What do you think of Tractor Supply’s new chick bins?

[tigger19687]

Just reading this is making me think I hear chicks peeping


I'm dragging the DD to look at them tonight

 

[Sally PB]

How many will come home with you?

 

[springvalley123]

I was at the local TSC this morning. They had four batches of regular chicks, a batch of meat birds and a batch of ducks. All were standing, walking, preening, sleeping. no one shivering or sick looking. Some were eating. I felt heat radiating out of the brooders. And not to get any stores in trouble but safe to say some lucky stores/chicks, the store will do the right thing and have a stock tank and heat lamp on birds in the back room if need be.

 

[tigger19687]

They didn't have any as the shipment did not come
Same with Derry NH, so I am guessing none of the new england TSC got chicks this week.
I wonder if they will get DOUBLE next week !

 

[Finnie]

I was at the local TSC this morning. They had four batches of regular chicks, a batch of meat birds and a batch of ducks. All were standing, walking, preening, sleeping. no one shivering or sick looking. Some were eating. I felt heat radiating out of the brooders. And not to get any stores in trouble but safe to say some lucky stores/chicks, the store will do the right thing and have a stock tank and heat lamp on birds in the back room if need be.

That’s true, mine always have their “overflow” set up in the back.

They didn't have any as the shipment did not come
Same with Derry NH, so I am guessing none of the new england TSC got chicks this week.
I wonder if they will get DOUBLE next week !

 

[tigger19687]

That’s true, mine always have their “overflow” set up in the back.

I hope they do ! That way I will have time to actually GET some !

 

[springvalley123]

They didn't have any as the shipment did not come
Same with Derry NH, so I am guessing none of the new england TSC got chicks this week.
I wonder if they will get DOUBLE next week !

unfortunately if they do, one box will be full of dead chicks (week-old corpses). a few years ago I had talked with the manager of a smaller feed store here (a chain of 3 stores, he managed one of them). If he didn't get a call by 8 am, he was on the phone with the hatchery, the local post office, the next chain back in the post office (small town vs bigger town), and the distribution center in phoenix. He'd drive the 90 minutes each way to phx if he had to. He said the difference between 8 am and 5 pm that same day would be several or most of the babies being alive and he cared. If possible, we should try to plant a seed of decency and responsibility in these feed store managers that just shrug off the suffering caused by a postal delay.

 

[tigger19687]

WHoooohoooo Millis has Black Australorps !
guess where I am running to right now !

 

[Finnie]

I had talked with the manager of a smaller feed store here (a chain of 3 stores,

That is really awesome that he went the extra mile! I’m thinking of looking around in my area for an independent feed store, since TSC has changed their DuMor formulas, and raised prices a ton. It will be a longer drive, but maybe I will find one with a caring manager.

I will say though, that TSC managers have no idea when to expect their chick shipments. (I ask them all the time.) The answer I usually get is that they only find out when the post office calls them. Sometimes they know what day of the week to expect that call, but last year all the stores were telling me that they were getting surprise chick shipments on any given day of the week.

 

[springvalley123]

That is really awesome that he went the extra mile! I’m thinking of looking around in my area for an independent feed store, since TSC has changed their DuMor formulas, and raised prices a ton. It will be a longer drive, but maybe I will find one with a caring manager.

I will say though, that TSC managers have no idea when to expect their chick shipments. (I ask them all the time.) The answer I usually get is that they only find out when the post office calls them. Sometimes they know what day of the week to expect that call, but last year all the stores were telling me that they were getting surprise chick shipments on any given day of the week.

I gather things have changed over the past few years, for the chain of TSC. a few years ago, the TSC whose workers could care less about the chickens, was in a frenzy trying to prepare for "400 chicks arriving wednesday" which was two days out. The one up here, does seem to have a caring manager. With plenty of spare bin space on display in the new brooders, he had some birds in the back, presumably to give them better heat. I don't believe it was overflow, as there were several empty bins in the display brooders.