Whats better: order chicks or order eggs then hatch?

[1muttsfan]

If you want something that no one has near where you live, or you want really exceptional quality birds, sometimes the only option is to have eggs shipped. My success rate has varied from 100% on one order from Illinois, to 0% on two separate batches shipped from Georgia. Do I regret ordering them? not really, although it was a real bummer.

There is something really special about hatching eggs, it is so fun and rewarding when you do get chicks.

I also order chicks if someone has what I want, in the quality I am looking for - hatcheries are fine for a laying flock, not so reliable for quality breeding birds.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I've had bad luck with shipped eggs (so tell me again why I ordered 100+ quail eggs?

) but good luck with my own eggs, provided that the rooster actually delivered the goods.

The answers people have given here are good ones. If you want hens, or you don't want to show your birds, or you just want a certain number of birds, go with hatchery stock. In the end, I think it's cheaper to start that way.

I incubate eggs from my own birds mostly, which means I'm doing this cheap. I don't care about keeping my main flock pure, but I do have Barnevelders and I'm hoping to get Icelandics when it gets a tad warmer. Those I will keep pure. But the rest are EEs and EE crosses, which means I can have fun and enjoy my mutt chickens and their eggs. (I sell eggs, so having colorful eggs are good!)

I think cost of starting a new flock from eggs can be prohibitively expensive if you're only hatching out even 60% (and for me it could go 20% or lower) at the prices some charge. You figure, you're going to get half roosters in that hatch, which means if you buy a dozen eggs at $50 and pay $20 shipping, and at best you're getting 7 birds, of which at least 3 are roos. One guy I adopted two Barnevelders from had 4 eggs hatch and all four were roos.

So you paid $10 a chick, which may not seem bad, but again, that's best case. I suspect to have a viable flock, you've got to buy 4 dozen eggs and hope you get a big enough hatch. Again, not what I would do.

So, it's up to you.

Everyone will have a different answer for why they incubate or not, and why they buy birds or not. I'll do an egg exchange with anyone who has birds that I want so I can diversify my flock, but I'm really leery on paying good money for minimal return.

 

[Pele]

It's a personal choice, to be honest. You weigh what you feel are the negatives against what you feel are the positives. Different people have different goals, and different feelings towards different experiences.

For example: A person who does not want fancy chicks, wants them as fast as possible. and does not want to deal with the hassle of getting roos would definitely want to order sexed chicks from a hatchery.

However, a person who wants a rare breed from a breeder who is far away, and does not mind the incubation wait, and wants quality over quantity and speed would definitely choose the option of shipping eggs.

Then there are those who just really enjoy the whole experience of the chicken life-cycle. That's an easy 'Incubation all the way!'.

It's all relative. Chickens are delightfully flexible that way.