I need a good hatchery

Okay, well we have had to fire another hatchery for not sending us our chicks, two weeks in a row!!! Lame excuses!!! I need to know of a good hatchery that is semi-close to Kentucky. These are the ones I'm ruling out: Meyer from Polk, OH. , Murray McMurray from IA, and Ridgeway from Larue, OH. We buy 300 Cornish Rock at a time, had hoped every two weeks but these hatcheries have knocked us so far out of schedule, it isn't funny. We also are looking broad breasted white turkeys. We'd like to be able to do the Cornish Rock year round.

If anyone can recommend a good place, I'd be forever appreciative.

Thanks, Kathy

Kathy, so far this appears to be a non-pregnant season for me. I would be happy to sit on some eggs for you. :)

(So sorry you are having problems. The only hatchery I am familiar with is for fishes. )

Badseed, the year's still young :) I know I should have said poultry hatchery. Thanks for responding though. There are many hatcheries in OH, but we seem to be having a lot of problems with them for some reason.

Thanks for the offer to sit on eggs, but if that were gonna happen I'd make Ralph do it. ha, ha...

:) Kathy

Not that this will help you Kathy, but I've considered (more than once) adding hatcheries and beekeeping suppliers to the Watchdog. Somehow they both seem just a step too far away from pure gardening...

Hmmm....not too long of a step though, Terry. Many folks need bees these days for pollination purposes for their gardens. (Some folks here rent beehives for that very reason. And some bee-keepers are looking to put their hives in people's gardens.)

As for poultry hatcheries...those folks interested in "chicken tractors" and using chickens for their by-product(s) for their healthy foods and compost ingredients...hmm, not too far away from Gardening, eh?

Kathy...I did a quick search this morning (around 6 a.m. so wasn't too alert then) for a Hatchery I've used several times. (Also one of the local feed mills uses them, too.) For some reason I can't find their website anymore...maybe I mis-typed the name. 'Tis "Privette Hatchery" or maybe "Privet Hatchery" or the like and they are more out West (I'm thinking Az? N. Mex?) They have done me justice in the past and the birds still arrive in two days shipping time, not bad at all.

I will also mention here that recently I ordered from a hatchery called QC Hatchery (maybe in N. Dakota or Nebrask). They really had a glitch in their system and sent my chicks to my mailing address (a post office in the next town over) instead of to my shipping address and we ended up losing half of them. On a positive note, they didn't charge me for my dead birds, however it was a mighty big inconvenience and I still don't have the number of birds I needed/wanted. Just an FYI.

Thank you Shoe. Terry, I agree with what Shoe said. That would be awesome to have that in the Watchdog. Farmers/Gardeners like Shoe, Bernie, Lisa, myself and others....well we do a lot more than just plant flowers or veggies and fruits. We have to or we would die of starvation.

One of the reasons that we are so thankful for the chickens is for bug control of our plants. They eat a lot of pesky pests and the ticks, well I can count on one hand the ticks we've found on the farm this year; that's because our free-range chickens eat them all.

I believe that they have a tremendous balance in this way of life as well. And as Shoe said, the byproducts are in themselves, a might useful tool on the farm. I don't really consider myself a gardener because I do a lot more planting and harvesting than a gardener, but have always felt a kindred spirit to a lot of the gardeners here. We may do things on a bigger scale, but we do them just the same.

:) Kathy

Well, this is a far cry from complete, but it's a start:

Beekeeping Supplies: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/advanced.php?category=130

Hatcheries & Poultry Supplies: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/advanced.php?category=131

Anyone who is aware of other mailorder sources in either category, please add it - it'll go into a queue and I'll release it, hopefully within a day or less. And of course, if anyone has had experience with any of these sources, please post your feedback for them.

Cool I like this.Thanks Terry

Terry, Thank you so much....we are still in a poultry quandry. Will have DH check these out. Again thanks, Kathy