Sandhill Preservation Center - Breeds

[Spangled]

Mixed orpingtion colors, speckled sussex, and they are throwing in some red sussex to cover some shortages. Should be an intersting mix. As usual the hard part is deciding what to keep and what to sell.

Ooooh ... the rare Red Sussex.

I have wanted that breed in the past. If they were easy to get from a regular hatchery, I probably would still get a hen just to see how she would do. I wonder what their Speckled Sussex look like ... you know, how much white on the wings.

Good luck at getting a couple of each color of the Orpingtons. Funny thing ... a breeder tried to sell me some Lavender Orpingtons a while back. We met at a parking lot. She got them out of the cage, and some of those Lavender Orpingtons had feathered shanks and toes and pea combs, too!

Funny stuff. (For those reading along who are unfamiliar with Orpingtons: They aren't supposed to have feathers on their shanks and toes and they're supposed to have a single comb.)

 

[nikkers390]

My order consists of assorted Orps, assorted Wyandottes and 3 LF frizzles. I am hoping to get a nice variety. The only thing about buying chicks straight run is the excess males. We don't eat our chickens, so I have to care for them and feed them till the gender is recognizable and then either sell them or give them away.

 

[columbiacritter]

10 blue orps., 1 buff orp, 3 white orps, 2 black orps, 4 speckled sussex, 6 red susses as freebies since they didn't have enough orp, but that's more than fine by me.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sounds like a nice mix of colors, hope the chicks all do well.

 

[clovepink]

Anyone get chicks from Sand Hill this year? Would love to hear.

 

[CRAJ]

Anyone get chicks from Sand Hill this year? Would love to hear.

We ordered ours last October. They indicated the first possible date to arrive is 4-21, so we are crossing our fingers that this stands true!

 

[kathleens1979]

Anyone get chicks from Sand Hill this year? Would love to hear.

Wondering that myself. Also, for breeds that are sold out this season, when can you place your order for 2016? Anyone know how that works?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Have some on order for this year again also (first possible date was 4-7 which was missed), think next written date was 5-4. I've ordered for the next year pretty much anytime (the sooner the better), just used the listed prices, usually in the fall they put up a note (guess when they figure most people will start ordering) where they say you can use this years prices for next years orders until a date late in the year.

 

[Spangled]

silly comment removed

 

[lka88]

A sample size of one, admittedly, but I haven't been terribly impressed with Sand Hill. I placed an order for 25 chicks from them last July and am still waiting for it. I emailed them before I placed the order asking about availability (at that time their last update on the website was from March) and got no response. They didn't end up updating the website until all their hatch dates for the year were passed, by the way -- making it fairly useless. I had a Sep hatch date, which they missed, along with the rest of the fall dates. Moderately annoying, since we butchered our existing layers to make room for the chicks in the coop but they never came. I've called them twice during their narrow "call windows" to attempt to see if we could get an idea of when this year we could expect the birds so we didn't have to be home every other wednesday for the rest of the season, and have yet to have anybody answer. We got some chicks locally early this year, raised those in the brooder, and then sold them off a few weeks ago figuring it was easier than having to scramble to clear them when the new chicks came. I should have learned my lesson, but apparently I didn't, as both March and both April hatch weeks have come and gone now.

I'm sure they've very nice people, and I appreciate their efforts at preservation of rare breeds but they are clearly stretched too thin to competently handle the volume. I certainly have given them a lot more leeway than I would a normal commercial hatchery and I suspect others do too. But I can't be the only one who has these issues. Be wary.