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

[KSH1]

Thanks. I have chicks coming from them too, but I will also not support that shady behavior in the future now that I know.

 

[poultry man]

Our first batch of chicks came on June 1, 2018 from The Poultry Hatchery in NY. They were highly recommended by many experienced friends around the US who have raised chickens. We had a great experience with them and planned to get more this year. They have been reworking their website and were set to launch on March 1st: TODAY!

So we waited patiently until this morning, gathered everyone around the computer, got on the newly refreshed website, and found the breeds we wanted. Everything looked right as the first time, and all of the same breeds were there. After we placed our order, we watched a video on the side bar about a woman who mentioned her chicks came from Michigan. I found it odd that our NY hatchery would promote a video about another hatchery instead of their own. That's when I noticed the address of this new website: Michigan. WHAT!?!? Maybe The Poultry Hatchery moved?

I was duped. This new place is called The Chick Hatchery. The light bulb never went off when I saw the refreshed page with what I thought was a new logo and possible new name. Now after some digging, it seems that while ThePoultryHatchery.com's website was down, The Chick Hatchery must've purchased it and redirected all of their business to TheChickHatchery.com. I initially was given an error message when clicking on the link directly from The Poultry Hatchery's Facebook page. The error message asks you to RELOAD the page, and when you do, it takes you over to The Chick Hatchery's main page. Very shady in the name of competition.

So our order has been placed. I don't know anything about this place, nor do I know if it is similarly recommended as much as the Poultry Hatchery. I liked that the chicks were coming to us in PA from up above in NY. Now they'll be coming from MI. Doubt that matters much as they should be kept heated during transport.

Please fill me in with what you know. I'm very upset that I missed this and made this mistake.

 

[poultry man]

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 May be upset they lost their Domain name but it’s their own fault!

 

[poultry man]

Our first batch of chicks came on June 1, 2018 from The Poultry Hatchery in NY. They were highly recommended by many experienced friends around the US who have raised chickens. We had a great experience with them and planned to get more this year. They have been reworking their website and were set to launch on March 1st: TODAY!

So we waited patiently until this morning, gathered everyone around the computer, got on the newly refreshed website, and found the breeds we wanted. Everything looked right as the first time, and all of the same breeds were there. After we placed our order, we watched a video on the side bar about a woman who mentioned her chicks came from Michigan. I found it odd that our NY hatchery would promote a video about another hatchery instead of their own. That's when I noticed the address of this new website: Michigan. WHAT!?!? Maybe The Poultry Hatchery moved?

I was duped. This new place is called The Chick Hatchery. The light bulb never went off when I saw the refreshed page with what I thought was a new logo and possible new name. Now after some digging, it seems that while ThePoultryHatchery.com's website was down, The Chick Hatchery must've purchased it and redirected all of their business to TheChickHatchery.com. I initially was given an error message when clicking on the link directly from The Poultry Hatchery's Facebook page. The error message asks you to RELOAD the page, and when you do, it takes you over to The Chick Hatchery's main page. Very shady in the name of competition.

So our order has been placed. I don't know anything about this place, nor do I know if it is similarly recommended as much as the Poultry Hatchery. I liked that the chicks were coming to us in PA from up above in NY. Now they'll be coming from MI. Doubt that matters much as they should be kept heated during transport.

Please fill me in with what you know. I'm very upset that I missed this and made this mistake.

Hello,
Let’s clear this up right now! The Chick Hatchery was told that the Poultry Hatchery was going out of business last fall. 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 Chick hatchery decided to purchase the Domain name since it was similar to theirs. The Poultry Hatchery can only be upset with themselves for letting the Domain name lapse and go to Auction.

 

[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.

 

[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]

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!

 

[poultry man]

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.

The Poultry Hatchery uses other

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!

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.

 

[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.

 

[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.