Hatcheries?!?!

Hi all, does anybody know of any good hatcheries where I can get chicks mail to me??? I want to know so I'm prepared when spring comes along. I know about Mc Murray Hatchery and all those other ones, but the minimum is 25! I only need about 4-6 chicks. I tried all night yesterday to find one, but no luck

Any advice??? Anybody???

They say you must buy alot because they keep each other warm. Maybe a feed store in the area could tell you someone. How about if you put up an ad? If I saw an ad and the person seemed very sincere, I would go out of my way to give them some chicks. Have
you considered a bred hen? She could raise the bitties for you. Do you have a livestock auction near you?

here is one of a few threads in this forum that talks about hatcheries...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/795599/

tf

I have the same dilemma. I want some chicks and I want them NOW!!! LOL
I want only 3 chicks of specific breeds, but the only place to gets them seems to be MyPetChicken.com and they aren't shipping 'til mid February. I found a couple of local chat groups on Yahoo where folks are selling chooks and there is a big Poultry Show on here in Northern California that I'm going to in a couple of weeks time. I have my fingers crossed that I can get some there. You can also check Craigslist. GL

Last year when I was looking for a hatchery that would let me order less than 25, I found Ideal Poultry was the only one that didn't tack on a huge fee for small orders.

Shipping is included in the price of the chicks and they add a very small extra fee for small orders. They also charge $2 extra for each different kind of chick. If you're only ordering one or two kinds, this would only be a couple of dollars added.

They will, however, add in free rooster chicks to keep the chicks warm during shipping so be ready to deal with all those extra chicks. I ordered 11 chicks and they put in six roosters.

I was also very pleased with the chicks I received. They have been strong and healthy from day one and were all properly sexed. No problems whatsoever.

If you only want three chicks, you're probably still better off to find them locally. One of our local feed stores used to allow you to order as few as you wanted so long as it was one of the breeds on their list. The only feed store ordering now requires the usual minimum of 25, which is no advantage over simply ordering yourself.

Well great new! After doing so research I finally found a site! But the down side is that this site only carries chickens that can only lay good dark eggs. I think brown ones. I pretty sure that you can order now!

But anyways here it is: > www.darkeggs.com < Oh, and if you find another other site/s please post it!

Thanx and Good Luck,

Eric

I thought this site was cheaper : http://www.cacklehatchery.com/

Eric, you would still have to order 25 chicks from Dark Eggs - that is the minimum shipping number. Check out their Order Policy page.

Hart, I agree that finding them locally will be my best option. What did you do with the extra roos? There is ONE feed store in my area that sells chicks and has them available now but they look a little dubious. The chicks accommodations were really dirty and the signs that told what the breeds were, were all wrong.

BTW - Hi all, chicken newbie here. I've read every thread in the forum and have learned a ton from you all. It's my new favourite place to lurk here at Daves.

Sorry to hijack your thread Eric.

BTW..... do not pay extra to have them sexed.......you will most likely get rooster anyway @ mypetchicken. Not too good at sexing chicks.
Look on craigslist

My Pet Chicken is the only site I knew about, and that's already been mentioned. A suggestion for you, though--perhaps you could find someone(s) who would be willing to buy the extra chicks from you/ go in with you in the ordering. Perhaps even here in this forum there's someone near you in Michigan that would be interested, or if you have local newspaper / trading paper that doesn't charge too much for ads, you could try that. Craigslist is an option also, but you might get people responding who really know nothing about chickens (since craigslist has such variety).

Of course, if you want only hens, this wouldn't help, but you might consider buying hatching eggs if you have an incubator or a way to borrow or buy one. Hatching eggs are still available on Ebay now, and a few on www.eggbid.com One word of caution, though: the "cheapie" $15 incubators are iffy at best, they don't have a heat or humidity control. A foam (little giant or hovabator) incubator is the best way to go, if you get a good deal (check around) you can likely get your money back on Ebay.

Ideal is far cheaper than My Pet Chicken and, like I said above, I had no problems at all with mine not being properly sexed.

Hi Eric19,

We bought our chicks for the first time a couple of years ago at the local feed store. We also had to buy 25 and they threw in 3 extras for free. We ended up with 60 % hens. It was a mix of various breeds so we just got whatever since we were new at raising chickens and it didn't really matter. The ones we could identify easily were the rock cornish cross which are meat chickens. We bought 6 of those.

Now we have a better idea of how to sex chicks (day old female chicks will usually have more of the pin feathers showing on their wings than the males--we don't try sexing the other way).

Now it is about time to replace our hens. We have found that we really only need 3 to 5 hens to suit our needs...so the plan is to buy maybe 20 of the rock cornish cross for meat (they are the size of basketballs and processed at 8 weeks) and then buy only 5 layers (plus whatever extras they throw in). This way, we figure we will end up with our 3 to 5 hens if we end up getting any roos since the pin feather sexing is not 100% sure.

If you have freezer space, there is nothing better than home raised chicken meat. We skin ours and this works out fine for the crock pot. My apologies to any vegetarians reading this...

Eric, I'm waiting to buy some chickens too, most of the web sites don't even open till jan or february. or rather start taking orders till then.

I think i've decided to go with murray cause they have the ones I want. I can't order from them till february. i'm going to order about 35 pullets.

someone on another thread said when you get them to dip each one's beak in water till they take a swallow then put them into the brood box , that wakes them up sort of and gets them to wanting water and feed. So i'm going to do this when I get mine in, i'm excited, i've never ordered through the internet before.

kathy

which chickens are you interested in and where have you decided to purchase at ?

Well I'm looking for White and Buff Orpingtons, White Pearl Leghorn, or even Araucana/Americana. Or any dark brown egg layer. Would anybody know of any dark brown layers???

the welsheimer spelling is a dark layer, and the cuckoo maran is a dark layer,

you can go to meyerhatchery and and click on the chicks link, and then click on the dark layers and it will come up, I was wrong about the web sites. I think I decided to go with meyerhatchery instead of murray.

here's the link with the dark brown layers. I'm going to get some silver laced wyndotts too.

http://www.meyerhatchery.com/get_dept_1.htm

don't forget to contact this place, my hatchery of choice. they are family owned, serious breeders, very clean & humane.

xtremegamebirds.com

tf

Hey, that place looks cheaper than meyers LOL I may have to order from them instead.

I'll go read how the guarantee is on their birds, if they replace if their dead upon arrival. I'm sure they do, thanks for the link.

It's hard to understand their pricing, I wasn't quite sure what they charge for the birds.

if I wanted to order 5 of six or 7 varieties, that would cost alot more I think. I may have to email them and ask to make sure.

Also, does anybody recommend purchasing some sort of supplement to give the baby chicks when they arrive? if so, what would you recommend.

I have to pipe in and give my regards to Welp Hatchery in Bancroft, Iowa. I ordered from them for the first time last summer. My very first chickens came from them via our local farm supply store in the spring, and I decided to do an order in July. All 40 of my chicks arrived healthy and peeping, and I only lost one within the next few days, and it was the group of smaller chicks (golden spangled hamburgs) and the poor little guy got smothered. They have free shipping, and will do a credit if you lose some chicks in shipping.

The free shipping is bringing me back this year, I wanted to try Murray McMurray in a bad way (I think it's the surprise free exotic chick that gets me) but I've had both of their pages pulled up, and did a somewhat similar order (not the exact, as their availability of sex/standard run are somewhat different) With getting 38 chicks at Welps versus 33 at MM, it will still be cheaper, and Welps has the free shipping. I went through their list and picked out one chick that I normally wouldn't get, and added him, so there is my, not really free, but surprise chick, lol!

Kathy-as far as my very first order last summer, I just did what Welps told me-mix some sugar (can't remember, think it was 1/2 a cup) in with their room temp. water for the first few days. Murray McMurray has that Chick Boost, or whatever it's called, but I have a feeling it does the same thing, and I have sugar already in my cupboard, lol.

I'll do that with the sugar then.

you guys are really changing my mind about where to buy chicks at LOL

does welps have a minimum order if you loose your chicks and get a credit, and can't use that credit unless you buy 25 more. it's kind of like not getting your money back LOL who wants to purchase another minimum order to get your dead chick money back? Just checking all the options before buying.

You know, I'm not really sure about that. I just remember reading they will credit you....something like, if you order next year, (not exactly getting your money back, I know) use it towards another order later on (like I'm going to order turkeys in June/July) I'll post their website, if you want to check them out. I guess they don't do much good for the original poster, since he only wanted a few chicks and they have a minimum order, but for others-there's my suggestion, lol!

http://www.welphatchery.com/

Eric, Try this website. It has listings of many hatcheries :) And if I'm correct, I think that the Poultry Connection is how I first met our very own Shoe :) Many years ago...

:) Kathy
http://www.poultryconnection.com/hatchery.html

Eric,
It just occurred to me that you might be able to get the number of chicks you want if you contact the your local 4H. If you call your County Extension Office, they might be able to hook you up with a 4H'er who plans to raise chicks and would be willing to add your 4 or 5 of choice to his or her order.

:o)

i LOVE Meyer hatchery. I am totally a walking ad for them. They are great, they have great customer service, all the chicks were healthy and as ordered. They were packed so well! They were all happy and didn't even have pastybutt!

Meyer will let you order whatever you want, although there is a fee for less than 25, because they pack a heating pad under the straw with the chicks for less than 25. My mother ordered 8 and they did fine as well as my 13.

Now, on the other hand, if you don't really truly care about breed, you can also just og with your local feed store.