Need chicks delivered under 36 hours old... suggestions?

[Sazbaby]

We are trying to get started on some dual-purpose breed chickens or possibly a more meat-oriented chickens to raise for the freezer. We are "Animal Welfare Approved" for our layers and want to comply with their restrictions for meat birds as well. They said we could order from a hatchery as long as the chicks got to us by the time they were 36 hours old... any suggestions? We live in southwestern Virginia, and I did find that Meyer hatchery is in Ohio, and might be able to make that a possibility... any other suggestion on somewhere on the east coast, close to Virginia, with a good reputation?? While I'm at it, we're considering Buff Orps, Plymouth Rocks, White Rocks, Sussex, or Wyandottes, any opinions on these? AWA doesn't allow raising of birds that are genetically selected for efficiency to the point that their health suffers, so typical Cornish or Cornish X birds are obviously out... any other input? Thanks in advance!

 

[TheCrazyChick]

Meyer is great. The 36 hour issue would be with postal service though. Unfortunately.

 

[Sazbaby]

I know, I agree... I think it's going to be near impossible to achieve. I might have to contact AWA and see if they can do an exception for us, I don't know of any hatcheries that are within a reasonable driving distance that we could pick up from, I can't seem to find anything that is closer than Ohio that is able to ship significant varieties of chicks... please let me know if there are any other thoughts!!

 

[Kelsie2290]

I live in Ohio and it takes two days for chicks from Meyers to get to me, don't think 36 hours is possible because of the USPS. With the breeds you are looking for, since they are pretty popular, I would check with the National or Regional Clubs of the breeds and see if you can't find a breeder of one or more near you. With as many breeds as you are looking at there should be someone reasonably close that would have checks or eggs available... I am assuming you are not looking for thousands of chicks at a time

 

[Sazbaby]

Oh wow, good to know... I thought for sure I would be able to maybe get them next-day at least, but doesn't sound likely... this is proving to be quite difficult! Problem with a local breeder/hatchery (if there even was one close enough to drive to within a reasonable time) is that it will end up costing us considerably more to buy the same number of chicks. And yes, we're just looking in the 25-50 range lol. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[nknelson25]

I live in Wisconsin and did not have good luck with shipped chicks from Meyer. The first shipment of 20 took 5 days to get here....all DOA of course. The 2nd shipment of 20 took 62 hours, but would have been 75+ hours if I hadn't intercepted them from a postal hub further away from my home. Of that bunch 4 were DOA, and after 24 hours only 4 had survived. I don't know if the packaging of them contributed to their demise, but the length of time it took to get them sure did. Meyer cannot gaurantee they will arrive within 72 hours, let alone 36. I even tried to have them shipped Express Mail instead of Priority but was told they wouldn't arrive any sooner that way. The USPS is the only shipper of baby chicks and unfortunately they don't do a very good job of getting them to you quick enough. Meyer did issue a refund for the lost birds but not the shipping charges. That made my 4 chicks pretty pricey. Hopefully you can find a hatchery close to you, or that can ship overnight or next day. Good luck!

 

[Kelsie2290]

You know, since you have layers, have you considered raising your own sex-links or one of the bigger auto-sexing breeds? A lot of sex-links are crosses of the breeds you are looking at anyhow. A lot of the sex-links are nice sized birds and pretty good layers. You could raise the males as meat birds and sell the girls as chicks or as pullets if you didn't want to keep them. You would not need to keep that many in the parent flock if you want 25-50 chicks at a time and that would not require that big of an incubator.