ordering chicks.

[kelsey]

I want to order a small amount of chickens from a hatchery. what are the chances that the hatchery is selling buff rocks instead of orpingtons? i dont want to end up with more rocks than i already have. also what hatcheries do yall recomend ordering from. i want around ten buff orpingtons.
thanks.

 

[audrey02026]

You can order small quanities of chickens from chickens for backyards and my pet chicken (they will send you chicks in 3 or more).

 

[SpringChickens]

If you order from a hatchery, they shouldn't be selling rocks as orpingtons. That's not to say that they won't be selling orpingtons which don't meet breed standards, but that only matters if you intend to show. I have four hatchery quality orpingtons in my flock currently and really like them.

If you're ordering 10 birds, any hatchery should be fine, but the best one is the one which is closest to you geographically. Ideal (Texas), McMurray (Iowa), Cackle (Missouri), Mt. Healthy (Ohio), and Welp (Iowa) are all large, well-known hatcheries. A place like mypetchicken can be good if you want only a few birds, but they tend to drop-ship from the larger hatcheries (above) and charge a premium.

Good luck!

 

[rockinpaints]

You can try the hatcheries listed in here but if you'd like really good quality Buff Orps you could try HinkJC (do a search here on BYC and you should be able to find him) Their birds are absolutely awesome. We have Orps also but no Buffs right now.
Good luck!

Nellie
TheFancyChick.com

 

[foursons13]

I ordered from Murray McMurray but they have a mininum of 25 chicks at a time. I didn't loose a single chick during shipping or after they arrived. Maybe you could advertise for someone to go in with you on an order and split shipping.

 

[Chemguy]

I just ordered my first set of chicks from Meyer. 3 chick minimum order. I bought 4 barred rocks and 4 buff orpingtons. In answer to your question, it seems like they have clearly separate lines of each, so there would be no mixing of the two. I believe that MyPetChicken gets their chicks from Meyer (the availability dates are always the same), so either would likely give you the 'correct' stock when ordering.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. Most hatcheries have a minimum order or 25 chicks. You can get as few as 3 chicks from MY PET CHICKEN

I have ordered chicks from Townline Hatchery in Zeeland, Michigan, Townline Hatchery. I have had wonderful results with the chicks and I live in Florida. They have a minimum order of 15 for one breed. I have gotten chicks from Ideal Poultry in Cameron, TX, and have great success with the chicks I have ordered from them. I'm sure most of the hatcheries are good too and are NPIP program participants.

 

[KDailey]

I ordered from Ideal today. They don't have a minimum number of chickens, they have a minimum dollar amount of $25. Ordering 10 chicks at $2 and some odd change should be fine.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Have you tried looking for them locally? The first year I started keeping chickens I responded to a craigslist add that simply said "chicks for sale-$2.00 each". I called them since they were close and drove out to their house that day. Those $2.00 chicks turned out to be big, beautiful, fluffy BOs. I highly recommend McMurray if you don't want to search for them locally, they do have a 25 chick minimum though. Good luck!

 

[Chick15]

We ordered from eFowl.com, all our chickens are happy and healthy, we ordered the minimum order, 15 (i know it was a few more than you wanted, but im giving options here!) and they threw in an extra, a RIR. chicks are currently 7 weeks and we have yet to lose one!