Where do hatcheries get their chicks?

[chicken farmer 1997]

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they acually do free range.

And who is "they"? EVERY hatchery used by those big name chick sellers has happy free range birds? Id bet not.

meyer hatchery and mnt healthy

 

[wbruder17]

Or could it be more like this??? Beware....not pleasant to watch.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=JJ--faib7to

 

[BairleaFarm]

Link doesnt work.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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Interesting, nice info to know. I imagine it is a good sight indeed. Do you happen to know what route Ideal takes? I.E. Drop ship, breeders separated/free range? I believe Ideal has their own breeder birds.

God bless,
Daniel.

Ideal I beleive have their own birds

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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And who is "they"? EVERY hatchery used by those big name chick sellers has happy free range birds? Id bet not.

meyer hatchery and mnt healthy

Meyer hatchery doesn't have free-range birds, where'd you hear that? If you free-range birds then you can only have one breed without them mixing. Meyer had many breeds.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

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That's right, NO hatchery is supposed to let folks on their property where the birds are being kept for Bio security reasons. Actually if you dig deep enough, any NPIP member is supposed to operate a closed facility after they are certified. I've had several argue this point to me on other threads saying it's not so...But if you doubt it, ask you state NPIP office. Due to this outside of the videos mentioned earlier, you'll never personally see the inside of one.
Actually the same goes for poultry farms (commercial ones that is for meat and eggs) You arent allowed on there for bio security reasons either. I know a few folks that work on them here locally. If you are a member of the work force there, you PERSONALLY are not allowed to own poultry. The truck driver I know who hauls their feeds says he has to sterilize his semi every trip Off the farm before they allow it to reenter the facility... They are pretty strict on it

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

The people I got my chickens from were verry helpful. It was an small family. I didn't know verry much about chickens, and so they gave me pointers, the rest I found online. It was night time, and they even went outside to get an adult as a example for the chicks when older. And this family had more varieties the the local hatchary.

 

[N&MSchroeder]

I would think that the breeders who supply eggs/chicks to large hatcheries would take care of their animals. I am assuming that contracting with a hatchery would be more lucrative than selling the eggs outright, which could incite stiff competition because there is money to be made.

In order to increase their profit, the breeder would need to keep the animals in good condition in order to produce enough eggs to meet the supply quota. Anyone who raises animals knows what happens to egg production when the animals are stressed due to any number of factors. Healthy, happy animals means greater profit.

While I am not naive enough to believe that every hatchery chick comes from a free-range flock, I also don't believe that all are kept in horrible conditions. Based on my personal experience, I have visited local "breeders" whose chickens were kept in less than desirable environments, but I'm not about to claim this is the norm. One bad "egg"

shouldn't ruin it for the rest.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

bad egg

 

[slim1986]

Quote:
meyer hatchery and mnt healthy

Meyer hatchery doesn't have free-range birds, where'd you hear that? If you free-range birds then you can only have one breed without them mixing. Meyer had many breeds.

Well to free range they only have to allow X amount of outside space per-bird, so its possible that they do "free range" like "free range" eggs or "free range" chicken bought from the store, its not a happy chicken running free in a field, its a commercial chicken house with a big run..... The runs don't even have to have grass, or even dirt, it can be a cement lot.