Off Season Hatchery for egg layers?

[sweetrootfarm]

Greetings,

We are looking for a hatchery that can deliver some good egg layers at a reasonable price with hatch dates in December or January. Does anyone know of a source? As many of you know, most of the hatcheries consider this the off season or have a very limited number. I've found one hatchery in North Carolina that charges upwards of $6 for female red sex link. We are looking for about 100 of good egg layers, somewhere near half this price.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I've checked all the major hatcheries (Cackle, Strombergs, Murray, etc.) and haven't found one.

Thanks,
Noah

 

[Hholly]

I think Ideal Hatchery is still shipping some egg layers.

 

[sweetrootfarm]

Thanks. Ideal is sold out of nearly everything. We are considering purchasing much more expensive stock locally so we won't be without them for the main market season.

 

[sammerman]

Try Privett Hatchery, which claims to hatch weekly (all year). Download the price list .pdf to find the breed names most likely to be available. The two groups of common breeds also seem to have decent laying reputations. You'll probably have to call or fax.

Privett delivers robust, sturdy chicks from Portales, New Mexico. I've had good results. Only once I had 4 or 5 mystery chicks, most of which appeared to be rarer breeds: 2 slate legs, 1 willow legs, etc. Trying to pinpoint their IDs was fun They made nice gifts.

Sammerman
Stonefield Sheep

 

[popsicle]

I think Central Hatchery ships all winter--I think you need to order 50 minimum and they have a small selection of production birds.

Looks to me like Ideal has Sex Links and Easter Eggers available, maybe others. Sometimes it's easier to just call them to find out what's available for your desired ship date.

ETA: and I agree--my birds from Privett were good hatchery birds. Some breeds were better than others like any hatchery--the Silver Laced Wyandotte was big and beautiful, the Dark Brahma wasn't any bigger than the California White.

 

[Percheron chick]

Privett does not carry red sex links but does have black and gold. $2.40/100. I have bought their chicks Christmas week from the feed store.

 

[brideofchaos]

I know Ideal has large Ameraucanas right now and some other egg layers.

 

[gypsy767]

Greetings,

We are looking for a hatchery that can deliver some good egg layers at a reasonable price with hatch dates in December or January. Does anyone know of a source? As many of you know, most of the hatcheries consider this the off season or have a very limited number. I've found one hatchery in North Carolina that charges upwards of $6 for female red sex link. We are looking for about 100 of good egg layers, somewhere near half this price.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I've checked all the major hatcheries (Cackle, Strombergs, Murray, etc.) and haven't found one.

Thanks,
Noah

Townlinehatchery.com in MI will begin shipping ISA browns jan 19th 2016. I am just about to order some. The ISA brown supplies 60% of the worlds brown egg market. The ISA brown is a red sexlink and prolific layer of large to extra large brown eggs up to 320 per year. The price for 100 chicks is $2.10 each. Hope this helps.

 

[sweetrootfarm]

Thank

Townlinehatchery.com in MI will begin shipping ISA browns jan 19th 2016. I am just about to order some. The ISA brown supplies 60% of the worlds brown egg market. The ISA brown is a red sexlink and prolific layer of large to extra large brown eggs up to 320 per year. The price for 100 chicks is $2.10 each. Hope this helps.

Thanks; this does help. We raised 70+ sex link that we are currently culling. We had excellent results. I agreed to purchase birds locally at a premium price, also sex links, in order to have eggs at the first farmers market. Raising them in the cold shop is hard, but we've got heat lamps on them. Ideal also has some sex link I believe.