I ordered 10 hens and 1 rooster of Buff Orpingtons. I got my chicks April 1st. At time of ordering I was told they were 98% accurate on the sexing. At time of pick up I was told that my rooster did not get sent so they threw in 2 free chicks, one of which is absolutely not a Buff and I am almost sure it is a roo. Out of the Buffs 5 are roos and am starting to think there might be another. They have all of the signs, darker red and larger comb, getting wattles, noticeably thicker legs, they are definitely different looking form the hens and they fight each other quite often. Should I say something to the feed store? I am a little upset as code only allows me 2 roos which means that I have to pick 4 for freezer camp (no way to get give them away feed stores board is covered with offers of free roosters). I made pets out of these little guys thinking they were hens. I will post picks later under what breed/gender. I keep seeing people say they have to have 10 posts before they can put up pics, but I put up pics the 2nd time I posted. Did I slip through somehow?
Well its all up to you. You can complain but i dont think that will help to much. I would suggest instead of posting them at the feed store put them up here on BYC. People here take amazing care of there chickens, It may take some time but i bet you can give a few away or sell a few for a couple of bucks, I had to sell two of my roos just a few months ago and couldn't get anyone on CL but got someone on here. Also you could always buy some chicks on BYC too if you want, and they have a better selection here than the feed store does and they actually know what they are selling. My feed store told me that my BO's where rhode island reds and my speckled sussexs where light sussex and my EE's where araucana's. Safer to get from someone on here. As for the pic thing i dont know.
When 4 of my 7 pullets turned out to be roos purchased at TSC, I spoke to the manager. She gave me my money back. Not like that covered the feed, etc. that I had spent on them but luckily I was able to give away all 4 to people I knew.
If you were told or you bought them out of the pullet bin or special ordered them from the store, yes I would call them. I work at a feed store and once one of our bins was marked wrong. We can not take the roosters back as we have no where to keep them but we replaced the chicks. You can try craigslist. I have rehomed several rooster that way in the last year. Unless your feed store carries chicks all year round you will probably have to hurry as most are just about ending chicks for the year.
Your order was very specific. By filling your order, the company agreed they could fill it accurately. If they did not fill it accurately, they need to be given the opportunity to remedy the error. If they do not remedy the error to your satisfaction, you should at least file a complaint with the BBB. Of course, you can never be completely satisfied as you now have to accommodate several roosters, but at least give the company a chance to try.
I agree. If you are sure that you got at least five roosters out of 10 "pullets" and you special ordered, meaning you probably paid extra for the pullets, you should speak with the person or company from whom you ordered them. If they are a good dealer, they should work with you because they want to keep your business. 2% error (98% accuracy)is pretty reasonable, but it sounds like you got 50 % accuracy! As far as the substitutions, most or all of the hatcheries I have ever ordered from do substitutions, some ask if you have a preference and others don't, but they should have mentioned that when you ordered. I seriously doubt they would be willing to remedy it at this point, however. One time we ordered from a hatchery (no name as a courtesy) and they not only sent us the wrong breed, they sent us two different color varieties of the wrong breed and represented them as what we ordered. When they were fully feathered, think about 2 months old, I sent them pictures and they identified what we had and also refunded our money. It wasn't too hard to get rid of the chicks, though, just kind of sad because we were really excited about the breed we had ordered (lakenvelders).
Most suppliers of baby chicks will honor their sexing percentages. I would definitely call and speak with a manager. You should at least be offered a store credit for the price of the chicks.
