We just accidentally ordered from The Chick Hatchery. Anyone have experience with them?

[KSH1]

Hello,
Let’s nip this in the butt right now! The Poultry Hatchery had a Domain name that they did not renew. The Domain name went to auction on Godaddy.com and The Chick Hatchery won the auction to own the Domain Name called thePoultryHatchery.com. Nothing Shady at all. The Poultry Hatchery can only be upset with themselves

This is a good point, and I admit I didn't think deeply about this earlier. I do, however, have to wonder about the motivation behind buying another hatchery's domain name and redirecting it to your own. I can't imagine they were disappointed to get accidental customers like the OP. Then again, since it was kind of sneaky, albeit perfectly legal, they will not get repeat business from at least this OP. TPH should have been on the ball to keep their domain name, but I am quite curious what proportion of the accidentally-switched customers will stick with TCH versus returning to TPH. Of course, I have no idea how often most people buy chicks or how loyal most buyers are to any particular hatchery. I don't love the sneaky methodology but I probably won't buy every year, and I did like the wide variety of breeds available through The Chick Hatchery.

 

[KSH1]

Oh no! Thanks for the update @counterWULF
Mine are supposed to hatch today and now I'm worried but at least I can try to be prepared and proactive. I definitely still agree with you. Just because something is legal doesn't make it right. I have learned a lot since I ordered, and I didn't catch at that time that "The Chick Hatchery" is not actually a hatchery but a drop shipper. Thank goodness for BYC!

 

[KSH1]

I think I missed a post earlier. If The Chick Hatchery did believe that The Poultry Hatchery went out of business permanently, that also changes my opinion on the purchase of the domain name. Although I think it would be kind, smart, and good PR to let The Poultry Hatchery buy it back at no markup.

 

[counterWULF]

The Poultry Hatchery uses other

The a Poultry Hatchery is a Dropbox Shipper. Check the USPS Tracking origination state that their orders ship from. You will learn a lot more.

I'll have to ask him. I talk to him regularly. From what I remember, the chicks came from NY and he is in NY. I've talked to him on the phone. Sure he could be lying to me. But he told me personally that he started his farm and went into all the details about selling goods and chicks himself. Maybe he doesn't have all the breeds advertised at his farm and gets some of them from other places. If he wasn't lying to me, then he has chicks of his own on his farm. But I'll send him a message now and see what he says. Thanks for the tip.

 

[counterWULF]

The Chick Hatchery has a 4.7 star rating on Google for 20 reviews. Not bad. Not a lot of reviews but I didn't bother to look to see how long they've been in business. I guess it is up to you if you want to take the chance and allow them to process the order. If you do, let us know how it all works out.

Their site said 2012. It also mentions they have a corporate headquarters in one location but the chickens are hatched at multiple farms and then shipped. Not sure if that is a red flag or not. I also saw those 20 mostly positive reviews on google, which could be a good sign. The farm in NY is one location, and only 3-4 hours from where we live. We didn't want chicks to be in the mail for too long. It was 1-2 days from NY, and 1-3 days from Michigan. They make it clear that it rarely takes 3 days though, so maybe we are OK. MI is not that far from PA.

 

[cmfarm]

Maybe the first place sold their business to the other place?

 

[KSH1]

Thanks for the update! Did the Poultry Hatchery say whether they're going to get back into shipping chicks and get a new website?

 

[counterWULF]

I agree it was legal. I also think it was shady business. But I guess that's how some people get ahead in their world. I wouldn't have done it intentionally, but I am me and not this guy. TPH indeed should have renewed his site before it went up for grabs. That's on him.

I will say so far with this new batch of chicks from TCH: 1 has died very young (2 weeks old), one was near death at week 2 and I think we've been able to bring her back to health through forced daily Corrid treatment although she still shows signs of having issues, and a third chick has severe cross beak that will probably kill her any day now as she cannot eat or drink. I actually returned to this site today to figure out how to hand feed her for the remainder of her life to try and save her, which is going to be a difficult and timely process. We are grateful 2 extra chicks were included in our order, though we think 1 is a rooster, and we are not happy with the overall quality of these chicks compared to TPH's order from last year. We'll be returning to them for all future chicks. I understand "everyone loses some chicks" with each batch (we lost 1 in 2018), but even the healthy chicks didn't seem as healthy overall as last year's batch. I hope we don't lose any more from this years new batch. 3 out of 17 will be difficult enough on our kids.

 

[KSH1]

The Poultry Hatchery uses other

The a Poultry Hatchery is a Dropbox Shipper. Check the USPS Tracking origination state that their orders ship from. You will learn a lot more.

I have no knowledge of The Poultry Hatchery beyond what has been said on this thread. I also do not know enough about the process to have any real opinion on drop shipping chicks; I was just surprised that that's a way it's done. As long as the company stands behind what they sell, I don't have any problem with it. My limited experience so far with The Chick Hatchery has been good and when I did reach out with questions I got prompt and helpful responses. I am anxiously awaiting my birds now and really really hoping they all arrive healthy and happy. I ordered from TCH in part because of the variety, the free shipping at 15 birds, and also the Google reviews, specifically the ones praising the customer service. And I hope to be posting pictures of beautiful healthy birds soon. I also hope that @counterWULF is able to save the scissors beak chick and that they don't suffer any more heartbreak.

I'm just here trying to learn. And I didn't realize what happened with expired domain names until I let one go and someone loaded it up with malware which I still get emails about, so yeah, sometimes we learn things the hard way.

 

[counterWULF]

I think I missed a post earlier. If The Chick Hatchery did believe that The Poultry Hatchery went out of business permanently, that also changes my opinion on the purchase of the domain name. Although I think it would be kind, smart, and good PR to let The Poultry Hatchery buy it back at no markup.

He absolutely DID NOT go out of business. Usually if someone's website is down or gone, the next best place to check is FB. FB is basically an alternate website nowadays. Many people use FB in place of an actual .com site. Granted, in the business world to be taken seriously, you need to have both. But I went to his FB page and he had explained that he was working on all sorts of updates and everything would be back online March 1, 2019. So it was clear he was not out of business. He just should never have let his domain expire. That's 100% his fault.