What is so "bad" about buying feed store chicks?

[SobbaChickens]

Thanks everyone!

I bought all my chicks from the feed/farm store (Orschelns). They get new chicks in every week and usually have a pretty good selection. I bought all pullets (except 1, straight run chick). I can't tell yet if any are roosters, but I think 1 might be. They will also order chicks for you, if they don't have what you want in the store. We ordered 30 chickens one year, and got 31. 1 was a rooster. I think there is only 1 employee there that knows much about the different chicks, but so far I haven't seen a problem with mislabeling, and all the chicks are healthy. That said, I would recommend feed store chicks to anybody. They may not be show birds, but they are perfectly fine for "backyard chickens", in my opinion.

I'm in Kansas and got mine from Orschelns too

 

[KuroKitsune]

i'm also in kansas and got my chicks at an Orschlens and all the chicks and they all seem very healthy. all were bought from bins marked pullets and the people at my orschlens seem to know what their doing chick wise and this year the seem to have a better selection and getting in mor then just run of the mill breeds...like about a week or so ago they got in turkens, silver laced wyandottes, and buff orps...last year they had none of these.

 

[Scout Finch]

I purchased 4 chicks from a farm store recently. They had a bin of buff orpington pullets and a bin of barred rock pullets. These were the breeds I wanted and I definitely wanted pullets so I got two of each.

Turns out:
One of the barred rocks is a rooster.
One of the buff orpingtons apparently isn't even a buff orpington (have no idea what it is) AND I think it's a rooster too.

So yes, mistakes happen anywhere, but my first experience with a farm store purchase doesn't make me eager to do it again.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Both of my purchases were from Southern States (which is like TSC or any other farm/feed store). Both times I purchased Barred Rocks.

The first batch of chicks I ended up with 4 cockerels and 2 pullets...I chose to have 5 pullets and 1 cockerel.

The second batch I'm not sure of sex yet (they are only 4 weeks old), but...I have two that are NOT Barred Rocks, they are called "Commercial Blacks". They look just like BR chicks. The HATCHERY made the mistake, putting CB's in with the BR shipment to Southern States.

 

[Margiechickmom]

I bought my first batch of chickens a couple of years ago from TSC. I got 7 "assorted pullets" and 4 turned out to be roosters. But, that may have been a sexing error at the hatchery so I don't know if that makes a difference. They were lovely birds though, and the 1 I still have left (my dog unfortunately got to 2 when they were young) is my all time favorite bird.

 

[debid]

I looked at a TSC and when I saw that a bin was obviously mislabeled, I brought it to their attention. They did not care. But then, this particular TSC is the same one where they ignored that there were dead chicks in the bin being eaten by the others. I wouldn't buy a chick there.

OTOH, the co-op here does a very good job with theirs and I'd get chicks there before I'd mail-order small numbers.

 

[azwelshponygirl]

I don't think there is any thing wrong with feed store chickens as long as you can tell they are not sick.
Pasty butt, weak etc. Other wise if you are not showing your chickens go for it.

 

[pappy1264]

I got mine from Agway. They did have some issues with two deliveries they got (lots of losses) but they usually don't have problems. The ones I have now are doing great (I initially lost 5). Granted, the girl that does the ordering, and handling, raises chickens herself and is very knowledgeable about them.

 

[woodmort]

I've gone both ways--hatchery order and impulsive buys at feed store. One problem with ordering via mail is you are forced to either get more chicks than you really want or have to pay a premium to get a small number shipped(and chance on losses)--picking up at the feed store allows you to get a minimum of 6 (NYS law). Also if you wait a day or two for the feed store's chicks to settle in, the store will take the shipping losses rather than you and you can be relatively sure that the chicks are eating/drinking. On the other hand those in the feed store, especially where the person in charge has no knowledge of what they're selling, can be misnamed or poorly sexed. A lot depends on the store's hatchery source as well.

Ideally, unless you know what you're looking for your best bet in buying from local outlets is to look for sex-link birds (Red's, Comets, etc) to be sure you're getting pullets. On the other hand, if you're just in the market for chickens and want a mix flock of birds and sexes, there is nothing "bad" about feed store birds. We even have one place locally (Country Max) that takes preorders and their birds are usually true although the choices are limited. I have not<know on wood> been burned with the dozen or so birds I picked up at TSC--my straight run were 50/50 and the sexed were all pullets as named. Maybe our local TSC knows what they're doing.

 

[annav410]

We purchased all of our chicks this year from Murdochs and Ace COOP (we live in Colorado) and had really good luck. I think it all depends on what you are looking for. This was our first flock and ours are going to backyard pets and layers, so the farm store worked just great. If you are interested in breeding stock or show birds, then clearly farm stores and likely most hatcheries wouldn’t be the best choice.

We went to a couple different stores one weekend so we could get the variety that we wanted and we are really happy with our final collection. Is there a chance that we didn’t get 100% female…sure, that is always a risk. I felt the staff at all of the locations had a designated “chicken expert” and enough knowledge to help and guide us. We don’t have a minimum laws in our area, which allowed us to get a couple chicks at each location to build my flock. The other benefit for a newbie was that I was able to pick out chicks that seemed healthier and didn’t have to deal with any stressed out chicks straight from mailing. I have read a lot about TSC on this site and it does sound that some locations are more problematic than others but we were very pleased with our experience at Murdochs and ACE.

I think that when I am looking at adding or replacing my flock in the future (chicken math!) that I might direct order vs farm stores. Some of the more unusual breeds would be tempting and would likely be hard to get in our area farm stores. Although I will add the stores will let us special order and had a lot of variety.