Tractor Supply Chicks Not Being Taken Care Of

[CreveChris]

Do you ever consider buying from them? I totally would!! I'd make the drive and investment. My chooks are my family.

I think where TSC is coming from is providing a service and bringing in business with chicks. People taking a chance on a cheap chick and hopes it survives to provide an egg. If you are looking for a breeder like @CreveChris you are looking for more and will make the drive and pay the price. Like a fine wine or good meal but much more.

It sounds to me like TSC is trying or at least doing the math.

We have a feed store here... the second closest to me and he has one of those nice brooders that I believe opens from the top. I will never know because he is so filthy and appeals to a "certain crowd" of the IDC, play the odds, give me a chick for eggs crowd or people who just don't know better. Another feed store only brings in red sexlinks maybe 2x per year, also in a bin that opens from the top, on the ground level, tripable and viewable but clean and fun. The other 3 feed stores that I know of do even better, they will take orders and communicate with the hatcheries and customers about shipping etc. Think they are all run by women...?!! lol. The one breeder here that had the knowledge and space to carry a small variety of breeds figured out it was a 0 sum game even after diversifying.

Where am I going with this?? Not sure, but from the little I know, it ain't no easy thing.
@CreveChris I am going to PM you in hopes you share some of your adventure and knowledge with me.

Thanks! We I'll look forward to responding to your generous share when I'm off the road!

 

[John2510]

It stresses the chicks twice (shipping then selling in temporary brooders) for no reason; almost everyone in the continental US can order chicks shipped to them, or better yet, find a local farm or feed store with chicks...

I recently drove two hours to get my chicks from a place with "Farm & Garden" in their name.

When I got there, it seemed too small an operation for all the many chick varieties they advertised on the web.

I noticed, stacked up behind the bins, boxes from the hatchery from which the chicks had been shipped to them.

It may have been no better than TSC in that regard, but I got a better selection of varieties, and no minimum purchase. Also, unlike ordering direct, I could see the chicks were reasonably healthy.

I'm not sure whether the ability to walk into a place and get the chicks you want, in the quantity you want, is the exception or the rule, but it certainly isn't universal.

 

[arkansas_ash]

Update! Yay! The Buckeye, AZ Tractor Supply is now back to the tubs and are no longer using the stack brooder. All chicks in the tub today looked healthy with no pasty butt. The chicks were running around on nice clean shavings!! Thanks Tractor Supply! I am now a happy customer who will continue doing business there!

Hurray here, too! I've been in Tractor Supply twice since posting here and my last shopping visit there was a lady that wanted some ducklings. They were on the bottom tower tier and the store clerk was on his knees trying to reach them as they all went to the other side, his arms not long enough to grab them. One of the ducklings escaped and went hiding under the tower. I guess he needed a fish net.
Yesterday we went there and they had no more tower, but a huge metal water trough, two heat lamps on either end and about 35 chicks inside, all content, some laying on their side in that sunning position, some eating food, some sleeping, none directly under the lamps, and the best of all, they were quiet. What a difference from when I was in there a couple of weeks ago most all of the chicks in the tiers were chirping in distress. I asked the clerk when they got this recent batch in and she said the day before. So either shipping has changed to a faster service like they had before the pandemic, or it was the poorly designed heat pads in the tower brooders. I suspect the latter. I say poorly designed, as my husband has a lot of experience with product design as he's an engineer and can give you all sorts of nightmare stories about products coming from overseas - as in poor quality control. Hopefully Producer's Pride will find a better manufacurer for their brooder heat pads and test them thoroughly.

 

[CreveChris]

Hurray here, too! I've been in Tractor Supply twice since posting here and my last shopping visit there was a lady that wanted some ducklings. They were on the bottom tower tier and the store clerk was on his knees trying to reach them as they all went to the other side, his arms not long enough to grab them. One of the ducklings escaped and went hiding under the tower. I guess he needed a fish net.
Yesterday we went there and they had no more tower, but a huge metal water trough, two heat lamps on either end and about 35 chicks inside, all content, some laying on their side in that sunning position, some eating food, some sleeping, none directly under the lamps, and the best of all, they were quiet. What a difference from when I was in there a couple of weeks ago most all of the chicks in the tiers were chirping in distress. I asked the clerk when they got this recent batch in and she said the day before. So either shipping has changed to a faster service like they had before the pandemic, or it was the poorly designed heat pads in the tower brooders. I suspect the latter. I say poorly designed, as my husband has a lot of experience with product design as he's an engineer and can give you all sorts of nightmare stories about products coming from overseas - as in poor quality control. Hopefully Producer's Pride will find a better manufacurer for their brooder heat pads and test them thoroughly.

Having an engineer around must be great. And yes, quality control is a huge problem with a lot of things anymore.

Update here: back to tubs and lamps! The manager said they're so much easier to clean. Usability experts are important and an underutilized resource.