Where do hatcheries get their chicks?

[wbruder17]

What with filling massive orders for hundreds of breeds of chickens, I would like to know the/living conditions of the chickens and roos that are supplying this massive number of chicks..... I am envisioning a slaughter/ laying house conditions with hens and roosters mass producing eggs. Has anyone researched this? Do we REALLY know anything about these commercial hatcheries?

 

[poseygrace]

Good question! I have often wondered that. I try to buy from local breeders when possible, just to support small farmers and to know the source of my animals. Plus, you can tour their farms and make sure you WANT the birds.

 

[chicken farmer 1997]

they get them from breeders on farms.

 

[peterlund]

Quote:
No we do not... Like a puppy mill, we only hope to get the offspring and raise them happy and healthy. The "raising" of livestock is not necessarilly a pretty or what you might consider humane thing... But if you do not want to starve half the Earths population it is a necessary evil... Raise and grow what you can... Be thankful that you are doing your best.

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:
I now have a rooster to hatch chicks, but I always want new breeds. I try to get my chicks from feedstores that support local breeders, but that's not always possible. I don't want to support inhumane chicken practices....one of the reasons I have my own chickens to begin with.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
seems like 75% or maybe even more "hatcheries" now a days dont even own a single bird. They all are just selling the TRUE hatcheries birds and marking them up.

But yes, those that do have thousands of them, never seen one in person, most likely some really nice ones, and like anything else, most likely some horrid ones. Personally I no longer buy from any of them, all breeder stock for me

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:
Yea, ok, but what are those "farms" like? I KNOW they aren't chickens clucking around free range and happy.

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:
No we do not... Like a puppy mill, we only hope to get the offspring and raise them happy and healthy. The "raising" of livestock is not necessarilly a pretty or what you might consider humane thing... But if you do not want to starve half the Earths population it is a necessary evil... Raise and grow what you can... Be thankful that you are doing your best.

Yea, but we know a lot about puppy mills and where NOT to buy a puppy...aka pet stores etc. But how to find out about Chickens mills?

 

[BairleaFarm]

Quote:
Dont be so sure of that. If a farm is supplying a hatchery with chicks they most lickly are only raising a couple breeds at most. I would think they would all be free range or at least a rotating free range to help supplement the feed cost of the hens.

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:
seems like 75% or maybe even more "hatcheries" now a days dont even own a single bird. They all are just selling the TRUE hatcheries birds and marking them up.

But yes, those that do have thousands of them, never seen one in person, most likely some really nice ones, and like anything else, most likely some horrid ones. Personally I no longer buy from any of them, all breeder stock for me

I've never ordered from a hatchery, but I know that some of the birds I bought from a feedstore came from those big name hatcheries, and I don't know that I like it. Especially when the quality of the birds is considered "hatchery quality" and not "breeder quality"