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

[NatJ]

The worker there, who got us our chicks for 50 cents the day before Easter said something along those lines. What do they do with the unsold ones? Kill them? They have to give them to a farm or something.

Probably just keep marking them down, until someone comes in who cannot resist the good deal.

I know someone who was watching as the chicks got older, and got marked down cheaper, and came in the next day planning to buy them... to find that someone else bought them the day before

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The worker there, who got us our chicks for 50 cents the day before Easter said something along those lines. What do they do with the unsold ones? Kill them? They have to give them to a farm or something.

They don't have unsold onea. They just mark then down and without a doubt someone will scoop them up. We had a neighbor suddenly dive into meat birds because ours had a a whole shipment that never got picked up and rhey beeded them gone. They were 30 cents a bird

 

[BecHup]

Lol. Oh, I know! I got mine for 50 cents. Day before Easter.

 

[Finnie]

and would suggest suspending the feeder and waterer in the tubs so the chicks don't climb on them and poop in them.

Yeah, this is probably the worst thing about the feed bins.

This year when we have been you can easily see but just ask which color/breed you want and they reach in and get whichever one they reach first.
My little always wants the smallest ones of the group, so that didn't go over well. She likes to study them and pick for temperament as well.

I agree. When I buy chicks, I always want specific ones. I would not be agreeable to taking whichever got grabbed first unless I could already tell they were all the same.

So far this year I haven’t seen any breeds that even tempted me to get any. But chick days aren’t over yet.

I’m behind this year. I haven’t even hatched any of my own chicks yet. Finally turned on my incubators last night, and am setting the first eggs today.

 

[Eggs by Happy Chickens]

So glad I found this thread! I purashed one tier and I have mixed feelings about it. I LOVE the brooder itseelf but the heating plate doesn’t seem hot. What do y’all think?

 

[Eggs by Happy Chickens]

I found that thread too. I've been trying to find out where to buy one if these and the people at the store had no clue where it came from

Select Tractor Supply’s sell them. And they only get one or two in stock.

 

[RebekahTN]

I LOVE the brooder itseelf but the heating plate doesn’t seem hot.

If you turn it to heater instead of brooder it gets pretty hot, although in my opinion not hot enough to be that far away with bantams as newborns (which we mostly have). If it could be lowered another inch or 2 I think it would solve the problem.

My daughter was finally old enough to do Chick chain with 4-H this year and when we got those chicks (Buff orphingtons) we thought they were HUGE... some even had feathers starting to grow in. I have my doubts they were 2-3 day old chicks, but they would have find under there in HEATING mode instead of brooder at the lowest level.
We moved them down to the second level within a week that is set up as it was intended.
I have my top level with a heat plate in it and every other ventilation hole has scotch tape on it. It was NOT getting warm enough in there for newly hatched chicks.

We have our second brooder set up as intended with the exception of having it on heater. Chicks stay up top until 1 1/2 to 2 weeks and then move to the bottom until 3-4 weeks depending on size and then get booted outside into the grow out tractor which normally would only have a heat plate in it this time of year, but we had a couple cold snaps and I put the heater than came with the top brooder for them out there as well.
Here in a couple weeks when it starts to stay nice all day and night I will leave the heat plate out there to hold my nipple waters and have a place for smaller ones to hide but it will be unplugged.

 

[BecHup]

If you turn it to heater instead of brooder it gets pretty hot, although in my opinion not hot enough to be that far away with bantams as newborns (which we mostly have). If it could be lowered another inch or 2 I think it would solve the problem.

My daughter was finally old enough to do Chick chain with 4-H this year and when we got those chicks (Buff orphingtons) we thought they were HUGE... some even had feathers starting to grow in. I have my doubts they were 2-3 day old chicks, but they would have find under there in HEATING mode instead of brooder at the lowest level.
We moved them down to the second level within a week that is set up as it was intended.
I have my top level with a heat plate in it and every other ventilation hole has scotch tape on it. It was NOT getting warm enough in there for newly hatched chicks.

We have our second brooder set up as intended with the exception of having it on heater. Chicks stay up top until 1 1/2 to 2 weeks and then move to the bottom until 3-4 weeks depending on size and then get booted outside into the grow out tractor which normally would only have a heat plate in it this time of year, but we had a couple cold snaps and I put the heater than came with the top brooder for them out there as well.
Here in a couple weeks when it starts to stay nice all day and night I will leave the heat plate out there to hold my nipple waters and have a place for smaller ones to hide but it will be unplugged.

My pullets lay behind it, while it’s on Brooder, because it’s too hot for them. They 10 days old.

 

[DA in AZ]

I was just at TSC, and their Chick Days started about one hour before I got there. They have new bins!

No more stock tanks with filthy waters sitting in the shavings.

I wish I would have thought to take a picture. They are multi level brooders with plastic coated wire on the floor and slide out trays beneath. They have a heat plate suspended in the middle for the chicks to warm up under. I didn’t see the food, but the water was in a trough outside the brooder where the chicks reach their heads out to get a drink. The ducklings were drinking a lot, and without making a huge mess!

The one drawback I noticed was that the heat plates must not have been warm enough. All the chicks were huddled together underneath them crying. Just like they do if you have a heat lamp that’s not warm enough. The guy did say that they were only put in there within the last hour, so maybe they hadn’t had time to acclimate yet. But to me it says that the brooder isn’t warm enough.

The guy also said he was waiting to decide whether he likes the new system until he sees whether it stinks more than the troughs they used before. He suspects the poop in the slide out trays will stink really quickly between cleanings.

In my opinion, I won’t be buying any chicks from these bins if they continue to look like these ones did this morning. Chicks are stressed enough as it is from the shipping. If they remain stressed in the store, then I don’t think they will do very well in their new homes. To be fair, I did get there within the first hour of them having a new system. Next time I go buy feed, I’ll see if they have got it working better.

Oh! And I was really impressed that the signs said “Easter Egger” instead of “Americana” !! They finally figured that one out! Way to go Tractor Supply!

Not good. I was the Tractor Supply on Buckeye, AZ today. I was there to buy Equine Senior and on my way to the register I stopped to look at the chicks. It’s horrible, every chick in the stacked brooder had pasty butt really extremely bad! There was an store worker cleaning the plastic on the brooder. I advised her about the chicks condition also of the one dead that was being trampled on, flat! I asked to speak to the store manager. I informed the store manager, Mark, that the chicks were not being taking care of because every single chick had extreme pasty butt. There must be something wrong with these brooder because I have never seen TSC chicks look this way. The store manager said he will get someone to take care of them. I can’t believe no one working there knew this already!!! I purchased 6 just to try to save their lives. I took them home and cleaned them up and they are now under a heat lamp sleeping. If anyone is in the Buckeye area please go by and take a look. Please let them know this isn’t right.

 

[viggo63]

Please let them know this isn’t right.

The only way changes may be made is if corporate hears about it. :/