Tractor Supply Chicks Not Being Taken Care Of

[JacinLarkwell]

i appreciate your reply! i was expecting to get attacked for my opinion, the poultry community can be ruthless lol

my tsc employees decided to keep the chicks in tubs in the backroom for the first few days for the chicks to recover from shipping before going out on the floor, which should be adopted nationally.

Mine are the same way. Maybe that's why people thought the brooders were awful, if not every tsc waits a day to show the chicks

 

[arkansas_ash]

Thanks for the input, crazy4chickensnducks as you have one of these brooders. I wouldn't agree with you though that it is only inexperienced people that are noticing something is wrong, but at least you've added a clue to what's going on. I didn't know about T.S. switch to FedEx and the added live animal shipping delays due to covid restrictions.
I'd still like to know what the user's guide for these units suggests. Are they supposed to be used in unheated spaces or indoor room temperature areas, which the latter would be T.S. stores? I would assume the heat pads are controlled by a thermostat.

 

[arkansas_ash]

I assume no one here has a manual for one of these. I found the answer to my question by going to Tractor Supply website and checking their Producer's Pride brooders that use the same heat pad as the tower one. They have a switchable thermostat set to Heater or Brooder according to the questions and answers section for each product. Interesting reading the reviews as they are very mixed. There's no reviews for the tower unit.

Producers Pride single unit brooder w/heater
Producers Pride brooder and coop heater

 

[Joshmorrow9234]

Not good. I was the Tractor Supply on Buckeye, AZ today. I was there to buy Equine Senior and on my way to the register I stopped to look at the chicks. It’s horrible, every chick in the stacked brooder had pasty butt really extremely bad! There was an store worker cleaning the plastic on the brooder. I advised her about the chicks condition also of the one dead that was being trampled on, flat! I asked to speak to the store manager. I informed the store manager, Mark, that the chicks were not being taking care of because every single chick had extreme pasty butt.something wrong with
these brooder because I have never seen TSC chicks look this way. The store manager said he will get someone to take care of them. I can’t believe no one working there knew this already!!! I purchased 6 just to try to save their lives. I took them home and cleaned them up and they are now under a heat lamp sleeping. If anyone is in the Buckeye area please go by and take a look. Please let them know this isn’t right.

I've been to quite a few TSC locations like this. Luckily the one I bought my birds from were in normal tub brooders and looked pretty well taken care of.

 

[LavenderMotherHen]

Our Tractor Supply has gotten rid of the new brooder in the past couple days. They’ve got the usual heat lamp setup now

 

[DA in AZ]

Not good. I was the Tractor Supply on Buckeye, AZ today. I was there to buy Equine Senior and on my way to the register I stopped to look at the chicks. It’s horrible, every chick in the stacked brooder had pasty butt really extremely bad! There was an store worker cleaning the plastic on the brooder. I advised her about the chicks condition also of the one dead that was being trampled on, flat! I asked to speak to the store manager. I informed the store manager, Mark, that the chicks were not being taking care of because every single chick had extreme pasty butt.something wrong with
these brooder because I have never seen TSC chicks look this way. The store manager said he will get someone to take care of them. I can’t believe no one working there knew this already!!! I purchased 6 just to try to save their lives. I took them home and cleaned them up and they are now under a heat lamp sleeping. If anyone is in the Buckeye area please go by and take a look. Please let them know this isn’t right.

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!

 

[Lemon-Drop]

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!

That’s great!

 

[CreveChris]

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!

One of the Youtube farms I follow really took this on and engaged TSC management. Our local store had the towers and I don't get how this incubator system works, since my Brinsea is adjustable and has to be raised every couple of days so it touches the chicks while they sleep.

The chicks at the store were cold and unhappy. Not acting like mine do in the home brooder at all. I've never bought TSC chicks and never will, but it is jarring to witness. Not only is there zero biosecurity, but now the chicks are stressed by being fully exposed on all sides with nowhere to hide and get warm.

 

[DA in AZ]

Hi DA in AZ,
I'm scratching my head, thinking, hm, as I was in T. S. last Saturday and they had two tower brooders with not all sections filled with chicks One tower had ducklings and the other chickens. I heard that familiar pasty butt chirp from a chick, "cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep" the sound they make during a painful defecation, and noticed the one chick looking miserable and all of the other chicks were huddled under the black rubber heated pad. This is the first year our T.S. has had the towers. They appear clean. When I bought my six Americanaus from them last February and got them home in their heated brooder, within two days I was using tepid water and a cotton ball to remove the stuck on poop masses as four of the six got pasty butt. They were fine the next day. They are obviously getting stressed, but to point to what, who knows. The chicks all appeared to be a couple days old at the store. Oh, and I found out our local T.S. gets them from Hoover's Hatchery. Just seeing how most of the levels of chicks were huddled, I would think that the brooder heating device is junky overseas made stuff. At least a heat lamp is pretty dependable in how much heat it puts out. I'll be sure to sign the petition. Thanks for the heads up.

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!

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Personally, my TSC hasn’t switched over. Last time I was there, there was 1 dead chick that they didn’t take care of, even after I told them!

They also did not offer access to food or water. There were 50 chicks in one tray, and 2 in another. The two were very cold (huddled together in the center) while the 50 were smashed against the window, trying to escape the heat. 50% also looked lethargic. Some trays were completely empty. It was heartbreaking to me. So aggravating as well.

Also, on a side note, they keep saying they have oyster shell (on the website) when they don’t have any.

And when I asked about it, they said they were getting some in the next few days. I kept checking, no luck. Oh well.



But, I usually buy chicks from a local feed store. They take care of them very well, let you pick your own chicks, make sure they’re healthy, offer food and water, don’t overcrowd, are super friendly, and can usually tell breeds/colors apart. Yesterday I actually bought 3 silkies from them, all super healthy. I love the local store much more than the chain TSC.