Im just stating out have 7 hens from TSc and they are doing great-got themlast yr. I have a few breeds i would like to get from breeders BUT also want more hens to keep up with the demand for eggs...With that being said what hatchery is best?
Which hatchery?
- Thread starter 12henfun
- Start date
Ideal or privett in my opinion! My chickens from Ideal lay great, and they have a $25 minumum order. Privett is great too, but you have to order 25 chicks!
If you want eggs I would buy ISA Browns. The only hatchery that sells them is Townline. www.townlinehatchery.com you will get over 300 eggs a year from ISA's.
You can get reviews of the different hatcheries from this thread. It is a sticky at the top of this section.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=285981
I think you will find that all the big hatcheries have mainly good reviews with a few bad ones. They have been in business for many years and would not still be in business if they were not pretty good. If a hatchery ships 100,000 chicks a week and a lot of that shipping process (post office) is not in their control, you will have incidents, but I think they do a real good job most of the time. I really don't think it matters which hatchery as long as it is an established hatchery.
I find a lot of those bad reviews are not the hatcheries fault. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes a hatchery does mess up, but most of the times the problem was more in the post office (who again usually do a good job but they have people working for them that don't understand shipping chickens or know their shipping chicks policies) or in how the people that got the chicks treated them after they arrived. And sometimes people may not understand what they are ordering or the companies policies that are on their website.
There are a few hatcheries that get consistenty bad comments, usually a smaller newer one. I suggest sticking with the major hatcheries.
The chicks you got from Tractor Supply could have come from any of the major hatcheries. You can ask where they got them if you are happy with the chicks you got.
A few things I suggest you consider when ordering.
Do not try to get them shipped near a postal holiday. They can get delayed in shipping and that can be fatal.
Do not have them shipped just before a weekend. Many post offices are not open on Sundays.
Order from one that will be able to ship most direct to you. That usually means one that is fairly close to you, but I don't know the shipping routes from the hatcheries to your local post office. You can talk to your local post office about that if you want, but the best policy is to try to order from one that is in your area.
The earlier in the year you order, the more likely you are to run into bad weather when shipping, but nobody can predict the actual weather that far out. A lot of chicks are already being shipped and most do fine, but you always have to worry about weather. The eggs have to be started 21 days before they hatch and once they are hatched they have to be shipped. You can't put them in a warehouse for a few days until the weather improves.
I don't know what your goals are other than pure egg laying. There are many different breeds or crosses that could work real well for you. Leghorns lay white eggs, are fairly small in body weight so their feed to egg conversion rate is pretty good. For brown eggs many of the hatchery dual purpose breeds or crosses from those dual purpose breeds will lay a lot of eggs.
My suggestion is to find a major hatchery reasonably close to you, see what they offer that would fit your goals, and order from them. If they are close enough that you can pick them up instead of shipping them, so much the better.
Good luck!!!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=285981
I think you will find that all the big hatcheries have mainly good reviews with a few bad ones. They have been in business for many years and would not still be in business if they were not pretty good. If a hatchery ships 100,000 chicks a week and a lot of that shipping process (post office) is not in their control, you will have incidents, but I think they do a real good job most of the time. I really don't think it matters which hatchery as long as it is an established hatchery.
I find a lot of those bad reviews are not the hatcheries fault. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes a hatchery does mess up, but most of the times the problem was more in the post office (who again usually do a good job but they have people working for them that don't understand shipping chickens or know their shipping chicks policies) or in how the people that got the chicks treated them after they arrived. And sometimes people may not understand what they are ordering or the companies policies that are on their website.
There are a few hatcheries that get consistenty bad comments, usually a smaller newer one. I suggest sticking with the major hatcheries.
The chicks you got from Tractor Supply could have come from any of the major hatcheries. You can ask where they got them if you are happy with the chicks you got.
A few things I suggest you consider when ordering.
Do not try to get them shipped near a postal holiday. They can get delayed in shipping and that can be fatal.
Do not have them shipped just before a weekend. Many post offices are not open on Sundays.
Order from one that will be able to ship most direct to you. That usually means one that is fairly close to you, but I don't know the shipping routes from the hatcheries to your local post office. You can talk to your local post office about that if you want, but the best policy is to try to order from one that is in your area.
The earlier in the year you order, the more likely you are to run into bad weather when shipping, but nobody can predict the actual weather that far out. A lot of chicks are already being shipped and most do fine, but you always have to worry about weather. The eggs have to be started 21 days before they hatch and once they are hatched they have to be shipped. You can't put them in a warehouse for a few days until the weather improves.
I don't know what your goals are other than pure egg laying. There are many different breeds or crosses that could work real well for you. Leghorns lay white eggs, are fairly small in body weight so their feed to egg conversion rate is pretty good. For brown eggs many of the hatchery dual purpose breeds or crosses from those dual purpose breeds will lay a lot of eggs.
My suggestion is to find a major hatchery reasonably close to you, see what they offer that would fit your goals, and order from them. If they are close enough that you can pick them up instead of shipping them, so much the better.
Good luck!!!
- Thread starter
- #5
Most of the TSC chicks come from Mt. Healthy Hatchery (in Cincinnati). Here's their website http://www.mthealthy.com/
Different Tractor Supply stores get their chicks from different hatcheries. Where they get the "most" from is totally irrelevent. It is not worth getting hurt feelings over. If it is important to your where the ones in your TSC come from, talk to the personnel there and ask.
JustAChickenLittle&More
Songster
12 if you want eggs, lots of white eggs, get white leghorns from MacMurray. There's some things I don't necessary like about Macmurray's but I can tell you that I had a flock of white leghorns, and if you want white eggs, that the way to go, and I got them at MacMurrays.
Ideal has their weekly special on Surprise Breed pullets for $1.50 each, if you are not picky about breed but just want egg layers.
Go to their site, then under advertised specials then weekly specials then you can find it. Minimum for the special is 25.
Go to their site, then under advertised specials then weekly specials then you can find it. Minimum for the special is 25.
Last edited:
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