-Orders

but I have no personal experience with either of those.

 

[informative]

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.
...snip...
I will probably not be doing business with MPC again.

Are you not impressed with the overall quality, hardiness and growth rate of the Red Star (sex linked) chickens? You didn't lose any of those right? They are "the boss" (not pecking orderwise)

I would love to get more of those and would likely be the main reason to do business with MPC again for me. Of course if I could find an alternate hatchery that could match this sort of "allstar" attributes I would also like to boost the genes from a different flock - I read some call them Cinnamon Queens or Golden Comets and so on these sort of Hybrid red/buff blended super chicken. Guessing it's something like a fast growing New Hampshire mixed with a fast growing Buff Orpington?

Anyone have any similar stories of red/buff wonder-chickens to share to help with this endeavor? Thanks!

 

[Jeff M]

So after doing my research, I decided to order from MPC because I could mix & match and I could get the different varieties I was looking for. I ordered thirty yes 30 chicks. If you're going to do something - hey go big! We anxiously awaited the arrival, which came earlier this week. They hatched on Monday? (so I was told) & arrived on Wednesday morning. At the post office, I was a little surprised to see just one box for all 30, but hey I'm the newbie at this so they must know what they're doing. (So now I will cut with the dramatic writing and get right to it)
Opened the box & there were 6 dead with many others not looking good. Within the next two hours 3 more died and by 3 pm another had died. I had ordered 2 buff Orpingtons, 1 had died so I did what I could overnight to try and save the 2nd. Brought her to the house in her own brooder, cleaned her pasty butt which was pretty significant,and tried to feed her sugar water with a dropper. She made it through the night, but died before noon the next day. So now I had 11 of 30 dead and with MPC you have 48 hrs for refunds which meant I still had another day. Lost another one yesterday so brings total to 12. I was in contact with MPC daily and at length about what was going on, they were very helpful, we reviewed my setup, the surrounding conditions etc. I had read in a thread here that MPC used another hatchery however the truth is that they rent space in a hatchery in Ohio, but the chicken lines and personnel are all MPC!
On the supply side, they do a real good job at getting items shipped out quickly, have some good sales and are extremely helpful. Iwould bet that their springtime shipments turn out better than mine did. My intent here is not to bash MPC and their chicken lines. It is to offer clarification where others had suggested that they use a 3rd party hatchery and a word of caution on ordering this time of year.
Interestingly, I had ordered 2 bufforpingtons (dead), 2 blue ameraucana (dead), 3 black Australorp (dead)' 3 golden laced Wyandotte (dead) the last two were singles 1 Dominique, and 1 Welsummer. I don't know if it has anything to do with the breeds or not, but I find it interesting that most were all from the same breeds.
Any recommendations on hatcheries for future purchases?

 

[KelsiNS]

I lost all of my australorps and one ee from mpc, in addition to several yellow/red chicks. Ended up with 28/34 chicks.

My second order was through ideal since they are much closer. All 11 arrived vibrant and are flourishing at two weeks old!

I suggest finding the nearest hatchery to you, so they arent in shipping nearly as long.

 

[Jeff M]

Lost a White Rock last night,I don't understand what happened. She seemed fine yesterday but when I checked on them this morning she was dead and a Rhode Island Red is injured. I don't know if she has a broken wing or something else is going on, she cannot stand up and if I set her down she sort of spins in a circle. Needless to say I spent quite a bit of time today holding her. I fed her a couple of ants that were around and gave her Gatorade thru a medicine dropper. I'm just hoping & praying that she'll hang on while her body heals whatever it is that's wrong with her.