to you who ordered from MPC

[AnnainMD]

I'm also getting Speckled Sussex in my order. Two of the Speckled Sussex, 2 Easter Eggers, 2 Salmon Faverolles, 2 Partridge Rock!!! Can't wait. My other "babies" actually look like mini-chickens now, not fluffy butts.

 

[Cara]

Quote:
That is the spin they put on it. Their 'hatchery' is the space set aside for their orders at Meyer. MPC does not own a single hatchery or breeding farm. Most actual hatcheries don't own breeding farms either, they buy the eggs in. The primary reason for that isn't biosecurity, a farm that can produce enough hatching eggs for every breed that a hatchery requires would be enormous. Commercial farms raise certain breeds to provide hatching eggs for hatcheries.

Check the address label on your next order. It will have been drop-shipped.

Edited for briefness, from a response from MPC: "We're not a drop ship service, exactly. We do work with a hatchery, but use our own incubator space, employ our own chick sexers (for instance, My Pet Chicken is the only place in the country that sexes bantams), have our own breeds and so on. Our hatchery owns a number of breeding farms, and eggs are shipped to the centralized incubators from these disparate farms. These farms are located at a distance from the hatchery for biosecurity--if the worst should happen and a flock gets ill, it won't then affect ALL the breeding flocks. But they are a part of the network of our hatchery--they are not from a number of hatcheries.

But spreading out the laying farms--some, at least--is a common sense precaution in this business, and I would suspect all hatcheries do the same thing. Speaking commercially, you don't want the adult birds too close to the chicks, because a lot of the appeal of buying from a hatchery--any hatchery--is not only that you have so many choices, but also that the chicks are clean and healthy. Illnesses can be passed from hen to chick, but only with exposure. Our biosecurity measures are there to make sure that doesn't happen, so you can feel confident that your chicks will arrive without these diseases, but also without mites, lice, worms and so on."

When they say 'our hatchery owns a number of breeding farms' they are referring to Meyer. Their own incubator space is located at Meyer. Their chick sexors work at Meyer, they just sex the MPC orders instead of the Meyer ones. Their hatching eggs for sale come from Gabbard Farms. The MPC corporation does not own a single chicken.

 

[Adorkable]

I ordered 17 day old chicks from MPC. I lost a White Silkie and a Speckled Sussex within 24 hours which was fine cause I didn't expect them all to survive.

I'm pleased with the 4 White Silkies, the 5 red sex links, the 1 Partridge Plymouth Rock. They all seem happy and healthy now at a little over 2 months old, however I am extremely disappointed with most of the remaining Speckled Sussex. One of the Speckled Sussex pullets has a curly toe (it looks like a U) as well as some crooked toes. Another one of them has several crooked toes. The third one has an abnormal comb. It looks fine until the comb reaches the back instead of ending in 1 point like most normal single combs it seems to have 2 points on each side of the last point which looks really bizarre. I've never seen anything like this before in any of the chicks I've raised. This leaves me with 1 Speckled Sussex cockerel and 1 'normal' pullet. I'm kind of scared to breed them because I'm not sure if any of these things are genetic. I can try and take pictures of them all if anyone would like to see.

I will probably not be doing business with MPC again.

 

[mithious]

I ordered from a few hatcheries... MPC is the only one I have ordered from more than once. (or twice, or three times, or.....) Matter of fact, I have two orders in right now!

Their birds are very healthy and they are the friendliest people you will ever deal with. Some of their stock are up to par with private breeders' stock... in certain breeds. If you want to know what breeds are their best SQ - just ask them. They will tell you what are pet quality and which ones of theirs are better.

I'm a huge MPC fan. Maybe the biggest.

Hatcheries do NOT breed show chickens. They breed for production not to the SOP! Hatchery chickens will always be hatchery chickens and in no way will they be able to compete against chickens bred by private breeders to the SOP. Sorry to burst your bubble...hatcheries have a mix match of other breeds mixed into the supposed "breeds" so NONE are true breeds. It takes years of breeding a show bird to get the right genetics to meet the SOP. Sorry!!!! I'm sure they will make great pets and lay eggs great for a few years, but to show? Nope! If you have ever watched a video of what these hatchery, "production" places are like, you would be horrified!!! These are mass produced birds, bred with all kinds of different breeds, to make good layers and "pets". Hatchery chickens are not raised in conditions like you and I raise them, but very similar to the mass egg production birds and is horrific!!! Hatcheries can not afford to raise them any other way and expect to make a profit...don't get taken in with the sales pitch

If you're interested, there are lots of other threads on BYC, that will tell you about what the breeders are doing and how they do it. If you are interested, you might want to check out the breed, show thread on here. It's really quite interesting to see the difference in hatchery chickens vs SOP bred chickens. Meat is so much better too on the breeders chickens, if that is what you are looking for. There are some great breeders on this forum from all over the US and many other countries too. If nothing else, it's just very interesting to learn about, especially if you are raising chickens because you are concerned about what is in your food from the store! I think you'd be quite surprised at what you learn!