Well my chicks arrived today some dead...

[PaulaJoAnne]

MM is on my black list. A friend ordered 100 meat chicks last year, very few of them survived the first 2-3 days.

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

Quote:
if you don't mind me asking, where about in Maine are you? if you are close to the South Western coastal area the Blue Seal in our area is planning on getting heritage breed pullets this year, i am not sure if any others are doing this too. they already have their order lists at ours. plus there are chicken swaps and shows all the time in NH and sometimes in ME, and with a new Tractor Supply going in this March in my city you will be able to get some chicks there too.

depending on how my hatch goes i will have some bantam heritage breeds (salmon faverolles and colored orpingtons) if you are interested in a few and i have enough that are pullets i would be willing to sell or trade a few for larger birds. the favs i should be able to tell about 2-3 weeks old between the male and female.

 

[ejcimd]

I live outside of Augusta in Central Maine. We have a Tractor Supply up here and I know they will be having their chick days coming up. I'll have to see what they will be carrying this year that is a great idea ( I should have thought of that sooner.. Eh)...

 

[vkp23]

Quote:
That was more than likely a commercial egg layer hatchery. The commercial meat and egg industry are horrid to the birds they have. The hatcheries are much kinder. Thats what the "packing peanuts" or extra males are for. They avoid having to cull any chicks by adding extras for warmth. Also, if you think about thats a good marketing strategy. If you order 40 chicks and get 50 that will encourage people to order again. I personally don't think shipping chicks is cruel and the hatcheries are much much kinder to the babies than the commercial ones. I think it is a risk on the part of the customer. If you know the region you live in is extremely cold during a certain time of year but you order anyway, you are the one at fault for requesting said chicks during a cold time. The hatchery takes a loss in refunding the money or replacing the chicks. They had to pay for the eggs from the farmers so when they lose chicks in shipping they lose money. If you live up north it doesn't seem logical to me to order chicks to arrive in the coldest months. I live in the south and while it gets a little cold at night, during the day it's nice and mild temps. I would never order chicks to arrive when it's freezing out day and night. I do agree though that the hatcheries should suggest good times to ship for your region because if your new to chickens you may not know. But I don't think it's right to pass 100% of the blame on the hatcheries. The cruel commercial meat and egg industry has unfairly given a bad name to the hatcheries like IDEAL and MM. They care for their product and the companies in a whole stand up for our rights as back yard chicken owners, when it comes to the ridiculous laws and what not that the GOV. tries to force on us. Read about how they refuse to implant ID chips in our birds so the GOV. can monitor our flocks. They have on one loud voice said they will not do that to the American people. Some of the chick death I agree would be negligence on the hatchery's part. (like shipping on sat. Whats up with that? And giving more helpful info on when to ship to the customer.) But if you know what you're doing why would you order chicks when it's so cold? And then blame it on the hatchery? Not condemning anyone, just saying.

 

[TinyBirds]

Whenever ordering from hatcheries, please consider ordering straight-run only, and tell them to ship as many baby-boy packing-peanuts as they can. That way if many of us are taking more boys than girls, it saves many baby-boys. When raising lots of roosters together, all same-age, they fight more like brothers,not a big deal. If your neighbors would be bothered by crowing, just eat them at the point they start crowing. i love all our roosters, and I love their crowing. at some point we'll eat some of them, sadly, to make room for more, but trying to remember we saved them from brutal-death as babies.

 

[allanimals21]

I ordered some chicks from Welp in Dec. They arrived within a day and a half. I ordered all pullets and I got one extra of each. Out of 39 chicks I only ended up with 2 roos. At 2 months old everyone of them is doing great. I was very impressed with welp...Thats the only place I will order from now

 

[HBuehler]

My MM order last week required an ICU ward and morgue...26 chicks 5 doa and when 48 hours was up a total of 13 had died..rest are doing great.They were shipped during a major snow storm. MM is one of the only places I can get a few of mine so they are reshipping in March..but my ideal order is due in this week and again it turned cold so possibly more frozen baby chicks
It's not MM's fault though never have any problems from any hatchery in the spring and summer but these chicks had no body heat when you held them..feet like ice and severe stress.Zero degrees and shipping baby chicks is risky.