Why Do People Buy Live Chicks From Breeders and Farm Stores‭?

[Shadrach]

Hatcheries are the safest, IMO, as far as disease avoidance.
They are large businesses that would fail if they didn't have strict biosecurity procedures.
Shipping has its risks, as does the interim farm store habitat.

'Breeders' have a very wide range of risk, a few will be excellent and most will be trying to make a buck and lying thru their teeth to do so.

Couple of my biggest 'Romance meets Reality' disappointments when beginning with chickens was that many-to-most birds are not pure breeds, no matter what they are called by anyone....and that many-to-most birds carry disease organisms asymptomatically, which can be blindly spread to your most safely procured stock.

Really! I know very little about breeds. I get the impression here that breed type and purity is a big deal.

As far as I can gather, out here the local chickens are genetically fairly healthy. The keep chicken mania hasn’t arrived here yet. There are a few breeders, but they supply farm stock mostly. Very few people here sell chickens, most will give them away. Chickens haven’t become the big business that they seem to have become in the US.
I would love to keep the local breed. I’ve had a few abandoned Catalan hens here over the years but they don’t mix with the chickens that are already here.

 

[apryl29]

I bought my chicks from a breeder who incubates b/c I didn't want to have to quarantine the chicks before giving them to my broody hen. If they'd been around other chickens I would have had to keep them apart from my flock to make sure they didn't have any diseases and the would have defeated the entire purpose of giving my hen chicks to raise.
Chicks don't really need a hen, except to keep them warm. I bought day olds and they knew how to chicken from the start. I didn't have to teach them to eat or drink, they just knew. They're not like wild birds who rely on a parent to bring them food until they grow feathers and learn to fly.

 

[Kiki]

I forgot to add that I do mail order day old chicken chicks from a major hatchery and they have always arrived alive and healthy.

I am not for or against a specific person or place a person chooses to aquire their birds from. I am 200% against people selling sick birds though. I also believe and witness flat out liars when it comes to making a quick buck. People are sometimes just poopy.

 

[centrarchid]

Really! I know very little about breeds. I get the impression here that breed type and purity is a big deal.

As far as I can gather, out here the local chickens are genetically fairly healthy. The keep chicken mania hasn’t arrived here yet. There are a few breeders, but they supply farm stock mostly. Very few people here sell chickens, most will give them away. Chickens haven’t become the big business that they seem to have become in the US.
I would love to keep the local breed. I’ve had a few abandoned Catalan hens here over the years but they don’t mix with the chickens that are already here.

There has been a change in the US chicken economy. It is more economical to outsource chicks than to keep your own brood stock, especially if you have very limited resources or just getting into poultry keeping. From what I have observed in the midwestern US, the majority of chicken keepers only do so for a few years at most before tiring and dropping out. I bet mining the post of this forum will support for most of the US at large. The ephemeral nature of chicken keeping in the US I do see as a long term threat genetic quality of heritage breeds. When it comes to landraces that are still viable, only the fighting chickens can still make that cut and they are in trouble as well. The others would like drop from existence if the commercial hatcheries, with all their flaws with respect to genetic conservation ignored, dropped out.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I think hatcheries are safe health wise when chicks arrive at your door. Their genetic makeup is probably lacking because they are bred for numbers to make money. It’s already been said that if their birds health was in question they would be out of business by now.
I believe most issues come from treating sick birds and leaving them around the rest of your flock to sicken them all.
I have raised plenty of chicks from an incubator and hen hatched at the same time. There isn’t much difference aside from the hen hatched side learning faster.
I leave chicks with their mother until she quits. I think hen hatched chicks are better just because it’s more natural and I’m sure there is some immunity differences you can’t obviously see from the outside.

 

[BantyChooks]

I've bought from a few different places, farm supply stores included. I used to buy there because it was a reliable source of many different breeds that were healthy, decently bred, and productive-ish. Shipped hatching eggs are a lot of money for a very unsure thing, and I had horrible luck with chicks shipped privately. Leaving it to the big businesses seems to work best. I've also bought from breeders, and had good luck there too. I trusted the breeder that I dealt with, and I was repaid for my trust by ending up with some lovely Chanteclers that were healthy, productive, and didn't introduce a thing to my flock. The man I bought them from practiced amazing biosecurity and tested for more than just the standard AI/PT. I also have seen some downright awful practices by 'breeders' and wouldn't go buying willy nilly from them. Case in point---I bought Silver Ameraucanas, because I love the breed and wanted to work with them. They're not very thrifty, have multiple disqualifying flaws, and don't lay well. I don't care. Why? Because I knew what I was getting into, and because I like fried chicken enough to breed them back up to quality. It's a project, and it harms no-one since I am not selling.

I consider myself a breeder in that I pair birds and hatch from them to attain a specific goal, partly in regards to the Standard of Perfection and partly in regards to health and productivity. If that's not the right definition, then I stand corrected. I'm no longer satisfied with even the passable health standard of hatchery birds. I want more. I'm bringing in one more group of Silvers next spring, and then I will be closing my flock for at least a while. I don't hatch birds to sell and probably never will, because I'm fully aware that I am not an expert and don't have the resources for the large-scale hatching needed to appropriately weed out faults.

 

[Shadrach]

I bought my chicks from a breeder who incubates b/c I didn't want to have to quarantine the chicks before giving them to my broody hen. If they'd been around other chickens I would have had to keep them apart from my flock to make sure they didn't have any diseases and the would have defeated the entire purpose of giving my hen chicks to raise.
Chicks don't really need a hen, except to keep them warm. I bought day olds and they knew how to chicken from the start. I didn't have to teach them to eat or drink, they just knew. They're not like wild birds who rely on a parent to bring them food until they grow feathers and learn to fly.

I believe chicks do need a mum.
The above needs some clarification.
I would agree that a chick can and probably will survive without parents.
You can say this about any species, to a greater or lesser extent.

I’ve had incubated chicks here. In general they tend not to survive as long as those that have parents and a social group to belong to.
The chickens here free range and I have a number of distinct groups much like jungle fowl.
The incubated chicks have much more difficulty getting accepted by a group. What makes life easier in the circumstances the chickens here are kept is the mother introduces the chicks to her social group at some point between hatch and the point at which she stops mothering. This I believe is the ‘natural’ way of the chicken. Once introduced to the group the chick then gets protection from the groups rooster and the company of the rest of the group. When free ranging this is vital to the chicks survival. The chicks that were incubated tended to stay apart from these groups and consequently got picked off by predators and chased away by the groups hens.
For people who keep their chickens in coops and runs this isn’t a problem. However, keeping chickens enclosed with other unrelated chickens often of a different breed isn’t what ‘natural’ chickens would do.
It’s the conditions we keep the chickens in that dictate their behavior to a greater or lesser extent.
It’s not my intention to damn those who keep chickens in coops and runs. However, it is my intention to make them aware, if I can, that the conditions they keep the chickens in will often adversely effect the flocks behavior. It would seem to apply to all other species when kept in ‘unnatural conditions, including humans.
However, this isn’t really the issue of the thread.

Why did you want to give chicks to your broody hen if you believe that chicks don’t need a mother may I ask?

 

[Shadrach]

There has been a change in the US chicken economy. It is more economical to outsource chicks than to keep your own brood stock, especially if you have very limited resources or just getting into poultry keeping. From what I have observed in the midwestern US, the majority of chicken keepers only do so for a few years at most before tiring and dropping out. I bet mining the post of this forum will support for most of the US at large. The ephemeral nature of chicken keeping in the US I do see as a long term threat genetic quality of heritage breeds. When it comes to landraces that are still viable, only the fighting chickens can still make that cut and they are in trouble as well. The others would like drop from existence if the commercial hatcheries, with all their flaws with respect to genetic conservation ignored, dropped out.

A really interesting point.
It would seem for a number of reasons that the authorities in the US are going to make chicken keeping more difficult. There are already restrictions in many states I believe.
There is, I have read in various articles a concern that the rapid spread of diseases due to the backyard chicken keeping craze is going to endanger the chicken population as a whole.

As you point out, for many it’s a fad and a few years later these chickens will no longer be wanted. What happens to all these chickens

 

[aart]

Why did you want to give chicks to your broody hen if you believe that chicks don’t need a mother may I ask?

Usually to 'satisfy' a broody if one doesn't have fertile eggs available or the specific breed of eggs, needs more chickens and/or doesn't want to 'break' said broody.

I believe chicks do need a mum.

Naaahhh....(anthropomorphism raising it's deluded head again) well, maybe in a free range scenario. Again most folks are not doing what you are doing with your free range tribes and 'natural' husbandry.

I incubate chicks every year, I brood them in the coop partition from 1 week of age then integrate them into the main flock by 4-6 weeks when their 'safe haven' wall comes down. They figure out how to navigate the flock just fine. I had one group that roosted with the big birds at 7 weeks when I banned them from the nests, even tho they had separate roosts to utilize.

This year I let a broody hatch, those chicks were not any better at flock dynamics, once mama weaned them, than the incubated chicks that were 5 weeks younger. Actually I would say the broody chicks were a bit lost once they lost mama's protection, she hadn't taught them to roost with the flock, she kicked them to the curb and they seriously floundered for a week or two before joining the younger chicks group who were already well versed in the 'pecking order'.

 

[centrarchid]

. What happens to all these chickens

Dead enders. Some eaten, the minority, others age out or taken by predators. Authorities not systematically making poultry keeping more difficult. Authorities blocking poultry keeping usually more local and empowered by voters to do so. Trend in some areas reversing. Once in a while large scale commercial operators involved but not rule.

Chickens are not a fad for all.