I wish I knew NOT to buy from a hatchery! could have saved me a lot of time and heartache
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Hi,Wow, that sounds like a discouraging first year. I definitely want my chicks to be hand raised and friendly, they will be pets primarily. maybe we just need to stick with whats local and skip the naked necks.
I would not blame the hatchery at all in this. If they were 12 weeks when you got them, he ruined them with poor care before you got them. Hatcheries typically have good production birds, the ones they ship come from the same place their replacement birds come from.well.. okay. disclaimer, this is just my experience and I am just 1 person.
I found some chicks (12wks) on CraigsList from a local farmer which I thought sounded perfect. when I got there, there were a lot of red flags but I was so new and SO excited, I didn't know what to look for at all. I got buff orpingtons, black australorps, barred rocks and rhode island reds (birds sold as RIR are actually "production reds" I now know).
The farmer told us he ordered 1,000 birds from a hatchery. They were inside a big barn, with access to free range. I caught the ones inside, not outside. they were super afraid, probably never held since there were 1000 of them.
I took every last RIR they had left. in hindsight, they were obviously the worst/weakest and that's the reason they were left for last. they had really bad poop butts, they NEVER recovered from that 1yr later. one of the hens with poop butt never laid real eggs, she laid extremely tiny eggs without yolks, or she laid softshell eggs without yolks. I think she had pasty butt her whole life and it was never corrected as a chick, despite my efforts from 12wks on I couldn't fix it. 1 of them was extremely small, she wasn't bantam but deformed, she laid huge eggs for her body and had really bad prolapse problems from 7mos on. there was another one, small in size, I believe it had neurological damage because of how it acted - not a normal chicken. this one started having seizures and we had to cull her.
Black australorps - 2 black aussies died, I went back and got 2 more and an ameraucana. why oh why did I go back to the same place?!?! 1 of those black aussies died too. the ameraucana was the best hen out of everyone, HOWEVER she was actually an easter egger and I didn't appreciate being lied to.
Barred rocks - both of my barred rocks died very slowly, withering away despite all my efforts to save them. I had a very very hard 1st year with chickens. I watched most of them die even though I tried to treat them. it was completely heart breaking. they would stop eating, lose weight, I would try to force feed, but they would eventually die within 2-3 weeks of being brought inside to ICU. they didn't have a lot of symptoms to go on. I was too new to chickens to perform an autopsy.
my 1 buff orpington girl and the EE were probably the only two "acceptable" quality chickens out of the 16 that I bought.
Overall, I feel that the hatchery birds I had were just lower quality animals. Since then, I have changed it up. I switched to incubating and hatching my own chicks. I only buy eggs from backyard breeders or enthusiasts, and I ask them what they select for in their breeding program. (health? personality? nothing?)
I put a lot of effort into meeting all their nutritional needs from day 1. All my now-adult birds that I hatched are VERY strong, robust, and without illness. I believe that giving them a GOOD start in life can set the tone of health for their entire lives. Having a hard start can mean long term health issues that they never fully bounce back from.
The chicks I hatch myself receive the following within their first 4 weeks of life: oatmeal, cornmeal, starter feed ground up fine during week 1; supplemented with NutriDrench chicken vitamins in the water (as well as regular water, always clean, changed daily); electrolytes by water IF the hatch wasn't perfectly smooth; pro-biotics by water to help them absorb more nutrients from their feed (requiring less feed overall); kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, watercress (dark leafy greens supply vital nutrients like vitamin k & b) diced fine; minced garlic as a natural anti-biotic and health tonic; organic apple cider vinegar for pasty butt or to right imbalanced PH. This may sound like a lot, but they are given in slow increments not all at once, and for different purposes.
I also have a lot of interaction with them from the very beginning. We are bonded to each other and they trust me, even enjoy being handled. I can't tell you how hard I had to work to earn the trust of the hatchery birds, and even then, we were never really 'friends.'
with my non-hatchery hand raised birds, they all climb into my lap any time I sit down near them
Great advice, thank you Karen!!!Ways to find local breeds:
1. Choose the breeds you want then go to that breed's national Club website on the Net.
Look at the Breeder's Directory for one near you.
2. Go to the American Poultry Association website and look at the Judge's Directory.
Look for a Judge who lives near you and contact him/her asking of anyone has the breeds near you.
3. Look for the specific breed thread here on BYC and ask them if anyone has the breed
near you. If you don't want to share your town and State, just choose a geographic area
within whatever driving distance you want to travel ( Knoxville Area, Chicagoland,
Southern Calif., etc. ).
4. Many States have their own State or regional thread on BYC. Find the one for your
area and ask around.
I am soo sorry. I have had good luck so far. I bought hatchery chicks from the feed store... There are a few that have very good track records There is even a "review" Page on hatcheries here at BYC..I wish I knew NOT to buy from a hatchery! could have saved me a lot of time and heartache