Tractor Supply Co Sexing - Accurate?

[DesertBird]

Hello! Yet another question from me.
I'm going to be picking up some chicks from TSC tomorrow morning, and was just wondering how your experiences were with their chicks. I bought 8 RIR's a while back, told they were all pullets, and ended up with 3 cockerel's (hence the reason for trying to get some more pullets).
Is this a regular occurrence, or have you all had better luck? Would love to hear some other people's experiences!

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum section - was not 100% sure where was best to ask this!)

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Tractor supply purchases their chicks from a hstchrty, the hatchery outs who sexed them. Non autosexing or sexliinked chicks are vent sexed and most sexers have 85-90% accuracy

 

[chicks are life]

Most stores like tractor order straight run but the occasional "all pullets bin"

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Most stores like tractor order straight run but the occasional "all pullets bin"

Not entirely accurate... in fact, most retailers sell more sexed than straight run birds.... but out *is*important to p check the labeling carefully

 

[chicks are life]

Ours mostly sells straightrun only sexlinked breeds as normally all female and the couple other breed i have seen leghorns and one more I don't remember

 

[chicks are life]

Definantly the labeling

 

[treslilbirds]

My first 6 that I got from TSC this past spring were all correctly labeled as pullets. I got two RIRs, 2 Leghorns, and 2 gold sex links. All 6 are currently laying eggs.

 

[MommaHen2Many]

AND you have to trust that the "shoppers" who are handling chicks are putting them back in the right bins. Our North 40 store must have had 15 different chick/turkey/duck bins...I dont know how they keep them straight. Some are obvious, some are not! There were Straight Run bins right next to the Pullet bin...easy for an oops to happen.

 

[DesertBird]

Tractor supply purchases their chicks from a hstchrty, the hatchery outs who sexed them. Non autosexing or sexliinked chicks are vent sexed and most sexers have 85-90% accuracy

Alright, thanks. Hoping for better luck with these chicks! lol

Most stores like tractor order straight run but the occasional "all pullets bin"

My TSC seemed to have about the same number of pullet-only bins as straight runs bins, but that was back in spring when they did their huge chick order.

Not entirely accurate... in fact, most retailers sell more sexed than straight run birds.... but out *is*important to p check the labeling carefully

The employee's at mine usually just ask if you want straight run of all pullets, and grab the chicks from the correct bin. Not sure if they have labels for the currents bins - I didn't see any when I checked earlier today.

My first 6 that I got from TSC this past spring were all correctly labeled as pullets. I got two RIRs, 2 Leghorns, and 2 gold sex links. All 6 are currently laying eggs.

Awe, congrats!! My 6 BR's I got from there (or maybe it was Shoppers ) are almost all laying. The majority are, anyways.

 

[DesertBird]

AND you have to trust that the "shoppers" who are handling chicks are putting them back in the right bins. Our North 40 store must have had 15 different chick/turkey/duck bins...I dont know how they keep them straight. Some are obvious, some are not! There were Straight Run bins right next to the Pullet bin...easy for an oops to happen.

Oh gosh, I hope that's not an issue for mine. They came in at about 2 PM Aug 3rd/today, and I'm going to go get the chicks as soon as they open at 8 AM Aug 4th/tomorrow. Hoping they didn't mix them up by then! There were only 3 or 4 bins, so I hope they don't mix them up as easily. As awful as it is to say, if only there was a return policy in case I get another cockerel or two.

Oops, just reread it - the TSC near my house has a gate all around the chicks so people can't reach in to grab the chicks, touch them, etc. but the employee's I saw moving them into the bins didn't seem to care much. I almost saw a mix-up by the 2 people doing it. They were doing it super quickly, too, and just piling the poor chicks on top of each other in the bins. Didn't prepare food and water in there first, heat lamps were off, bedding didn't have time to heat up, etc. Maybe it's just me, but even I was cold inside that store, so hopefully the chicks weren't too cold before their lamps heated up.

Also, last time I went to get chicks there (back in spring) on of the bins had 3 dead chicks in it, and 2 that looked like they were barely holding on! Pretty sure it was the EE bin, or another small breed like that; the chicks looked a little smaller than the ones in the other bins. I hope other TSC's treat their chicks better. Normally I'd ship from a breeder so I know my money wouldn't be seen by the "corporate big wigs" as "Hey, let's order more chicks and send 'em out!", but I'm so worried they'd die in the heat - it's over 100 constantly with humidity where I am currently.