Warning for Poultry Hollow Hatchery Buyers

[Gertie Girl Mama]

No worries. To each his own. I wish u nothing but the best experience, wherever you go!

 

[tonya4001]

I have beautiful, healthy chickens and guineas and I want to keep it that way!!! well I think this person must be related to the family that owns the hatchery or is being paid by them I went on the site and the site does suck, and I don't think these however many people that complained are lying on them so thanks to them I will not be buying anything from that farm!!!!!!

 

[debid]

My mom's first flock came from Poultry Hollow. Granted, she bought these five years ago but they were not sickly chicks at all. The only issues were poor breeding (one has severe wry tail that can only come from wry tailed parents) and they were sold an obvious mixed breed cockerel chick as a light Brahma pullet. I took one look at it and told them it wasn't correct. They contacted PH and experienced some of that horrid service others have complained about. Not a chance they'd go there again.

 

[lookoutmtchix]

I had bought 12 pullets from Poultry Hollow Hatchery in June of 2013 and they started dying in the fall of 2013, finally after the 5th one died I sent one of them to a certified lab that is funded by the state of Georgia and the results came back with a diagnosis of Mareks disease. I lost 7 of the hens and one more is sickly, the new coop was built where no other chickens had been so the only place the pullets could have gotten mareks disease was from the hatchery according to the vet from the lab. I will not buy from them again.

 

[debid]

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/poultry/participants.shtml

NPIP certified folks are listed. If Poultry Hollow were among them, you should find them there. I don't see them. Not by the owner's name nor their location. OTOH, the local hatchery where I bought my chicks IS listed.

 

[GratefulDayFarm]

Hello,

I am new to your site but I use it all the time for info. I was looking up the breeds of ducks we bought from Poultry Hollow and I came across this thread and I feel I need to speak up. We bought 4 ducks and 50 chickens. We got a large mix of all the breeds they had, 4 or 5 of each. Our experience is as follows:
We drove up from Gallatin TN. It was a long drive but a very nice drive. Yes it gets a bit far out and the roads are not perfect towards the end (maybe the last 2 or 3 miles) but its not like your risking your life. Our GPS found the place fine for us. As far as the mobile homes along the way, who complains about something like that? People live in different kinds of homes and for some, a mobile home is the only way they can have land. Maybe they plan to build a beautiful house on the land one day and then burn the mobile home down. Who am I or you to judge that?
Anyway, we arrive and the place is a farm. The farm consists of their nice home, barns and cages with animals mainly birds. Wow that's a big surprise. No animals were being mistreated or abused in any way whatsoever. Okay the place does smell bad but most farms with lots of animals do smell. The longer you are there the more noticeable it is and you probably will be there for a while because this is not Tractor Supply its a family farm. So don't expect to rush in and out. You deal directly with the owners and they are busy. They are a bit disorganized as well. This I think is the biggest issue we had there. The overall system to purchase and select chicks is not so great. They could use some help in that respect. I own a farm and a business and it is always a work in progress. So I tend to empathize with them instead of blast them for the little imperfections. It is an issue though so I do need to point that out. While looking in the brooders we saw one or two dead chicks. I think this is hard for buyers to see. Dead chicks need to be removed fast. I believe that they are so busy it just takes a bit longer for them to keep up with this chore perfectly. On the other side, we got a VIP tour by Judy for no reason. She didn't know us but was glad to answer our questions and she was very friendly. She also hand picked each of our chicks right in front of us. Yes it took longer but it was great service.
We got our chickens home and within 24 hours one of the chicks did not make it. It was a very little bird and was on its way out from the second it hatched. I don't think it was sick or diseased, it was just one of those that didn't make it. This was the only problem we had with our chickens. Today, over 4 months later they are all very strong and very beautiful birds. Each chicken (and our ducks) is great with their own personality. They have thrived with our original flock of 20 and are a great addition to our farm. I would recommend PH to anyone who wants to make a day of buying chicks and who isn't judging everyone they pass because of the home they live in or the way their farm smells.

 

[lookoutmtchix]

I bought 12 pullets from Poultry Hollow Hatchery 1 year ago, as of today I lost 7 to Marek's disease and this disease was diagnosed through a lab in Georgia that all the big farms use. I have talked to others that have gotten sick birds from them and just last week a friend told me he got pullets from Poultry Hollow and 1 started limping and became paralyzed, I expect more will get sick and will post the count of sick birds that do not recover from this disease. I do not know why some people have problems while others do not but I do know mine died and other people have had problems too.

 

[CoopDeVolk]

We bought 5 pullets from Poultry Hollow 2 days ago. Let me just say that the prices were far above the going rate, at least what is the norm locally. Also, she either lied about the ages of them or they are very undernourished because the ones we got were supposedly anywhere between 8-12 weeks and all of them are far smaller than the 6 week old RIR we got from our local farm store. The conditions on the farm were sad. Overcrowding so that most of the birds couldn't even fully spread their wings. They were all covered in feces and dirt. All ages, sexes, and breeds were intermingled. Of the 5 we got, 3 are very ill. One has a broken foot and a 50-cent-piece sized gash under her wing. We are working with a vet to hopefully save them all. Only one seems to be healthy so far. Our first instinct when we arrived there was not to give these people a cent of our money, but seeing that they were all so in need of a good home, we actually left with 2 more than we intended to. We are maybe not your average backyard chicken owners, as we treat our girls much more like pets/family members than just a means to get food. We understand commercial breeders cannot do this, but we expect that they treat them MUCH more humanely than the chicks there are treated. Throwing them around, using nets to VERY ROUGHLY catch them, keeping them all in such closed areas is just evil. I grew up on a farm with many different animals. Just 3 people cared for hundreds of animals on our farm and never did we get so busy that we neglected or mistreated any of them. I am glad we saved these 5 girls, but I wish we'd have heeded the warnings and never set foot there. I just hope we are able to keep them all alive.

 

[Nashville Hens]

I am discouraged at some of the comments and judgement placed here by fellow chicken owners. My wife and I started our first flock in Nashville on Nov. 2013 with 8 (two each of four different breeds) pullets from Poultry Hollow ranging from 12-18 weeks. I lost one to a hawk and two to illness. The first sick bird, was a speckled sussex that Judy warned were not the hardiest breed and did not do well in mixed flocks because of there passive nature. As warned, she was constantly bullied by the other pullets and 4 months later she showed visible signs of illness, slowing down, not feeding, etc. and passed away. The second, a barred rock, showed lethargy shortly after completing her molt in January 2015. We moved her inside and she simply refused to eat or drink anything we offered and passed after a few days. Our birds are from the same time period as some of the others stated in this thread and none suffered from Marek's. My losses were over a year apart and both birds were healthy layers up to that point.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our hens and they have been egg laying machines!

Judy operates her hatchery almost completely on her own, with her son helping with the deliveries and supplies. I thoroughly enjoy my visits to Poultry Hollow and find it quite charming. This is a REAL, operating farm with a real person whom I can meet, ask questions and hand select my birds with. I had many choices when looking for backyard chickens, and it is too easy for anyone to put up a website with stock images and claim their birds are free range, with natural feed, foraging on bugs and grass. One of these prominent online hatcheries is in state that has snow on the ground 4 months a year, so the foraging claim is a little rose tinted at best. Now, I am sure all of these hatcheries do their best, and have to in order to stay in business, but my point is simply this: I want locally raised livestock where I can visit the farm and meet the producer. I respect the amount of work Judy does managing raising hundreds of fowl, managing her business and, most importantly, spending time with her customers. She went out of her way, spending 30min to help me select the right birds, catching them respectfully and efficiently, giving helpful advice and making sure I had the right equipment for a successful flock.

I hope others are not so quick to criticize an independent farmer, providing a service and products that are needed. I plan on having chickens for a long time, teaching my children what I learned growing up with animals... joy, hard work, miracles and mortality. A relationship with a farmer like Judy, is much more valuable than a nice website and ordering chickens through the mail!

 

[TN_BIRD]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm having a hard time getting prices from Poultry Hollow (phone, text, email, website, etc.) Can any of you share with me approximately what they charge for 5 week old chicks and 6 month old pullets?
Thanks.