Questions for ordering chicks for the first time.

[my4buffaloes]

Hi everyone, we have been wanting chickens for years and are finally going to go for it. My dh will start building the coop soon. We are going on vacation at the end of July and had thought we would order chicks to be delivered in early August. I am running into some problems though. We want buckeyes - because they are cold hardy and we wanted to go with rare heritage breeds anyway. They are very hard to find! Then when I do find them the minimum is 25 and we only wanted 4-6. Any ideas? We had hoped for 2 different kinds of chicks and need to find another cold hardy one if anyone has any recommendations. I thought about ordering an assortment of chicks, but need to make sure that everything we get is cold hardy, can you even request that when you order an assortment?

Also having trouble finding a hatchery that will deliver after June. Any ideas? Is August really too late? They will likely be full grown before winter or cold weather sets in so it should be fine.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[gryeyes]

I have also wanted Buckeyes for a very long time and ordered them from Ideal Poultry, but I went in on an order with another friend, who ordered a slew of other chicks of a different breed.

Perhaps, if you can find someone to go in on an order?

You are ordering late in the hatching season, particularly if you want a specific breed.

This was my first ever batch of mail-order chicks. I've always purchased from a feed store or hatched eggs I bought and incubated. I bought my first chicks on October 1st, 2009, from my absolute favorite feed store. By late 2010 I was incubating and hatching..... JUST ordered from Ideal (Buckeyes in one order with the friend's White Faced Black Spanish, and a separate order of a sexed pair of Toulouse goslings, which were sent with 12 "packing peanuts" - which are live straight run chicks, mostly cockerels) two weeks ago, but the website said they were out until 2012.

I clicked on the bit "to be notified when available" and filled out the information; got the call the next day they were hatching and would have what I wanted!! So, try that...

Good luck! and

 

[al6517]

If you want heritage breeds they won't be found at any hatchery, although buckeyes are true heritage breeds, if you order from a hatchery they will be not to heritage standards and will certainly have something else mixed in with their breeding. perhaps finding a breeder with some good buck's is a better choice, there are quite a few of them out there. If your not concerned with whether they look like Buckeyes or not concerned with the poor quality of hatchery buckeyes, then by all means order some. I don't know what to tell you on the min order of 25 it's just how they ship them, breeders will be better able to fill your order exactly with hen's and roosters.

 

[Arielle]

You are looking for birdds with very small combs like wyandottes, buckeyes, and I think sussex. Look at the comb size as well as those recommended for cold weather; many of the dual purpose aka heritage are cold hardy.

Try the My Pet CHicken website for the selection feature. Very helpful. One choice is cold hardy--then look at the pics of each breed featured.

A noteable breeder said to me start with what you have. Hatchery birds are reasonable. THey aren't show quality, but not every bird a good breeder produces is show quality either. I went to the BOston Poutry show and I would put one of the silver laced wyandoottes I have against what I saw. Hatchery birds, IMO, are not bad birds. THey get a bad rap; there are those who love a breed and enjoy breeding them; this is another place to get them but harder to find IMO. It takes a bit of searching the breed threads to find a breeder.

25 is the number that is shipped for the safety of the chicks. Buckeyes are not a popular breed so most of the hatcheries don't have them. Private breeders do at this point.
Usually to get a smaller number of birds go to a local feed store; the choices are limited.

You might buy the 25 min required of the breeds you want and then put the rest on craigs list.

Good luck!

 

[Roo on Harley]

Welcome to BYC!
I hope you get what you want and come back with plenty of pictures. Let us know how it goes.

 

[UrbanBlueShamrock]

Hi welcome to BYC Im new as well! I just had my first mailing experience we got our ducklings last Wed. I ran into the same problem of not wanting all the extra ducks. I put an ad on Craigslist in the Farm & Garden section. I had quite a few responses. Splitting the cost of shipping etc really puts the price of an individual bird at a much more reasonable level unlike if you did a special small order. However I cant tell you how well the whole thing would have worked out since we decided to go with the rarer Ancona it severely limited where we could order from. Good luck and I hope you find your birds!!!

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I am certainly not as knowledgable as some of the amazing people on here. However, there are some great cold hardy breeds. You can see my signature for our girls and they have all weathered fine in winter and are sold locally where we have snow. One option would be to go ahead with the order, raise them up and sell them on Craigslist for a small profit. We've purchased from CL for as much as $17 for a six week chicken that we really wanted. There are probably many folks in your same boat about ordering. Best of luck. If I had known chickens were this easy I'd have gotten them long ago!

 

[cmom]

My Pet Chicken, you can order as few as 3 chicks.
http://www.mypetchicken.com/default.aspx

 

[Denise M]

We just received chicks from Ideal Poultry. Their minimum order is $25 instead of 25 chicks.

 

[newtothis2011]

I Went With Purely Poultry And The Minimum Was 5 Chicks Of Any Set Breed...all Mine Were Healthy And Are Still Kickin...3 Weeks Old Today