OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there!

[blessedchick]

Wow, Mucha! I think I bought my "working girls" (LF) from that same operation! Spoke with the owner on the phone and he promised me that he would save me a couple of Austrolorps to go along with the 6 other chicks I would be purchasing. I called him the alloted 2 weeks later, said he had the 'lorps set aside for me. I went out that evening...no owner, just the helper dude and the AUSTROLORPS HAD BEEN SOLD! Silly me had even paid for them ahead of time to make sure that he held them!!! I was livid...pitched a fit (very rare for me, actually, but I had my heart set on a pair of Austrolorps and wasn't having any success at finding them anywhere else) and the helper dude ended up giving me 2 EEs and 2 BRs for the price of the Austrolorps. Musta scared him...I'm now feeling empowered...

Thankfully mine are all happy and healthy (4 months later)...and I even managed to find my 'lorps at a beautiful private farm last month.

Is there anything that can be done about the conditions that those chickies are living in?

 

[Marengoite]

Who was the seller?

 

[Marengoite]

The reason I ask is that there is a seller of Buckeye chickens that this sounds very much like. Don't know if it's him, but have seen videos of his chickens living in VERY crowded conditions and have heard things about him being an absentee owner with horrible customer service and questionable breeding practices.

 

[loanwizard]

I too am interested in this Craigslist seller. Is he in Johnstown?

I don't know if it helps, but I can hatch out Hybrid egg layers for you or am thinking of buying direct from Meyer.

I am in Coshocton.

Shawn

 

[kmenchicks]

Howdy. From a small town in SEO, south of Z-ville.

Noob chick-ers, bought from a seller who advertised on Craigs, had thousands of birds stuffed in a barn attic/loft. Conditions there made me raise an eyebrow, but didn't drive all that way to go home empty handed, and cold, wet weather led me to believe (hope) that was just a temporary situation. Complete chaos, funk in the air that nipped at the lining of one's lungs

, filthy floor, walls, and ceiling, extremely overcrowded cages and pens, chix of all flavours and sizes running around on the floor, clueless young "helper" attempting to tend to the several customers. Ten weeks later, find out we got the wrong flavour of birds, 13 oegb's (very nice, friendly, pretty birds, but completely useless for our purposes) for the big money (probably way way overpaid) we paid for 15 heritage wellies (2 of the chicks we got initially were actually wellies, but they were all in the same pen and all looked alike to us noobs and clueless attendant).

We chose wellies because of the camouflage qualities, as we have an airborne predator problem in our neck of the woods (and they're pretty

).

We get on the horn and arrange for a swap with the seller for the right birds, and a big roo. When we get there, conditions are almost the same as the first time, the only change is that half of the birds are outside, but the air is still poor up in the loft, and it is still very dirty, overcrowded cages, dead chix lying all over. There must have been thousands of birds of different kinds of poultry roaming the property.

Compromise #1 he only has 10 of the 13 wellies we were owed, Compromise #2 They show signs of being in poor environmental conditions, and since they have had little to no human contact, they must be socialized, and are very un-friendly ATM. Compromise #3 When we pick up our birds, we find the roo isn't so big. Again, we don't want to go home empty handed, because it is a 1.5 hr drive each way. Here's the kicker... We've had our new wellies for a few days, in their nice, new, CLEAN environment, and have noticed a few of them are still showing symptoms (runny, crusty nose, bad smell, sneezing, wheezing...) was reading about resp. diseases on here, and will probably have to cull them if they don't improve in a few days (yes they are separated from the others). Medicating is not an option and will not serve our objectives. Not very much fun for a noob chicker to have to cull 1/3 of the first flock.

We are quite displeased with the whole horrible experience and very upset with the seller (who we never actually met in person, just the clueless helper), and appalled at the conditions these birds were in, not to mention angry at having to possibly (probably) cull almost a half a dozen birds with a disease that wasn't our fault, and just eat the money we paid for them. I don't know if this is normal for chicken dealers, but I just got the feeling that something wasn't right there. I don't know what exactly, but something just didn't seem right about the whole operation, with all the birds being kept the way they were, and some other odd things about the property and the "helper". Being noobs, we made noobish mistakes, got ripped off, and probably never should have bought our birds from that guy. Should've trusted my gut on this one, and don't it just burn my biscuit.

Not only was it a loss of time, gas, future food, and confidence, it was a huge (to me) loss of money, which is as rare around here on the acres as a three headed cat in a pickle jar. Wish there were some kind of repercussion or restitution, or just some way to warn others of this seller.

On that note, I am looking for an honest, knowledgeable, and non-scum chickie dealer in the Southeastern Ohio region, with myself being located in the Perry/Muskingum area. And also a feed store that isn't TSC (trying to keep everything as local and small-scale as possible), since the local guy who is 5 mins away is going out of business.

Is there a SPCA in the area? I'm sure they would have something to say about conditions like that.

 

[Mucha Smooches]

Yes it is the guy in Johnstown. I've got pictures on my cell phone of when we went to pick up the first chicks (i'm working on figuring out how to get them from phone to computer lol). Buckeye Egg is just down the road from him, I think. It's looking like most or all the wellies I swapped for have resp. disease from his place, and don't seem to be improving, so I have an entire flock of sneezy, boogery, oozy chickens that I can't afford to medicate (both money and loss of food), and also means I can't grow a healthy flock. Keeping the six healthy bantams I got from him as chicks separated from the wellies will be difficult. I am wondering if it is too late to just get my money back somehow, return them for a refund, but he is so far away.... cost me 20 in gas for the trip (which is a lot to me), and so far, i've made two.

If the guy won't give me a refund and take the birds back, It's either put up with the booger sisters forever, or cull them all and eat my costs.

An extremely disappointing experience anyhow.

I'm at kind of a loss of what to do.

 

[chicknadventure]

pics to computer...email them to yourself, then download them to your computer from email. then upload to site or email to interested parties.

 

[loanwizard]

Mucha Smooches it's like this. You can ask for a refund, but if he cares for his birds in a manner consistent with what you say, what are the chances he will treat a customer any better?

You could post what your experiences were on Craigslist and wait for a frivolous libel or slander lawsuit.

You could file in Licking County Small Claims Court, but it costs to file and you have to travel, plus have evidence to support your claim.

You could call the Licking County Humane Society.... probably a good place to start, but... what will they do?

I guess I would chalk it up to a bad experience.... Thank you though, I had thought about buying some Turkey and Ducks from him. Not now.

Shawn

 

[Mucha Smooches]

My phone barely makes calls, much less emails. I just need to remember what I did with the little usb cord that came with it...

From my experience, the humane society, at least the one in my neck of the woods, is just about useless. Had an issue with a neighbour a couple of months ago, had photos and videos of the suffering animals, and nothing was done. Could not get anyone to even come out and see for themselves. Basically got told (with lots of attitude from the HS guy) that the only way they would do anything is if they had a written or recorded confession. I ended up sneaking over there and trying to help the animals (they were practically in my backyard anyway). I did that for about two weeks after I called the HS. Then the guy and the animals that were still (barely) alive moved away.

Part of me just wants to start over. Can't hurt to call the guy and see what (if anything) he will do for me anyhow, and possibly tear him a new one. If I keep the snot brigade, which is probably what will happen unless they get drastically worse or it affects their production too much, I won't be able to add to my flock until they are gone, and my six healthy bantys (which are basically just pets) will never get to go out with them. Other than the goobers, my sick birds seem content and active. Maybe I'm just worrying too much.

 

[MallardDuckling]

Note to all those in Chillicothe. I've heard stories of 2 "Pit Bulls" running loose killing possibly 3 dogs. Please keep yourself, families and pets safe until this is under control, if not already.