which hatchery?

[1 Bad Rotti]

I live in GA and was wondering which hatchery would be the best to order from. I've never ordered any chicks so I would like to order from one that everybody has had good experiences with. Also what is MPC? If it matters about the breed, I'm wanting to order some RIR and MARANS. THANKS for any input.

 

[austin.ray22]

I have had good luck with Meyer Hatchery

 

[featherfooted]

I live in middle GA and I order from Ideal hatchery. I had good luck with them. I 've ordered both chicks and ducklings form them and I'm planning to order from them again this spring.

 

[Pequena Bandada]

We ordered from MPC (which stands for My Pet Chicken) and were fully satisfied. All of our chicks arrived healthy and cute. One note - MPC has the lowest number of chicks that you have to order but their shipping costs are high. If you only want a few chicks, they're the way to go, but if you want 25 or 30, it's more economical to go with a different hatchery. It's pretty late in the season to order chicks, so you may not find Marans anywhere. I think most hatcheries still have Rocks, though.

 

[CoffeeCow]

I ordered 10 from My Pet Chicken (MPC) all arrived safe and sound. I lost 1 on the first night, and the rest are happy and laying now.

you prolly can't order chicks till the first of the year from them, but they will ship as little as 3 if your close to a major city.

 

[EMAW]

Can't tell you which hatchery to use, but Meyer now will ship as few as 3 chicks.

Good Luck.

 

[twister]

I have had great results with Murray McMurray.

25 or more chicks tho

they are not shipping until end of jan .

 

[ck_dunham]

Quote:
I Second that! I have 25 chick I got from Ideal about 5 weeks ago and there all in great shape. They were very prompted to get me my order.
I also use Murray McMurray but do to the fact that there in the north it’s a bit cold for them to ship this time of year where as Ideal is in TX.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This link may help you. If you look at the ratings and comments, you will see that most have good reviews and bad reviews. There are a few that mainly have bad reviews. Use your judgment and make the best choice for you. I will mention that any hatchery that ships up to 100,000 chicks a week in the busy season is bound to have a few bad reviews, so don't be thrown off by an occasionaly bad review. But if you see a pattern, be careful. Not all hatcheries ship 100,00 chicks a week.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=285981

I don't know when you are planning on ordering. I'll mention a few things. The chicks are shipped through the post office. Many people at the post office do a great job with chicks, but occasionally you get somebody that does not know what they are doing concerning chicks. That is not in your control and that is not in the control of the hatcheries shipping the chicks. You'll notice that several of the complaints in the ratings for the hatcheries were probably not caused by the hatcheries. But occasionally the hatcheries do mess up.

I've noticed complaints on here go way up when the chicks are shipped around a postal holiday. Some people will say that in theory it should not matter, but it does. Try to avoid ordering them when they would be shipped near a postal holiday.

Severe weather is another time that is rough on shipped chicks. The main one to be concerned about is cold days. The boxes of chicks are sometimes left on loading docks or handled in a way that they are more exposed to the elements. Also in winter, snow or ice may delay shipping somewhere in the process. I suggest ordering at a time of year that these potential problems are not so risky.

It is normally best to order from a hatchery that is fairly near to you. That cuts down on the time that it should take for the chicks to get to you. That is not always as simple as that sounds. Sometimes a shipment may go from Dallas to Chicago to Atlanta instead of straight from Dallas to Atlanta. But if you order from somewhere realatively close by that should improve your odds.

MPC is a company called MY Pet Chicken that will ship as few as three chicks if you live in a major metropolitan area, but more likely your minimum will be 5 or 8, depending how far from a major central post office you are. I have not used them but they have a pretty good reputation for good customer service. They are pretty expensive compared to some others. Many hatcheries have a minimum number of shicks they will ship, usually either 15 or 25. The idea is that the chicks will keep each other warm during shipment. MPC and some others that ship fewer chicks normally put a chemical warmer in the shipment to keep them warm. Naturally that costs more. Even if you order 15 or 25, some hatcheries will put extra chicks (usually roosters) in the order as "packing peanuts" to keep them warm if the weather conditions call for that.

Hope this helps some. Good luck!

 

[1 Bad Rotti]

Thanks Ridgerunner lots of useful info. Thanks to everyone else as well. Here's another question.... are the marans from hatcheries decent stock to start with?