What is your experience with Valley Hatchery?

[Crazy Chicken Girlz]

Has anybody ordered chicks from Valley Hatchery in the past? What was your experience? Would you recommend them? They claim to be "no-kill"....what does that mean in a hatchery? Thank you!
EDITED TO ADD: I know what no-kill means. I'm just wondering what you think they do with all those boys.

I've just got my order of baby chicks there. Very happy with them. We ordered 3 and got 4. They all seem to be healthy. (We live in town in a small town; however, we cannot have many chickens because of that, but my daughter needed chicks for her 4H project.) So far: Very happy. I recommend Valley Hatchery!

 

[saysfaa]

Which hatchery is closest to Maine?

Orchard Ridge, McChick, Chesl'd Creek, and Hatch Poultry are in Maine

Sugar Feather is in Vermont

There are several hatcheries in New York and several in Pennsylvania. There may be others in these and other nearby states.

Um, Murray McMurray is in Iowa. Maybe there is different hatchery that is just McMurray? I don't know about it but I don't know about all the hatcheries.

 

[Haunsolo]

Has anybody ordered chicks from Valley Hatchery in the past? What was your experience? Would you recommend them? They claim to be "no-kill"....what does that mean in a hatchery? Thank you!
EDITED TO ADD: I know what no-kill means. I'm just wondering what you think they do with all those boys.

Yes I've ordered chicks from them before. I ordered the bantam special they had, not knowing what we were getting. They do state they are first round unsexed chicks. However 4 out of the 5 they sent us were in fact roosters. I'm kind of wondering if that was sheer coincidence or if they actually do sex them and send them out to get rid of the roosters in their special buys they run. It's kind of hard to accept that it's a coincidence. Not their fault I took the risk. They did send 6 chicks and 1 passed away within the first couple of days. It was in pretty bad health from day one and we didn't expect it to survive. We tried with no luck. They do send an extra chick for this reason. So, in my opinion to answer your question, if you buy from their specials they run be cautious you may end up with more roosters than hens. I'd advise to make a purchase based off of them sexing them before they send them. The little guys are growing up to be some handsome roosters however we can't keep them. Where I live you can only get by with 1 if you're lucky. So I'll have to rehome them soon because we already have a large rooster.

 

[JMB111]

I would NEVER order from this valley hatchery again. We received 8 bantam chick's yesterday, 1 was dead when they arrived, 6 more have died since. 3 of which died within the first hour of arrival. These poor chick's were shipped without water, and it took them 3 days to travel. We are not new to raising chickens. It would be tragic but understood if 1 baby died in transit or shortly after arrival but 7 out of 8 being dead is ridiculous and a reflection on the hatchery! DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS VENDOR!

 

[Huntmaster]

These poor chick's were shipped without water,

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. By the way chicks are not shipped with water, that would be next to impossible. Some hatcheries do offer things like gro-gel to supplement feed/water, but most do not because chicks can go without feed and water for up to 72 hours after hatch. Not that I recommend that but that is how they get away with shipping hatchlings. Shipping stress is usually the main cause of chick's mortality, weather plays a big part in amount of that stress. I have not used this hatchery so not defending them. Glad to see threads like this that expose bad experiences with hatcheries, but shipping stresses should always be taken into consideration.