Why buy from hatcheries

Many times you can't find the breeds or quantities you want at the time you want them.

 

There are several good reasons. One is that they are much cheaper in general. If you want 50 hens for egg production you can get them at a very low price. From a backyard breeder, you'd get straight-run chicks anywhere from 2 to 10 times the cost. Then double the costs again, since only 50% would be hens. I've also found that hatcheries will guarantee live delivery or ship you more for free. Not only that, but they'll ship them by the much cheaper priority mail with the same guarantee. Not many backyard breeders who will guarantee anything, at least none that I've bought from.

 

As had been said many times you can not get locally what you want. Also health is another concern as hatcheries usually are healthy stock. Not so sure about those local around here. You can get all one sex or any portion you want with a hatchery too. Not all hatcheries sell just 25 lots either.

 

I totally disagree, Last year I bought about 90 chicks from McMurray, they were the worst chicks I have ever raised, breeds were not true, 20-25% mortality rate when raised beside chicks I hatched mortality was only 1-2% and cost was twice the price I could have got them from locally. Most Hatchery chicks are mutts at best if you are looking for chickens to lay eggs fine then buy hatchery stock, but if you want good breeding stock find a good, reputuable breeder. On example look at McMurray BLRW's if you have ever seen any they are orange or golden where they should be a good deep mahogony, there is no comparison between mass Hatcheries and Good breeders. It all depends on what you are doing with the chicks. As for them guaranteeing them Hogwash, Mcmurray said they would refund money for lost chicks, but never heard from them again.
David

 

I've had good hatchery experiences. For Seramas, breeders are better. However, if you want some nice, healthy, inexpensive Easter Eggers, hatcheries are wonderful.

 

Hi, since we sell through BYC, we have made a commitment to other breeders on BYC to buy from them before we go to large establishments. It has been our belief that the higher quality birds are available through smaller breeders and especially not the drop ship breeders. We like the ability to be able to see where the chickens reside, their treatment, their appearance. These are things we cannot do with large hatcheries.

Hope this was helpful and have a blessed day.

(This was not intended to be disparanging in anyway of large breeders, but since you asked the question, I just wanted to share our perspective.)

 

When we started out with our most recent flock, we bought from a hatchery because we saw their magazine, which looked amazing. It had sooo many breeds, and a lot of them were indeed rare. We fell into the trap of thinking all our purchases would be as beautiful as the breed standard or illustrations showing the breed. (and yes, the other reason is because they were cheap,and you could buy how many ever you want.)

But, you can also buy from breeders in just the same way. People claim you can't buy a lot (umm, yeah, infact you often can't buy less than a dozen) that they aren't as easily found as breeders (it's called look around, ask around. Sure, chicken breeding isn't as big online as say dog breeding - But that's why we have places like this forum.) and that they are too expensive (only really good, rare breeds are. Most are sold in large amounts of eggs just as cheaply as getting hatchery quality.)

Then, there's the fact that breeders actually look for breed standard, a bird that is strong and healthy, and an environment that doesn't cage up thousands of hens just to lay eggs to sell. A lot of hatcheries have epidemics go through their eggs, bad genes, and weak birds who lay anyway, and may possibly look a little like the breed they are labelled as - So their eggs are sold. The birds who give you chicks in hatcheries aren't well cared for - There are too many for that. The birds you get from breeders are - It's what they are selling. (friendly, breed standard, strong, beautiful, hardy)

Plus, you know what your chick will look like when it grows up. In hatcheries, you don't.

I think most people go for hatcheries, though, for the same reason that they buy store meat, not local meat. It is out there, a large company, advertised all over, and promises any amount of whatever you want at a cheap price. And, some people don't care about how good it turns out - Just as long as it is real, and gives what they want. (in this case, eggs or meat.) It could be said the same for companies that sell your store eggs - They use leghorns. Why? Because they take little care, do well in confinements, lay an excellent amount of eggs (although the egg itself is horribly put together quite often, but usually just because of poor diet) and are easily replaced. If they used, say, Brahmas - They would get less eggs that are smaller, and have broody, loud, claustrophobic birds.

But on last note - I do agree that if you want something like an Easter Egger - Hatchery is the way to go. Because of the mix in the birds, you can get a huge variety of color, body type, and egg color.

 

I bought from a hatchery because I wanted a small number of sexed pullets of a variety of breeds who would look pretty running around the yard and lay eggs. Since I'm not planning on breeding or showing, it wasn't worth it to me to spend the money for show quality birds. Everyone has different goals, and mine were easier to fill buying from a hatchery.

 

I agree and at the same time disagree with a lot of what is being posted. Hatcheries are great if you are not after show quality birds. But most hatcheries require that you get a minimum number of birds which is usually 25. Yes there is the exception out there where you can get smaller numbers but then they fill the box with packing peanuts that are usually roos. 25 birds is usually more than most people want. Yes small breeders can be expensive to get your birds from. But they also have chicks that don't make the standards that you can usually bargain for. If you are looking for show birds then go to a breeder and expect to pay show quality prices. If you are looking for production birds then find someone who deals in production birds. If you just want something cute running around the yard then don't be picky about what you get. We are a small time farm with an average of 150 birds during the peak months. We hatched over 600 chicks last year. If someone comes to us for chicks they know what they are getting. They can see the parent stock. They can see how the chicks are handled. We raise mainly production breeds and people know that in advanced. Out of the 28 breeds of chickens we have here, we can sex our chicks within a 90% accuracy. And we give everyone a guarantee that if they only want and pay for hens then if they end up with a rooster and don't want it then we will take it back and replace it if we have a replacement. If they every have one of our birds that they don't want for some reason, we will always take them back. No we wont pay someone a return of what they think they have invested in a bird. We have only ever had one bird ever come back to us which was a full grown rooster that we gave to a young girl with her knowing that it was mean. She had it free ranged with the rest of her birds and it kept chasing her. So she called and brought it back and he tasted really good. We generally sell our day old chicks for $2 each. Yes prices vary depending on breed and age. And no we do not ship. We only hatch in small batches and we do custom hatches for people if needed. There are many people out there that raise a very wide array of chickens. If you are not in a huge hurry you can usually find what you want within an hours drive in any direction. If you are in a hurry then go to the big hatcheries and get them quicker but remember you get what you pay for. Sometimes......