What is your favorite hatchery?

[countrygirl74]

Ordered my first batch of chicks and ducks from Ideal - all chicks were healthy and fine - didn't lose a single one. HOWEVER, very poorly sexed. I ordered all pullets with explicit directions to not even include a single male for warmth. I ended up with 7 roosters to 5 hens and one of those roos was an extra they threw in even though I asked them not to.
We had also ordered 4 ducks through them. 2 were dead on arrival and one died within an hour of arriving in my arms. So, for about a week and a half, I had one lonely (but spoiled) duckling. We rushed to order 3 more ducks through Metzers - awesome!!! You can really tell a difference in their ducks! Super healthy, happy, and active.
This spring I am just picking up from the local feed store but I checked to make sure they're not coming from Ideal - just due to my bad sexing experience.

 

[myhenhouse]

I am excited about gettin my babies from McMurray... the thing I most like is that I am able to pick the quantity of each breed I want.... I see Cackle gets good reviews but they make you purchase 5 of each! so instead of getting 11 different breeds like I am from McMurray I'd only get 5 from Cackle.

 

[Chicken Fruit]

I've only ever ordered from Privitt. I like their birds and their prices. This was the first year i've ever had a problem with shipping- lost half my birds, but they were SO quick to refund me my money or ship me new birds when they were available. They're always super friendly to talk to, too, which is great. The only problem I've found is their genetics on their cuckoo marans are aggressive. All the birds are nutty and insane and cannibals. I'm trying them again for the first time in 4 years to see if they've mellowed at all. So far its better.

 

[gmabry75]

Ordered my first batch of chicks and ducks from Ideal  - all chicks were healthy and fine - didn't lose a single one. HOWEVER, very poorly sexed. I ordered all pullets with explicit directions to not even include a single male for warmth. I ended up with 7 roosters to 5 hens......
 

I sure hope they did a better job sexing mine. At what age can you start getting a good idea what you have. Mine are barred rock if it matters.

 

[chickenjudy]

I bought 8 barred rock pullets from our feed store that came from Ideal. They are about 4 weeks old now and one is obviously a cockerel. I think a 10% error rate is considered "normal" but still frustrating....

 

[gmabry75]

M

I bought 8 barred rock pullets from our feed store that came from Ideal.  They are about 4 weeks old now and one is obviously a cockerel.  I think a 10% error rate is considered "normal" but still frustrating....

Mine were 4 weeks Tuesday. How do you tell?

 

[chickenjudy]

"His" comb is much pinker than the others and slightly larger. The barring on the neck is lighter and smaller rows like a roo will have. Even at this age, it's pretty obvious! I have Light Sussex, though, that are 3 1/2 months old and still can't tell on part of them. Some breeds are just harder than others.

 

[countrygirl74]

I sure hope they did a better job sexing mine. At what age can you start getting a good idea what you have. Mine are barred rock if it matters.

Sometimes the combs are much larger - but that's not always the case. My barred rocks happened to be 2 of the 5 hens so didn't notice a difference. With some of the breeds I received, I had a hard time telling until they were closer to 4 months! One of them I thought was a girl until at 3 months, she crowed.

Here is an article that helps you tell the difference by feathering, etc.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/is-my-chicken-a-pullet-hen-or-a-cockerel-cock

 

[BGMatt]

My favorite hatchery is Holderread's waterfowl farm. Waterfowl only of course but you won't find better birds or people.

 

[quinault]

My experience with Ideal this year was pretty bad-ordered 65 birds total; goslings, blue swede ducks, brahmas, jersey giants and cochins. Shipped and arrived in 2 days, and I went to PO immediately to pick up. 2 goslings, 4 ducks, 3 giants and 16 brahmas arrived dead. Lost remaining 2 giants, 2 cochins, 2 more ducks and 8 more brahmas within 24 hours. Bad case of pasty butt on ALL the remaining chicks took another 5 days to treat and get them healthy, lost another brahma chick and another cochin in the process. Two weeks and all are doing great-finally.
They did offer to refund or replace, but then took a week to credit my card and then the amount was not correct. Took another week to credit the remaining amount. Very frustrating-and dealing with all those poor dead babies broke my heart. I will never order from them again.
I have always before ordered from SandHill before and had excellent luck but they were out of or did not have available what I wanted this time around. Lesson learned! Next time I will wait for a good hatchery rather than go through this again.