Recommend a chicken hatchery with a wide variety of chicks

[hollywoood007]

I want to mail order about 10 chicks. Maybe 4 or 5 varieties.

 

[nuthatched]

Can you elaborate? Which breeds are you considering?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I want to mail order about 10 chicks. Maybe 4 or 5 varieties.

MurrayMcMurray, Meyer and Cackle are all good hatcheries. They all have websites and you can order online.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I want to mail order about 10 chicks. Maybe 4 or 5 varieties.

Hi, welcome to the forum from Louisiana. Glad you joined.

Where are you? Which country you are in makes a difference. If you modify your profile to show your general location that information will always be available. Knowing your location comes in handy quite often whether that is whether you are north or south of the equator, which country, or your general climate.

I'll assume you are in the USA since that's the only country I'm familiar with how this works. I once saw something that said there are hundreds of hatcheries in the US. I don't know how many are actually mail order hatcheries we can use, most won't be. But there are a lot. The hatcheries we use are typically family owned small businesses that may hatch 60,000 to 100,000 chicks a week. Some are year around but many are seasonal. Some (like MyPetChicken) don't actually hatch their own chicks but get them for other hatcheries. Each has their own business plan and different rules.

My suggestion is to go online and do a search for hatcheries that have a website and see what they have that you might want. But also check the rules. Some may have a minimum number of chicks they ship, sometimes based on the time of the year. Often that is 15 chicks or even 25 chicks so the chicks can keep each other warm from body heat during shipping. Check if they use packing peanuts. If your order is relatively small and bad weather is forecast they might include extra chicks so the total number is high enough to keep then all warm. These are practically always male chicks, they always have extra males because the females are most popular. If you have any questions about packing peanuts talk to that specific hatchery before you place your order. Instead of minimum numbers or packing peanuts some will place an artificial heat source (like hand warmers) in the shipment.

You seem to want two of each variety, really normal. Some hatcheries have a minimum number of each breed/sex you can order, often a minimum of five. Others allow you to order just one or two of each breed/sex but they may add fees for splitting the order between different breeds. Those fees can add up. Different hatcheries handle shipping costs differently. My suggestion for this is to determine you final costs at a few hatcheries before you actually place your order.

You also need to check what date they can ship them together. If you want five different breeds or colors they may not all hatch on the same date. That can get frustrating. So check availability.

This sounds more complicated than it probably is but I'm trying yo warn you of some of the pitfalls so you know what to look out for. Maybe that can make the process go smoother for you. And there are ways to get around some of these things so if you run into a problem let us know what it is. We may be able to help you.

Good luck and once again

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters.

Are you looking for exotic breeds or a good assortment of reliable, time-proven breeds?

Are you interested in fancy egg colors? Fancy feathers?

For small orders of chicks I think that it's hard to beat Ideal Hatchery. They don't have a minimum chick order, just a minimum dollar amount and the lowest "small order" surcharge I've found. Their one drawback for people looking for fancy birds is that they focus more on the time-proven breeds.

But I've always been happy with my Ideal chicks. You can see last spring's batch here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/introducing-the-ideal-dozen.1469451/

My suggestion for this is to determine you final costs at a few hatcheries before you actually place your order.

This is a very good point. Sometimes the same breed costs more at one hatchery than at another BUT when you calculate small order fees and shipping costs it costs less at the one where the individual chicks cost more.

 

[Poodlemum]

Lots of the breeds I wanted sold out already, so look into local breeders as well

 

[Shezadandy]

I want to mail order about 10 chicks. Maybe 4 or 5 varieties.

mypetchicken.com has been good for us. They will ship smaller quantities. I think they do quite a bit through Meyer's Polk OH hatchery - there's a video out there that shows how they treat their chicks. (can order directly from Meyer too)

 

[Mamatomany123]

I just ordered from Ideal. I likedhat I could order a smaller order and not be charged aton. For 9 chicks it came out to $35. They are also only 5 hrs from ne so the chicks won't be in the box for too long.

 

[Iluveggers]

Ideal only has a shipping cost of $7 for an order of 10 chicks.

Mt Healthy has a shipping cost of $10 for an order of 10 chicks.

Most other hatcheries will have at least a $30 shipping fee. Maybe try those two first and see if they have any breeds you are interested in? They both have great selections in my opinion! What breeds are you hoping to get?