Where to purchase chicks from?

[therese13]

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 highly recommend My Pet Chicken. They will be fine in the mail. Be sure to look at which breeds are aggressive and those that are "friendlier." Don't mix them or their will be bullying. The stores like Tractor Supply often will give you the wrong sex and you will end up with roosters. Also, chicks grow so fast that if you don't get them at the same time, you will end up with big ones that pick on the newborns. Good luck!

 

[IVRN]

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

Thank you.

 

[IVRN]

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

Nope. I don’t see the dots. I know what you are talking about but I’m not seeing them. Thanks

 

[IVRN]

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

What’s funny is my response to you just now shows those three dots. But my original
Post doesn’t have it there.

 

[rosemarythyme]

What’s funny is my response to you just now shows those three dots. But my original
Post doesn’t have it there.

I believe you can only edit posts during a limited period of time, maybe 12 hrs? 24 hrs?

 

[FlockVillemaire]

Thank you! This confirms what I was thinking.

Thank you! This confirms what I was thinking.

I got my first flock of 8 mixed heritage and hybrid breeds last March. It ended up being in 3 consecutive weeks and with great luck, has worked extremely well.

The 1st week I got just the 5 I was planning on getting from my very fine local feed store. All in great health and chosen for their compatibility (and I thought good heat tolerance.)

1) M'Lady, Light Brahma (lt brown, speckled egg)
2) Pia, Barred Plymouth Rock (lt brown, med-lg egg)
3) ChiChi, Ameraucana (blue egg, more pointed)
4) SummerGirl, Welsummer (deepest brown speckled egg)
5) Bluezy, Blue Copper Marans (slightly less deep brown egg) and the surprisingly constant sad singer of all her troubles!

But I already caught ChickenMathDisease, so immediately ordered 3 more for the next week!

TRAGEDY STRIKES! The next shipment got stuck on the side of the road in extreme CA temps and they had to put the whole truckload's survivors down. But there was a Black Star hybrid still available from the first week that I had actually ordered from this tragic new shipment, So even though there was a 3-chick minimum, I begged for Gemma with the pledge for the other 2 the next week, (paid in advance) and they let me take her home, because of the catastrophe.

(Gemma is my absolute best layer, already laying extra large light brown gems almost every day through the unexpectedly icy-for-NorCal 10th month soft-molts of all my other baby girls!) I easily introduced her at night, under my wool hen I made from a feather duster and a bunch of felted strips of wool roving that I had to carefully monitor for safety. (Totally unnecessary inside, but they loved it so much!)

So I had my final 2 to pick up the THIRD WEEK! Would it work again???? I was assured that the same plan would be successful for one more week. So I picked them up and gave it a go.

Melody, Crested Cream Legbar (blue egg, more rounded)
Livia, Olive Egger Hybrid (olive egg)

They all get along well. ChiChi from the first week is now at the bottom of the pecking order, but they have multiple feeding stations and lots of fun distractions, so all is going very well. Pia, SummerGirl & Bluezy are all turning pretty red-combed again, so I think their eggs will start back up within the next week or two.

My biggest mistake was not preparing my departed Dad's cute, but long-empty coop in advance! But introducing 3 consecutive weeks of chicks did work very well.
And my breed selection is also working, with M'Lady providing the calm giantess that ChiChi can easily hide near.

Best part is that I can tell exactly which egg is from which girl! But Lt Brahma's are not usually speckled, so I lucked out, there.

Other options I was interested in were never delivered, but I love my flock.

 

[dreamofwinter]

I'm in rural Maine and have had chicks shipped several times without incident. I highly recommend McMurray for quality birds and great selection!

 

[Iluveggers]

I got my first flock of 8 mixed heritage and hybrid breeds last March. It ended up being in 3 consecutive weeks and with great luck, has worked extremely well.

The 1st week I got just the 5 I was planning on getting from my very fine local feed store. All in great health and chosen for their compatibility (and I thought good heat tolerance.)

1) M'Lady, Light Brahma (lt brown, speckled egg)
2) Pia, Barred Plymouth Rock (lt brown, med-lg egg)
3) ChiChi, Ameraucana (blue egg, more pointed)
4) SummerGirl, Welsummer (deepest brown speckled egg)
5) Bluezy, Blue Copper Marans (slightly less deep brown egg) and the surprisingly constant sad singer of all her troubles!

But I already caught ChickenMathDisease, so immediately ordered 3 more for the next week!

TRAGEDY STRIKES! The next shipment got stuck on the side of the road in extreme CA temps and they had to put the whole truckload's survivors down. But there was a Black Star hybrid still available from the first week that I had actually ordered from this tragic new shipment, So even though there was a 3-chick minimum, I begged for Gemma with the pledge for the other 2 the next week, (paid in advance) and they let me take her home, because of the catastrophe.

(Gemma is my absolute best layer, already laying extra large light brown gems almost every day through the unexpectedly icy-for-NorCal 10th month soft-molts of all my other baby girls!) I easily introduced her at night, under my wool hen I made from a feather duster and a bunch of felted strips of wool roving that I had to carefully monitor for safety. (Totally unnecessary inside, but they loved it so much!)

So I had my final 2 to pick up the THIRD WEEK! Would it work again???? I was assured that the same plan would be successful for one more week. So I picked them up and gave it a go.

Melody, Crested Cream Legbar (blue egg, more rounded)
Livia, Olive Egger Hybrid (olive egg)

They all get along well. ChiChi from the first week is now at the bottom of the pecking order, but they have multiple feeding stations and lots of fun distractions, so all is going very well. Pia, SummerGirl & Bluezy are all turning pretty red-combed again, so I think their eggs will start back up within the next week or two.

My biggest mistake was not preparing my departed Dad's cute, but long-empty coop in advance! But introducing 3 consecutive weeks of chicks did work very well.
And my breed selection is also working, with M'Lady providing the calm giantess that ChiChi can easily hide near.

Best part is that I can tell exactly which egg is from which girl! But Lt Brahma's are not usually speckled, so I lucked out, there.

Other options I was interested in were never delivered, but I love my flock.

Cute story! I have been tempted a few times to just order a variety pack, but I love picking a bunch of individual chicks of different friendly breeds (to make a rainbow basket, just like you did!)
I have currently: Brahma, Faverolles, Sussex, and Orpington (peach/tan), Welsummer, Black Copper Marans, Blue Marans (dark brown), and Olive Egger, Easter Egger & Ameraucana (colored eggs). This year I am adding 5 more chicks.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

From my experience McMurrays has excellent customer service if you have questions or issues with your chicks. If you are getting rare birds just know that the large popular hatcheries may have breeding lines that through a curve ball and you get a bird that is anything but described. Not a big deal unless you plan to sell hatching eggs tho.
I ordered meat birds from Meyers..better deals.

 

[Mother Clucker 69]

I know I already responded to this post. We bought our first chickens from TS. We believed we were getting 2 EE and 2 Orpingtons. The 2 EE were amazing. The Orpingtons we're actually broilers and lived past there actual life expectancy. But because they were so obese the have a pretty bad death. Just be cautious when ordering from chain fees stores. We have a local