Where to purchase chicks from?

[IVRN]

Hi! Great questions.

1. I would definitely NOT bring them home a couple at a time.

Reasons:

-the flock bonds and they start to establish pecking order very young. Continuously adding new chicks is very stressful to the flock even at a young age.

-they keep each other warm as they are brooding . 1-2 together isn’t enough and you risk one or both drying.

(Also for future reference NEVER introduce one single pullet or hen at a time. If you add to your flock later always add in twos so they have each other. “safety in numbers” is true for chickens. One single hen will get rejected and possibly killed by the others.)

-chicks grow fast. Bringing home a baby chick and putting it in the same brooder as a three week old risks the life of the baby due to size difference. The older chicks have established a pecking order already and they may reject or pick on the younger one-and they are big enough at that age to hurt or kill a new chick.

-the younger ones can’t fight for food against a larger chick. The older chick will always win and sometimes run the younger ones off and the chick could fail to thrive or die. Yes, chickens become territorial at a very young age and will compete for food and water amongst themselves. They don’t always play nice.

2. If you want a huge variety of types probably using a local feed store or Murray McMurrey is a good idea for the reason you stated. I started my flock with a feed store in the spring and they had a dozen varieties from which to choose.
Another idea is to look on Facebook under local chicken groups and join and find out if you have local breeders. You may be able to obtain a variety from around town if you are willing to drive to various places. But they need to be within a week of being hatched all at the same time.

3. If you want some specialty eggs, like dark marans eggs or blue eggs and the feed stores don’t have them, I have in the past found a local breeder who carries the breed I want and planned to go to the feed store when the breeder has their new chicks available. Then I just pick them up the within a day or so of each other.

4. Be sure to read about each breed and think about what you are trying to accomplish:

-If you want pretty eggs, get those types of chicks (like a Welsummer, Marans, Blue egg layers) now as it’s easier than adding pullets later.

-read ahead about what types do well in the cold as I see you are in the northeast. Not all breeds are suited for how cold it gets there. Small combed birds do better in terms of avoiding comb frostbite. A quick google search will inform you.

-some lay in winter and some breeds don’t- just a thing to think about. do you care if you don’t have eggs all winter? Certain breeds are famous for laying in the winter. Do you want daily eggs? Some only lay a couple a week and some are bred for production.

5. Think about predators if it’s going to be an issue. Some birds are definitely considered more predator savvy. If you don’t have a rooster you may but want a bunch of chickens who aren’t as good at predator alertness.

Lastly, there are typically more dominant breeds and more docile breeds. It’s nice to think of having just one n of each kind but docile breeds can be picked on mercilessly by the more assertive types. My neighbor had a Barred Rock completely scalped between breakfast and lunch by the more aggressive Rhode Island Reds in her flock. Examples of docile breeds are Easter eggers, Barred Rock and Orpingtons. Whereas Rhode Island Reds are very assertive. I got around that by making sure I had at least two of the docile breeds. They hang out together and always have each other. It’s true to some extent with chickens “birds of a feather flock together”. When you read about each breed they will often say if it is a docile breed that tends to get picked on. The hatchery may not say so but do a chick google search and you can find it.

Sorry for the typos. I can’t figure out how to fix them in this forum.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Sorry for the typos. I can’t figure out how to fix them in this forum.

Hit the 3 dots below your post and click "edit". At least this is what it looks like on my mobile browser

 

[birdlover112]

Hi all,

This will be my first year with chickens. Planning to have a mixed flock with 1 of each breed of chicken (just trying to narrow down which breeds I'm going to go with!) Lol

Just debating where I should get my chicks from.. my local feed/grain/farm/pet store will be having new chicks every 2-3 weeks, so I wouldn't be getting the chicks all at once. The plus side is that they will all be vaccinated for mareks prior to coming home with me. But I'm concerned about staggering bringing them home, especially if I'm only bringing home 1 chick at a time (sometimes it would be 1 chick sometimes 2, depending on the breeds they have available that weekend and what I'm looking for).

My other thought was to order through My Pet Chicken or Murray McMurray, where it might be easier to have them sent at the same time, I just worry about how the chicks will fare in transport.

Open to other recommendations as well. Im located on Cape Cod, MA if that helps.

Thanks for any feedback!

I have got chicks from https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html They have all breeds and he mails them to you and they come in perfect condition. you can get a pack or pick home as many females or males as you want I love this website and they are all babies!

 

[3KillerBs]

I would be careful getting chicks from the feed store. We bought 25 of what was labeled and verbally described as "Layers" - "sexed female chicks" from the local TS. Thirteen of them were roosters, so they were obviously straight run and not just female. Not a total loss because they were a dual use breed, but I was very disappointed with this and TS would do nothing to correct it other than to say "sorry."

Yes, being careful is good advice.

When I bought some chicks from a feed store I went armed with the knowledge of what chicks of breeds I wanted *should* look like in hope of reducing the chance of errors.

It's not always the store's fault -- I've seen chicks in open-topped horse troughs mixing themselves by jumping up to the rim of their own bin then down into the next bin.

 

[drangle]

im no expert but when i was looking to order chicks i searched for the hatcheries that were closest to me thinking that would mean less shipping time for the chicks. I got an order of 25 chicks from Privett in NM in late august. they came in two days and they are all still alive.

i would be hesitant to order something cross country.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sorry, I don't remember if I've responded to this thread or not. We've ordered chicks from Cackle Hatchery, Mt. Healthy and Meyer, and have had good success with all of them. My feeling is this. This is a competitive business, and if any hatchery does not meet an acceptable level of service, it will quickly go out of business. So they have to provide their customers with healthy chicks of the breed and gender requested; if live, healthy chicks do not arrive for some reason, they need to make reasonable accommodation. This may be in the form of refund or replacement. Failure to do so means they will lose both customers and credibility, and eventually go out of business. So, IMO, you should be able to safely order from any reputable hatchery with confidence. After all, this is their business.

 

[Mother Clucker 69]

I ordered my last batch from McMurray. I am very impressed. All my chicks made it through the transportation process. I went with 1 breed because that's what I wanted. I did order all straight runs and ended up with 2 roosters which sort of sucks. We already have a rooster so now I am stuck with 3. But all of my chickens have grown up healthy and even made it through a move. Thank you McMurray!

 

[Mother Clucker 69]

I ordered my last batch from McMurray. I am very impressed. All my chicks made it through the transportation process. I went with 1 breed because that's what I wanted. I did order all straight runs and ended up with 2 roosters which sort of sucks. We already have a rooster so now I am stuck with 3. But all of my chickens have grown up healthy and even made it through a move. Thank you McMurray!

I am sorry we ordered all pullets I forgot.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The last couple of times we've ordered, we requested a certain number of pullets and a certain number of cockerels. And amazingly, each time, we got exactly what we ordered. And this was from two different hatcheries! But with SR orders, you could easily get 50/50.

 

[Serenityintheverse]

I order all of my birds from Meyer Hatchery. They have always come home in great shape. I have never had issues. Plus...You can get what ever mix of breeds you like at the same time. Good Luck and remember...Chicken Math is REAL!