Tractor Supply chicks: Breeds?

[ashleyw704]

I bought what was supposed to be Isa Browns about a week ago from TSC. They just don't look dark enough to me. One is dark, but the rest are the light yellow color. This is my first go around as an adult raising chicks.

 

[TAWAKONI]

Tractor supple DOES sell Rhode Island Reds, at least the stores in the DFW area do. The chicks come from Privett hatchery in New Mexico and you can see it on their website. You can also special order these chicks through tractor supply. Keep in mind, different TCS's in different regions get their chicks from different hatcheries.

 

[dekel18042]

I bought what was supposed to be Isa Browns about a week ago from TSC. They just don't look dark enough to me. One is dark, but the rest are the light yellow color. Our TSC had their bins labeled: Isa Browns, Red Sex links, Rhode Island Reds, Cornish X's, .Assorted Pullets, and Assorted Bantams. Other than the assorted pullets, everything was straight run. I've seen Hatchery Isa browns and hens, but the ones I had seen were all purchased as pullets. Could you have gotten straight run and what you're seeing is the difference between the sexes?

 

[ashleyw704]

They are straight run. I can now tell that they are different ages because of the difference in the developement. I belei e that a few are about a week behind. Thwy were probably the new shipment and the othera were from the previous the week before. The younger ones are starting to darken now. I wish I knew which were hens...lol

 

[WindyHillFarm]

Not to derail this thread any further but my Friday shipment of 100 chicks, 50 pullets and 50 straight ended up being mislabeled from the hatchery. On one side of the box were black and red pullets and on the other side were....you guessed it, black and red straight runs. Apparently when the employee went to label each quadrant he/she forgot which side were the pullets and which were the straight. Luckily one of our 3 chicken farmers at our store wanted to check out the Asian Blue pullets up close and happened to notice none had secondaries.

@CliffB , I got some Asian blue chicks from the local TSC. I'm pretty sure they were in the right bin, our store is really, really good with employees that have been there a long time. Did you guys happen to discuss the Asian blues at all? I'm not finding a lot of info out there. We picked them up on a whim as we were ready for new chicks and they were cutest.

 

[CliffB]

@CliffB , I got some Asian blue chicks from the local TSC. I'm pretty sure they were in the right bin, our store is really, really good with employees that have been there a long time. Did you guys happen to discuss the Asian blues at all? I'm not finding a lot of info out there. We picked them up on a whim as we were ready for new chicks and they were cutest.

Relatively new breed. Hasn't been around long. The birds carry a red gene so you could potentially come out with some Asian Purples? I kid, i kid. There were lots of them coming through with red heads, red faces and some that were even 40-50% all red birds with blue/black mixed in. Supposed to be a fairly good layer layer of medium large brown eggs.

 

[WindyHillFarm]

Relatively new breed. Hasn't been around long. The birds carry a red gene so you could potentially come out with some Asian Purples? I kid, i kid. There were lots of them coming through with red heads, red faces and some that were even 40-50% all red birds with blue/black mixed in. Supposed to be a fairly good layer layer of medium large brown eggs.

Purple would be COOL! There were red / yellow chicks and grey/black chicks in the tub. I had the guy pull out all black ones. One failed to thrive and died, no obvious cause, the rest are growing really fast and have black / red feathers coming in so it looks like they will be good looking chickens. Thanks a million for the info...appreciate it!

 

[thetmoo]

I was checking out at my local TSC yesterday (KY/OH border) and heard a massive amount of cheeping. One of the employees was walking in carrying a large box of chicks he had just picked up from the post office (he was complaining about the postal service). The box was from Townline. He said it was full of Rhode Island Reds. The store already had a big stock of Rhode Island Reds and he said they would be putting them on sale to move them. He said he was unable to get Rhode Island Reds all spring and now he was suddenly stuffed with them.

I bought what I thought were probably Golden Comet pullets from TSC a couple of weeks ago, but knowing this one orders from Townline and looking at Townline's website, my chicks are a dead ringer for their 'ISA Browns' not that it really makes a difference since they are both about the same thing. My chicks are healthy and growing fast but 2 of them have lighter colored heads than the rest and are somewhat bigger and dominate. Time will tell.

They had a tank of straight run Rhode Island Reds and a tank of mixed Buff Orpington and Rhode Island Red pullets. There were a couple of Buff Orpingtons in the straight run Rhode Island Red tank. I think customers handle the chicks and then just chuck them back in any tank which causes some of the issues.

 

[byclover2]

CliffB, that is not correct. Each store uses 1 hatchery -- rarely, 2. The largest number of birds arriving weekly will be 200.

 

[byclover2]

They do get RIR -- every store receives different breeds based on what hatches at the hatchery that store uses.