Why is the minimum number cout on hatchery mail order guineas so high?

[alogue5173]

Can anybody please tell me why the minimum number of guinea keets ordered from hatcheries is usually between 25-30, but you can order as few as 3-5 chicks? I want some guineas very badly, but cannot find anyone in my area that has keets or even hatching eggs for sale, but I don't need, nor can I afford 25-30 keets at one time. If it was a heat thing I could understand, but the fact that you can order so few chicks in an order but have to buy 25-30 guineas or turkeys is ridiculous. Anybody have an answer to this?

 

[Blue]

I think it may have something to do with the livability of the birds; guinea keets are smaller and more fragile than chicks. Then again, it could just be that the hatchery isn't actually raising the guineas there, but getting them from somewhere else. I know that this is how Ideal does with their turkeys; they have a $25 minimum on all their chickens but no chick minimum, but turkeys are outsourced and not hatched by them, so they have a 15 turkey minimum.

 

[alogue5173]

OK, that makes sense. Thanks for the reply

 

[Blue]

Okay, I just checked Ideal's website, and their minimum rare turkey order is actually 10, not 15, but I checked their guineas, and though it says they are sold out until June, I didn't see a minimum bird amount listed, so maybe the guineas are under the $25 minimum at Ideal, in which case that would put you at about 6 or 7 chicks minimum, so that might be something you could look into: https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/Products.aspx?Category=Guineas