welp hatchery

[JFL1950]

http://www.welphatchery.com/index.asp

just like to know if anyone has any comments on welp hatchery?
they include shipping and there rates seem to be inline with the other hatcheries I have been to.
any others offer free shipping?
thanks
I have 14 eggs ready to hatch this weekend.

 

[Motherhenandflock]

Right, I've ordered a couple of times from Welp. No problems. This time I had 20 Cornish Cross got 21, and 5 Barred Rock pullets, got 6, but one may be a roo!
Helpful lady on the phone. I like it that the shipping is included. I haven't found any other hatcheries that do that but maybe I haven't looked enough.
They do have the 25 chick minimum to order. And other poultry had a differnent hatch day of the week, so I couldn't combine anything.

 

[Barb Schuetz]

I ordered 10 goslings(min. order), the lady on the phone was great. She actually sounded like she enjoys her job! Well, all of my goslings died in transit. It looked as though they had been shaken to death. When I called they were happy to fix the problem(as much as it could be fixed) but it turns out that they came from the hatchery's plant in New Mexico! I don't know if all or most hatcheries have plants in other states but it kind of defeats the purpose of buying locally. Not to mention that's an awfully long distance for the babies to travel. We'll see how my replacements arrive Friday.

 

[4H kids and mom]

The problem with most larger hatcheries is just that, they don't hatch their own. They buy from the small "mom and pop" hatcheries at cost, mark them up and resell them to the consumers that look for the 'name' in a hatchery. MM is the worst for this. That is why you get so many different hatch days for the big hatcheries, because they are going with the hatch dates of OTHER hatcheries.

The reason people have to wait weeks for their orders is simply because the hatchery you ordered from doesn't have them, and they have to wait to find them somewhere else. Just look on here for all the posts about people getting their shipping dates moved around. Ever stop to wonder why that is? I did, and I asked, and they told me flat out.

When I ordered (originally, and then my future orders as well) I went with a lesser known, smaller 'mom and pop' place. My original order was for 25 Straight run Ameraucanas. I got a 4H discount of 20% off, and did mention to the sweet older lady on the phone that the pullets would be for laying and showing. They shipped 30! One tiny one had died in transit, and 2 others looked bleak the first day, so rather than waste my efforts, I kindly ended their suffering and focused on the 27 chicks I had that needed me.

Of the 27, only 10 ended up being roos. (I think she purposely sexed some of them to make sure we'd have lots of layers!) We kept 3 and found homes for the remainders. Of the 17 pullets, we kept our favorite 9 because we had (by then) ordered MORE chicks from the same hatchery! I ordered their brown and white layer combo of 10 pullets and then also ordered 10 Cornish meat chicks. They "boo boo"ed my order because they were training a new girl, and sent it out twice plus a 'half' time! So, I ended up with 30 pullets and 23 Cornish! I kept all the Cornish and 9 of the brown layers, 8 of the white layers, and the 2 Marans they'd sent me for darker eggs.

Then they felt bad about the whole mix up (which I was HAPPY with!) and they even refunded most of my money!

I will consistantly do business with them because I can see photos of their breeders (does MM do this? Nope. Neither does Ideal or Welp. Cackle does though.) and set ups, and even photos of the inside of their operation during 'hatch day' which is ALWAYS on Tuesdays. I can call and HEAR the peeping. There are no "operators" to hold for. When you call you get the older lady, or the older man and if you call first thing in the morn on a Tuesday you hear LOUD peeps traveling through your phone line and they usually ask you to call back in about an hour. lol

I like knowing that the chicks I order come from a smaller, family run farm and not some big corporation where the almighty dollar is the bottom line and not the chicks, or ducks, or geese that die in transit when they are shipped from halfway around the globe and you THOUGHT they were coming from only a couple states away. I'm sorry about the little rant, and I'll get off my soapbox now, but I just wanted to share the fact that more of us should try (if we can) to support the "little people" and not always go by whats in a name.

By the way, in case anyone wanted to know, the hatchery I have used now THREE times with EXCELLENT experiences and only the ONE shipping loss out of over 50 chicks that came here, is Sun Ray Chicks Hatchery located in IA. No shipping isn't free with them, but their overall chick prices are lower so it equals out. I got my first batch of st. run Ameraucanas (30 chipped in all) for $31.00 including the shipping.

 

[jjduncan]

I won't ever order poultry from anyone but Welp. I have had nothing but good luck with their birds. Good luck, jjduncan

 

[peeps7]

I have a question about the welp hatchery.......................................My chicks should come in tomorrow but will they notify you when they ship or will they just ship them?

 

[chickenmama22]

Welps told me when they'd be shipping and that's when they shipped. (I received an email confirmation w/ date and a snail mail shipping date confirmation.)

They sent 27 cornish x rocks for my order of 25. All are alive and well. They're big, too! At the end of 3 weeks, they were around 1 pound 10 oz to 1 pound 12 oz... except for 2 "runts" (hens?) that weighed more like 1 pound 6 oz. They grow really fast!

 

[beebiz]

I've never done business with Welp or Ideal. But, I have with Cackle and with Sun Ray Chicks. Cackle's chicks always arrived in excellent condition. But, the one time I ordered from Sun Ray Chicks, it was a disaster.

The first time that I talked to Sun Ray, I ordered 50 Straigt Run Buff Orpington chicks. My credit card number was taken, I was given a delivery date, and I gave them my home phone number and email address just in case there were any problems. I also asked that they call or email me if there was a problem.

The delivery date came and went.... no chicks! I waited two days before I called Sun Ray. I called them around 2:00 PM (their time). I spoke with the same nice, eager to help, young (sounding) lady who had taken my order. She said that she and her husband own Sun Ray Chicks. She further told me that the night before I called (the day after my chicks should have arrived) she had been going through the orders that had already been filled and found my order. She said that she noticed that my credit card hadn't been charged yet, so she wondered if the chicks had actually been shipped yet. She said that she told her husband that she would check into it the first thing the next day. She must have forgotten about it because, she didn't contact me before I contacted her around 2:00 PM their time.

You'd had to have heard her tell it to fully understand why, but I didn't quite buy what she said. But, she was very apologetic and assured me that she wouldship my chicks their next hatch date. So, again, I was given a delivery date. And again, the delivery date came and went without any chicks.

The next morning..... early.... I called them and was assured that the chicks were shipped this time. Again, I spoke with the same lady. But, this time she wasn't quite as pleasant. She informed me that my chicks had been shipped when promised, and that I should know that the delivery date for chicks could easily be off by a couple of days. No apologies or anything.... just very cool and matter of fact!

The next morning (the second day after the chicks should have arrived), I called the post office around 5:30 AM. They said that my chicks were there and I could come and get them.

When I got there, I eagerly opened the box in front of the postal worker. My heart fell down into my shoes at what my eyes beheld! A quick head count revealed that Sun Ray had sent 54 chicks. Of those 54, there were only 26 that were alive!! And, I could tell the the rest were bad chilled! I only live 3 miles from the post office, but by the time I got home, I only had 23 that were alive. And, in less than an hour one of those died... leaving only 22 of the 50 ordered and 54 shipped!!! Not good...... not good at all!!!

Again, I called Sun Ray. Again, I spoke with the same woman. Again, she spoke in a cool tone and was very matter of fact. She said, "Sometimes, that's the breaks when you ship day old chicks." She told me that since the chicks were 2 days late and in such poor condition that it must be a problem with my local post office.

Then, she wanted to know what I wanted her to do about it. I told her that I was quite willing to pay for the chicks that were alive, but didn't think it right to pay for the ones that were dead! I told her that I thought Sun Ray should either not charge me for the dead ones or ship 28 more chicks to me to make up for the dead ones. I told her that I would even be willing to pay for an additional 22 chicks to make the quantity of chicks an acceptable amount for shipping.

She quickly informed me that there wer no refunds and that they couldn't ship chicks to make up for the ones that had died in shipment. She said that she would send a copy of the receipt where the insurance was paid for and I would have to deal with the post office myself. By this time, I was PO'ed and she was PO'd. She was almost shouting at me!! Finally, I told her to send me the d@mned receipt, I'd deal with the post office, and I would NEVER do business with Sun Ray Chicks agian!! With that, I hung up the phone!!

Two weeks passed, and I saw no mail from Sun Ray Chicks. So, I called them again to inquire as to where the copy of the insurance receipt was. I spoke to the same lady, sam tone, and same matter of fact mannerism, and she informed me that heretofore (two weeks) she hadn't had time to get it in the mail. But, she said that it would be mailed the very next day.

That was all back in April of this year. And, it is now October. And, I've never seen any mail from Sun Ray Chicks. But, no charge for the chicks has ever showed up on my credit card statement either. Still, I doubt that I do business with them in the future. It just left a very bad taste in my mouth!

But since then, I've spoken with several people that have ordered chicks from Sun Ray Chicks and have had nothing but praise for them. Most have even found it hard to believe that I had such an experience with them!

I've told you all that to say this. I know there are some habitually bad hatcheries out there. And, there are a lot more good ones than bad ones. But, ALL of them have there horror stories!! When deciding where to order chicks from, don't take just one person's horror story (like mine) as "the gospel according to Luke!!" Because, all of them have made mistakes. And, those of us who the mistakes happened to are NOT happy about them!!! Listen to several personal experiences (not just opinions), weigh them, then... and only then decide which place gets the pleasure of having your business!!

Good luck,
Robert

 

[Arklady]

This is interesting... and btw they get eggs shipped in they don't raise them lol...

http://www.welphatchery.com/hatchery_tour.asp

Arklady

 

[ole-crone]

Funny, I look at it the other way. I'd rather buy from a big hatchery that brings in their eggs from all over rather than risk receiving inbred chicks from a small one.

I've only ordered from Murray McMurray over the years. I've never had a bad experience.

Once in Canada we had a horrible experience but I don't remember the name of the hatchery - they were idiots. We lived remotely - air/water accessible only. We warned the hatchery when we ordered and paid extra for the chicks to be shipped straight via air. The arrival day came - we went to the seaplane to meet them and no chicks. So we went home and called the hatchery.

They finally showed up at a PO in Vancouver. The yahoos had decided they knew best and 'saw' a truck route to our town. Needless to say the trucker discovered that the 'road' he thought went through the mountains didn't and had to drive them all the way back to Vancouver to drop them off, undeliverable at the PO. By now, they had been in the box for 3 or 4 days. The PO called to ask us what we wanted them to do. We asked for them to open the box and give them water but it was against regulations. We had to find a representative to do it. We finally found a person connected with a humane society, told the PO that they had permission to accept the chicks, and they were released to them. They were to keep them overnight and then we had to pay them to fly them up to us. Needless to say, most of the chicks were dead by the time the workers got them from the PO. The survivors were kept warm and watered until the next seaplane flight north left and shipped up to us for an arm and a leg. Only a few survived the ordeal - and they were very weak. It was a sad ordeal.