Comments regarding Welp Hatchery

I have ordered from Welp for a couple years now without any issues. However, my recent order has been terrible to say the least. Upon receiving my birds, I noticed a few DOAs which I found understandable due to my large quantity order and possible mishaps in shipping which isn't the company's fault. However, when I was placing the chicks into their respective brooding areas, I noticed several had obvious skeletal deformities like wry neck that were rather hard to miss, especially since each bird was individually wing banded. One was so severe, that it could only lay on its back. While I understand my order consisted of a rather large quantity of broilers, a hatchery should never send out chicks with such obvious malformations that they don't have any chance to live. A couple days later, I have found myself pulling out dead chicks constantly and have already lost over 10% of my order. This is way more than what should be dying from natural causes, stress, etc. They appear to have some sort of illness. I know these deaths are not caused by error on my part because I have been raising broilers from this exact hatchery for a number of years now and have had experience from other hatcheries, and hatching my own birds for 10+ years without an issues. These chicks have also been quarantined from any of my personal birds since arriving, and biosecurity measures are taken seriously. This was an absolute slap to the face to a repeat customer who wanted to use these birds as an FFA project. I am a college student who funds my own poultry projects and this has been a huge waste of money, time, and opportunity for me due to negligence of simply sending out healthy, vigorous chicks.

I have 1 silver duckwing hen, and she is a special little bird. She is the first bird that ive ever had that will follow me and sit on my shoulder, so i decided to buy a few more from Welp Hatchery. Well i had to buy a total of 30, there were 4 other breeds including 3 different mille fleur d'uccles, and they arrived a little over a month later. Well they didnt ship a single extra, and there were multiple dead chicks and chicks that have a wobble likw they will die.

I was in the market for some Blue Australorps, I found some good reviews on Welp and they had exactly what I needed online, so I added my birds .. then noticed there was a 25 chick minimum..I talked to some friends and we came up with 19 more birds to fill out my order.
Website was easy to use, ordering and payment was easy!
Next, I received a call .. the birds shipped, but not the 6 for me .. great. The call came after shipping so no opportunity for any changes, adds, or deletes .. nor could I pause my order.
Customer Service, which could be more accurately called .. replies to emails .. says they cannot ship in quantities less than 25 (see above here they shipped 19).
Really disappointed that I didn’t get my birds, and that they can’t or aren’t able or willing to help me in anyway.
Good news is that 17/19 of birds received survived transit and are doing well! They seem like nice healthy chicks!

Neutral for some negatives and some positives, for review timing, my birds arrived on February 5th, 2021.

Placed my order online 6/26/20 for 35 chicks (7 different breeds, they require a minimum of 5 chicks per breed and a minimum of 25 chicks to ship) and automatically received an email letting me know to expect a response from a human within 3-5 business days.

About 2-3 weeks later on 7/13/20 I emailed them myself as I had not received a response yet. I promptly received an order confirmation that same day (7/13/20 - this is also the date my packing slip says I placed the order), with an estimated ship date of 8/19/20.

Last week on 7/31/20, I got both a phone call and an email letting me know my order ship date was moved up to 8/5/20. This was a welcome surprise and I was glad for it. There was no additional charge for this change that I have seen as of yet.

The chicks were received today 8/7/20. All were alive upon arrival, and so far seem energetic, loud, and curious about their brooder. Unfortunately however I only received 30 birds instead of the ordered 35. I called Welp and spoke with a kind man (Michael I believe?) who offered to refund 5 birds, as I was unsure of which breed were missing. I accepted a refund of a random 5 birds of their choosing, and I myself offered the lowest priced breed because I was unsure which breed was missing. I will see which 5 they refunded me in about a week according to the man I spoke with.

Upon further inspection of the birds I believe either my 5 Speckled Sussex or 5 Barnevelders didn't make it into my box with their coop mates, as I clearly have 10 chicks with feathered feet (Gold and Silver Laced Cochins), 5 dark grey chicks (Blue Wyandottes?), 5 creamish grey and red chicks (Blue Laced Red Wyandottes?), as well as 5 chicks with chunky "beards" (Ameraucana). There are 5 remaining chicks, I assume are either my Speckled Sussex, Barnevelders, or a combination of the two breeds.

My review is overall positive even with the couple issues (communication and missing birds) with Welp for a few reasons:
- The chicks all arrived alive, something I can't say for all the hatcheries I've used in the past.
- The 30/35 chicks I did receive appear to be in better health than other hatcheries I've used in the past.
- The fact that they were willing to rectify the situation, even though their records showed they sent 35 birds. I offered video proof of me cutting the strings on the box and opening the lid, but he took my word for it an offered a refund with no questions (other than asking if I knew which breed was missing of course) asked.

I would definitely order from Welp again in the future if my 30 birds all grow well over the next few weeks, and if at least 90% of them are pullets like I ordered. The selection they have is great, extensive, and their prices are almost unmatched - with shipping included! In the future I believe I would place an order over the phone instead of online to ensure a quicker response. Thank you Welp!

My second order with Welp was a disaster. Was called by the company asking if they could move my delivery date back by 2 weeks. Asked them if the price was the same and yes it was. I added to my order. Got a new confirmation and everything was good. They put a hold on my account for the correct amount of money. But then they took out $30 extra dollars a couple of days later. Called them about it and they said I had cancelled the order and then reordered. I told them I had not every talked to the person mention. I had only every dealt with 2 people with Welp and had never cancelled my ordered. They could not explain it and said it happens. I have cancelled all my orders with Welp and will not use them every again. Can't trust that they will not do this again and not care.

We have been ordering meat birds from Welp Hatcheries for several years now. The first year was a learning curve for us as well as becoming familiar with how the hatchery systems worked. Happily, it was glitch-free and continues to be so. Healthy chicks and a few extras for good measure. A couple successful growing seasons makes ordering a confident and comfortable choice.

Customer service is very helpful with any and all questions. Deliveries have always been prompt.

We will continue to use their services.

I was nervous about ordering here because a local store got their birds here last year and the Ducks arrived dead again and again. I figured I would be safe because our post to our home doesn't go to the same locations so we should get quicker. Our meat chicks arrived safe and quickly. The turkeys arrived a day later even though they were shipped at the same time as the meat birds and 3 died. We ordered turkeys elsewhere too and no losses. Several of the turkeys look like they have angel wings (don't know if turkeys get that but that is what they look like). Then they completely forgot to put in 6 of the pullets I ordered. So obviously no extras included. I ordered in Jan. for April delivery so I could get what I wanted and now everywhere is sold out or can't get that breed for over a month. This means I either have to wait until next year to get or have two separate grow out dates which is very difficult. I almost gave a neutral because they did refund my money easily for the birds which was really nice. Very good customer service as far as that is concerned. I have geese scheduled to come this week so hoping they come quick, alive, and all ordered are in the box.

"On Apr 11, 2016 3:49 PM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

Hello. I'm sorry that this occurred with your order. Someone made a mistake in filling your order and missing the 6 pullets. This was a mistake on our part, and we'll work to do better in the future. I see that you did contact us and we have issued a refund for this. Thank you for contacting us. I wish we have more control over the arrival date of the birds. Generally it is 2 days for arrival, but with Priority Mail, it can sometimes take until the 3rd day. On the whole, the postal system does a very good job for us. In this case, the one extra day may have caused the loss of the birds in your order. We hope you'll give us a try in the future. We do appreciate your business."

I have ordered chicks from Welp Hatchery for many years. I have always been extremely happy with the orders I receive from them. All of the chicks are healthy and active and there have only been a few chicks that did not survive the trip in all of these years. The staff at Welp has always been a joy to deal with, and they are quick to remedy any problems that might arise. Shipping chicks is a difficult task and Welp is one of the best in the business. They are my favorite hatchery to order from.

I ordered 26 mixed chicks from Welp Hatchery and I couldn't be more pleased! They arrived all alive plus the few extra. They are very beautiful! They send you one invoice letting you know when the chicks are expected to ship, their website lets you know they should ship and that they should arrive within two days of that date. From the time I received the invoice to the time I received the chicks, I never heard from them, but that was ok with me because I know they are probably busy and the chicks arrived right when they should. I was a little skeptical at first, but they do put on the box, call upon arrival and my phone number. My post office called me at 3am, but that was ok with me! I am overall pleased with the selection, price and quick shipping. They also had many varieties in stock that many other companies did not.

I've ordered Cornish Rocks and I just ordered ass. mixes and a few Bantams for the first time. I've ordered over 200 chicks from Welps in the past and have done great! I'm hoping your breeder birds are as good as your meat poultry.

I was skeptical about ordering through a hatchery, as typically we order through the feed stores. Unfortunatley we are off season and had a critter kill the majority of our chickens.

The US should have laws about shipping new born chicks. I ordered 30 chicks from Welp Hatchery and 16 chicks were dead when I rec'd the package. It was not through any fault of Welp hatchery, they were only in the box 48 hours, and they took all precautions that they could, but it was unnecessary death. DO NOT Order from any hatchery, as they all have not choice but to use the US postal service as other carriers will not ship chicks. Blue Seal has their chicks overnighted to them, so order through the feed store. Having your children open up the box and having 50% of the chicks be dead is not a good thing.

"On Jun 28, 2013 11:41 AM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

Thanks for giving me a chance to respond to this comment. Here is the part of the email below that I sent to this customer.

I received your voice mail and wanted to have a look at your order for you. Attached is the email confirmation that our customer service rep. sent to you on 6/21 when the order was entered, as well as the text of the email below. It shows the ship date as 6/26/13, which is the actual day the birds hatched and shipped. This being the case, the birds were in the mail for less than 48 hours as indicated by the screen shot at the bottom of the page taken from the USPS delivery confirmation. We do ship our birds priority mail through the post office, which is typically 2 days. In your case it was less than 2 days. This is a standard shipping time and the industry standard is priority mail. We cannot ship Fed Ex, or UPS as they will not accept day old chicks, so the post office is our only option.

Generally the post office does a good job of shipping for us. Unfortunately, there is always a slight risk of shipping through the mail. Unfortunately, since there are only so many hatcheries in the United States now, and we are spread out all over the US, with limited options for shipping, on occasion we can lose chicks during the shipping process. Our losses on the whole are typically less than 0.5% of the total chicks that ship. Unfortunately, it sounds like your chicks did not have a very good trip. We are truly sorry about this. We do our best to work with the post office to get the birds to you in the best, quickest, safest, most efficient manner.

As you might imagine, it is definitely not good for our business to have chicks arrive dead, or in poor condition. We have to either replace the chicks, or refund to the customer, and most importantly we have upset customers. It is never enjoyable for us to hear chicks did not arrive in good shape. Again, I apologize for this. We work with the post office on routing, we put less chicks in the boxes during the warmer months to try and help with excessive heat (however, remember that chicks need to be about 90-95 degrees the first week in the brooder, so they can take warm temps, they just need to have good airflow and ventilation), we add supplements to the boxes to hydrate the birds along the way, and we deliver our chicks directly to airmail facilities to expedite them through the post office. In the summer months, we actually drive the chicks in our climate controlled truck an extra 150 miles at our own additional expense, to get the birds to the postal airmail facility, rather than put them on a postal truck locally. We really are concerned with the welfare of our chicks.

In addition to the comments above, I'd like to point out that Blue Seal is getting their chicks from a hatchery somewhere in the United States. There are probably less than 10 major commercial chick hatcheries in the United States, so chances are that the birds are shipped into the feed store as well. The times of every town having a hatchery where people can stop by and pick up chicks are unfortunately gone. For most people, the only option for getting chicks is through the mail.

I appreciate the oppurtunity to respond. Thanks!
"

We ordered 30 Cornish x rock chicks from Welp in mid August 2012. They shipped and arrived exactly as scheduled. All were alive and well and they sent two extras. 10 days later they are developing and maturing well with only one death which occurred a few days after arrival. All legs are fine and no cases of pasty-butt. So far I am very please with Welp and will post a revision if this changes.

I ordered 25 chicks from Welp's. Of the 25 I ordered ALL plus the extra one they included arrived healthy and vigorous 48 hrs after they hatched. They shipped on the exact date Welp's said they would, too. Kudos also to our US Postal Service, they did a great job delivering my peeps from Iowa to PA. The postal workers at the post office were impressed with how healthy the birds are. One didn't know you could get a mix of breeds in the 25 minimum order and I caught her checking out the mail label to get the hatchery name. I got exactly what I ordered, 5 Sicilian Buttercups, 5 Brown Leghorns, 5 Golden-laced Wyandottes, 5 Naked-neck Turkens and 5 Buff Orphingtons plus an extra Buff. They are all still thriving after 3 days now. I've never had my own chickens before and I'm very pleased with my experience with Welp's Hatchery!

I received my order today from Welp on March 30, 2012...I live in Iowa and one of the reasons I ordered from them is there are also in Iowa. This was my first order from Welp, I am a 'vetran' chicken producer having received thousands of chicks over many years. I called to check on the status of the order on March 27th and was told the chickens were being shipped from New Mexico. I was none too pleased with this being discussed now, not when I ordered the chickens in early Feb. I received the chicks today, 75 ordered and received 66 alive and 9 dead....not 1 extra was shipped. Does not look like they were vaccinated for Mareks either. I am waiting to call them to discuss when they open at 8 AM.
I don't like the 'bait and switch' ( ship from a hatchery other than Welp in NM not IA) and the fact they shipped from another time zone and not 1 extra chick....well thats just cheap.
I will not ever order from the company again and recommend othyers choose another hatchery.

"On Apr 2, 2012 2:28 PM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

I've spoken directly with the customer above regarding his order, but will add some comments here as well.

First, we do use several supply points (other producers), to supply birds for our orders. We hatch cornish rock broilers and red rangers here at our hatchery, but use other supply points for different breeds. This is mentioned in the middle of our home page right on our website, and is in regular sized type, not fine print. We have never tried to hide this fact from our customers. Most of the other supply points have been doing business with us for 20 years or longer and we would not continue that relationship if we thought it was reflecting on us negatively.

The customer mentioned that he did receive exactly 75 chicks (which is what he was charged for) but 9 did not survive the trip through the mail. Unfortunately, this sort of thing can happen on occassion, despite all the precautions we put in place to help avoid loss of birds in the mail. It is our policy to send a few extras chicks in the box, but in this case, I can only assume the person counting made a mistake. For this I apologize. I have issued a refund back to this customer for these birds. He also mentioned that the birds did not have the marek's vaccination noted on the packing slip. It was noted correctly in the system, and I believe probably was done to the order, but I did issue a refund for this as well since it was not noted on the packing slip. (Sometimes a "V" on the line for the chicks is used to abbreviate marek's vaccination.) I do understand the customer's concern regarding this. Again, a mistake on our part that is not acceptable. This is definately not the norm for how we do business, and we will work to do better next time. Our goal is always to get quality birds to our customers efficiently, and in the best health possible.

Thanks for reading my reply.

I ordered by phone, ordered 25 straight run Cornish Rock broilers. gave all the info and was told the shipping date."The following Wed." On the weekend My daughter told me we needed more than that. so I called back and asked if the order could be increased by another 10 pullets that my daughter wanted. No problem.Not only did they add a couple chicks to the first order they added a couple to the second. so even though a lot of postal sorting stations have closed and the chicks had to travel an extra 200miles and spend an extra day in shipping, I got a 100% live delivery and 4 extra chicks. I even got a call from them several days later asking how the chicks were. Now about 3 and 1/2 weeks later, we haven't lost one chick and they have more than doubled in size and weight. If we loose any now it will most probably be my fault.
I couldn't ask for better service. other than from the postal system

Posted on June 12, 2011, updated January 7, 2012
Posted on June 9, 2011, updated June 12, 2011
I ordered 35 birds from them in or around mid april to they gave me a shipping confirmation for 6/8/2011. It also said they would contact me if this changed. I recieved a phone message on 6/7/11 saying they would only be sending 20 and then a message on 6/8/11 saying 16 I called and left a message saying don't bother cancel the order I later called and spoke to a person about the order and said
I don't want an order that small and she said too late they have already shipped. The order size was determined by availability and they didn't get a good hatch. This doesn't meet what I needed in an order. Their attitude about the shortage and the fact they shipped a short order without confirmation that this would be ok or any offer to finish filling the order in short term tells me that they don't care about service and if they new on the 7th the order was to be short they didn't ship same day as hatch as advertised. When the chicks arrive I'll add to this as to quality of birds but as for now I recommend using a differrent hatchery if you need what you order!!!

"On Jun 14, 2011 2:47 PM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

I've responded to this customer directly through email, but feel it should be answered here as well.

Unfortunately, all hatcheries have to deal with short hatches on occassion. Our supply point noticed that the week before this customer's order was to ship, the chanteclers hatched under previous projections. Since we had this information, we tried to be proactive by contacting customers to let them know we were most likely going to be short on their orders for the next week. Since this breed is a rare, hatch percentages were down, and we weren't sure if/when we'd have this breed available again, we decided to get all customer's who ordered atleast some of this breed, rather than cancel several orders all together. In most cases, customers will want to do this, rather than risk getting nothing at all. On Friday, June 3rd, I called and left a message on this customer's voice mail. I left a message that we were projecting to be short on this breed, but would still do our best to get 20 of this breed for him. On June 8th, after the hatch was complete, we hatched short from the projection, so we were able to send him 16 birds. I called him again, and left a message telling him about this. We did not receive a call telling us to do anything different until June 9th, which was after the birds had shipped.

This customer contacted us via email to let us know that some of the birds did not survive, so we issued a refund back to his credit card. With regard to shipping straight run from our supply point, we've shipped from our New Mexico shipping point for over 20 years, and we would not continue that partnership if they sent all males to customers. This insinuation really has no basis. On the homepage of our website and also in our brochure we mention that we have supply points in New Mexico, Minnesota, and Iowa. Thanks for the oppurtunity to respond."

Ive ordered my chicks from Welp Hatchery for the past 5 years and have been VERY pleased, also suprized! I have ordered from many other hatcheries and prices are always higher but Welp hatchery is low, their shipping cost is in cost of bird, and I actually "TRUELY" have received show/ breeder quality birds over the years unlike what I've gotten from other more well known hatcheries that CLAIMED to have show quality birds. I don't know where they get their eggs from, but I've gotten chicks from private breeders and even bought fancy adult birds that didn't come close to what Ive received from Welp Hatchery. I highly recommend Welp Hatchery.

Posted on May 18, 2011, updated July 30, 2011
Posted on February 15, 2011, updated May 18, 2011
On February 6 2011 I ordered 25 Wyandotte chickens from this hatchery.

I had been warned against using this hatchery by my Father-in-law and by a co-worker. I couldn't pass up the free shipping that Welp offers so I decided to give them a shot.

I received an email confirming my order later that night. Two days later, I received another email confirming a shipping date of February 14 2011. I took Wednesday off from work to be available to take care of my newly arrived birds.

I was impressed by how swiftly my order was being processed so I ordered an additional 25 broilers to be shipped with my Wyandottes. I received a confirmation from the company for that as well.

At 1 pm on February 14, I received a phone call from the customer service representative telling me that my Wyandottes were to be shipped in APRIL which would put my breeding program at least 2 months behind. I asked her about the broilers and she said they'd be sent out on Wednesday...not Monday the 14th. I took a day off for nothing.

After demanding an explanation, the lady said "sorry, it's not OUR fault...the chickens just aren't laying!" I don't buy this as a reasonable excuse for poor service. At first I was very angry and cancelled my entire order. I changed my mind, called them back and asked them to make amends by sending the broilers free of charge as an action of good faith on their part. She said she had to clear that with her manager. I said that's fine, find out and call me back as soon as possible. I waited all day yesterday for a return call that didn't come. This morning I called them. I gave them my name and inquired about my birds. I was informed that they shipped on the 14th!!! I asked her if she was sure and she said yes but then transferred me to the lady I talked to yesterday. She told my they DID NOT ship and I was told she hadn't attempted to contact the manager yet... she'd get back to me tomorrow.

I'm frustrated that a company such as this can have such lousy organizational skills and LAZY customer service representatives.

"On Feb 21, 2011 10:49 AM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

I wanted to post here to confirm that I have contacted this customer regarding his order. I was out of town and called him when I returned to the office. After talking with him, I believe we have resolved his issues and are shipping him his cornish rock broilers. I just wanted to post a few more details as well. Thanks!

When a customer places an order on the website, they select the preferred week that they'd like to receive the birds. There are occasions where specific breeds aren't available, so we send an automatic reply to the customer when the order is placed that lets them know to look for a second email confirming the actual ship date. Since we use the postal system to ship chicks, we can never guarantee the exact arrival date, but it is generally 2-3 day. We mention this as well in the email the customer receives.

We've just recently found out that there are several breeds that are not laying and hatching well, so we've contacted those customers to let them know about this. We are putting them on lists so that when the birds are available, we can call them.

"

Was in the throes of a bad experience with McMurray and called Welp. They had the chicks available that I wanted, all plus the two extras arrived vigorous, customer was superb and didn't try to fleece me for overpriced shipping. It would have to be dire circumstance to order anywhere else anymore.

I ordered 25 Welsumer hens and one rooster from Welp, and of all the chicks I have ordered before from other hatcheries these were by far the healthiest and liveliest received. Two additional chicks (1 hen & 1 rooster) were included in the shipment totaling 28 chicks. Even though during time of shipment the weather turned really cold, not one chick died and now two weeks later are still in great shape, feathering up good, and growing fast. I will definitely keep Welp in mind for future orders. I like to add that since I feed organic chick starter (Modesto Milling) I have not had one instance of pasting. On other foods we have had a lot of trouble with pasting in the past. All in all we are very pleased with our order.

I ordered 25 Delaware chicks on December 28, 2009, for delivery during the week of March 1st., 2010. I received 27 chicks, on schedule. All 27 chicks were extremely healthy and all survived. They are the healthiest, and the best looking, chickens I have ever bought anywhere. I will definitely use Welp Hatchery again.

Dowell Lafleur
Mamou, LA

We ordered 25 Barred Rocks and 30 Cornish Rock from Welp. They were shipped on Wednesday, May 26, and scheduled to arrive on May 28, the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. The Barred, 26 of them, arrived on Friday, and were in excellent condition. The Cornish didn't arrive, which caused concern because if not arriving on Saturday, they'd be dead by the next mail delivery on Tuesday. We called Welp Friday afternoon, and they were very helpful and assured us that if Cornish didn't arrive Saturday, they would send out replacements. Thankfully, the Cornish arrived Saturday, but were not as healthy looking as the Barred. Welp shipped 32, and 1 was DOA. Surprisingly, the other 31 survived, and we only lost one more at about 4 weeks of age. The other 30 survived until 8 weeks of age, when they were ready for butcher. We would definitely order from them again. As an unexpected bonus, we had ordered 25 Barred hens, but we got 26 chicks, one of which was a rooster. So, now if we choose to do so, we can raise our own chicks next spring!

Ordered 25 Buff Brahma pullets, 5 Buff Brahma cockerels and 5 marans straight run. Excellent service and was very pleased with the chicks. Friends warned me that "hatchery" marans wouldn't be good, but mine laid VERY dark eggs.
The Brahmas grew into big strong birds. I will order from Welps again.

We ordered bantam light brown dutch chicks this spring. The chicks arrived, and the did not look anything like the light brown dutch chicks that we have received from other hatcheries in the past. As they grew it became more and more obvious that they were NOT what we ordered! We complained to the company and they assured us that they were light brown dutch. We have looked at the Standards of Perfection book, and they do not meet any of the standards for this breed. In fact, they appear to be "mutts". Not pure-breed chickens. We intended to show these for our kids 4H project this year. As it stands we wasted a whole bunch of money on birds that cannot be shown as pure breeds. WE WILL NEVER BUY FROM THIS HATCHERY AGAIN!

"On Jul 6, 2010 3:38 PM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

Hello. I've sent you a private email, but have not yet heard back. I thought I should reply to your posting. In a case like this, we normally would just ask that you send us a photo of the birds. Once we have the photo, and confirm that we made a mistake and sent the wrong breed, we are very willing to either replace the birds with the correct breed, or refund your money. We do have photos of most of our breeds on the website, so you can see exactly what our birds look like. If you can send us photos, I'll be happy to have them looked at and we will respond once this is done. Thanks for letting me reply to your post."

I am trying to establish a flock of Heritage turkeys:Midget Whites, Narragansetts and Blacks. Seeking genetic diversity I ordered from Welp and Ideal. But I discovered that their poults were both shipped from the town where Privett is located. I am not too happy having 100 related birds. So it seems that these companies are just resellers.

We are in the NW corner of Washington, the order was shipped Wednesday and here 7am Friday. Our first order of 125 chicks arrived with 40 of the chicks dead.

I called that same morning and the customer service was great. They were quick to apologize(though obviously not their fault, shipping was rough) and offered a refund or replacement. I chose replacement and 1 week later I received 42 chicks ALL well.

I waited a while to write a review to see how they did and they are doing great. Great quality, no crooked legs, no weak ones and we are very happy and will be back next year.

I am getting ready to submit another order to Welp. Last year I purchased 150 Cornish Rock broilers. We received six extra chicks, although one of those had a broken leg. One of the remaining chicks died after a couple of days which still left us ahead by five. The chicks were very healthy and grew up perfectly, as we followed Welp's guidelines to the letter. This year we are purchasing 200 Cornish Rock broilers and some turkeys. I would not go with another company.

We ordered from this Welp last year. Customer service was fantastic, I called with questions both before and after the chicks/goslings arrived and was given the answers I needed. We got 36 chicks. 1 arrived dead due to whatever in transport and two were never shipped, but we were issued credit for the missing roos. out of the 35, only one turned out to be a rooster. I think that is VERY good. And he is a sweet roo at that! We had a few of the goslings die very quickly after arriving and were issued credit for those as well. I was happy with Welp.

I ordered 25 straight run Dark Cornish chickens, they arrived at the post office on June 24th, the post office called me and told me the birds were in, but there was no sound from the box and they thought they were probably dead. I called the hatchery on my way to the post office to find out what I needed to do, the lady told me that I should call back when I knew for sure if they were dead or not and they would either issue a credit or replace the birds. When I picked up the birds they were indeed all dead, so I called the hatchery again and the lady said they would go ahead and issue the credit. I never received the credit, so a few weeks later I called again. This lady told me there was no record of my previous calls, but that she would go ahead and issue the credit. I am still waiting for the credit 7 weeks after the fact! Talk about customer no-service.

"On Oct 9, 2009 3:44 PM, Welp Hatchery responded with:

Hello. I just wanted to reply to your posting so I can clarify what happened to this order. Since I can only assume your name, I believe this is the correct information regarding your order. It looks like the order was shipped 6/22/09 and as you mentioned, the birds came in bad shape.

(I wish we had more control over how we ship baby chick, however, FedEx and UPS don't allow us to use them for shipping, so for now we are stuck with only on option, the US Postal System. They generally do a good job for us, but on ocassion this can happen. I'm not sure how we can avoid it completely, but we do our best to give the birds the best chance for survival and good health. )

Our policy is a guarantee of live delivery and up to 48 hours after delivery as long as proper care is given. We just ask that you call us within 48 hours (or Monday if over the weekend). You did do this, so we did initial the process to issue a credit. Our policy is to issue the credit right back to the credit card the following Friday. However, is looks like one of the clerks made a mistake and issued a credit to the wrong customer (some has a name very similar, and the clerk did goof this up). I apologize for this mistake. It looks like after some time, you contacted us again, and after we checked out your account, found that it had been issued to the incorrect customer, so as soon as this mistake was found, we issued you a credit back to your card. I believe the transaction date for this was 8/11/09. I guess I just wanted to let you know that we did not intentionally withhold your refund, it turns out the clerk made a mistake that caused this delay. Thanks for letting me explain."

I ordered from welp hatchery in July 2009. All my chicks.....10 buff orpington pullets, 5 red sexlinks pullets, 5 black sexlink pullets and 5 giant blue cochins 4 pullets and one rooster.......they all arrived very healthy and peppy! they arrived within two days of sending them. I ordered the grogel and welp sent that early so I would have it when they arrived. They sent one extra black pullet, one red pullet and two blue cochin roosters. They are one week old and wow are they growing. They are all fat and healthy and we would order from this hatchery anytime. I look forward to buying more cochins from them. They have become my favorites very quickly. We love that the shipping is included in the price! We looked at all the hatcheries before ordering and decided on welp because they had a better selection of what we wanted. We found the website very easy to understand and they had a great deal of information which is great. We reccommend this hatchery highly!

After much research, we decided to place an order with Welps back in February. It was for 25 Buff Orpingtons, 25 assorted brahmas, 15 Wyandottes, and 10 of the Easter egg chicks. We selected a late May delivery. We lost only one to shipping (flattened but there was one extra in that group). Since then we have had no issues at all and our chicks are growing at a phenomenal rate! This is our first try at raising chickens and not to have had any issues with the birds has been great. We received exactly what we ordered, and the birds are dong quite well.

i have bought from several hatcheries as well as local feed suppliers, welp will be my hatchery from now on, chicks all arrived as promiced, exact count, breed, and sex. are the healthiest birds i ever had. could not be more happy, proud parent of welp hatched welsummers, dominiques, delawares, and of course marans. thank you welp!!!

We got a shipment of pullets (female chicks only) with Welp Hatchery this February. The customer service was excellent. This was the first time we had ordered straight from a hatchery. It was for a group of 8 folks, and there were lots of questions since some of the folks in the group were new to chickens. Welp quickly answered our emails and phone calls. The chicks are all alive and healthy. We ordered 7 varieties, totaling 45 chicks. They sent 2 extra Red Sexlinked and 3 extra Barred Rocks, just in case. They marked a few of the breeds so we could tell them apart. We did request the marking, so there was a $0.25 fee per chick. The breeds we ordered were Speckled Sussex, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Black Australorp, Red Sexlinked (Red Star?), Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers) and Salmon Faverolle. We are very happy with the service and chicks at Welp Hatchery.

Ordered from Welp for the first time in February. I ordered 25 pullets (15 Black Australorps, 10 Ameraucanas), got four extra Ameraucana chicks, lost one of the extras that was weak on arrival. No pasties or anything like that except for the one weak chick. Two of the Australorps were roosters, all are incredibly healthy, and the pullets are all laying like mad despite the waning of the sunny part of the year. I'm very pleased!

I had initially ordered 25 day old chicks from Welp Hatchery in late June, (15) Welsummer pullets; (2) Welsummer roosters, (6) Dominique Pullets and (2) Dominique roosters.All alive and well.As the chicks began to develop I realized the Alleged Dominique Roosters were actually Barred plymoth rocks due to their STRAIGHT combs and yellow shanks.The pullets having ROSE combs and dark shanks. I called customer service with the complaint and they concurred with their SEPARATE distributor and assured me that I would receive the proper breed of roosters.This morning I received the same incorrect Barred Plymoth Rocks as I initially received incorrectly,plus (20) assorted roosters used to keep them warm in transport(that I havent got a use for in this world).I WILL NOT ORDER FROM THIS HATCHERY AGAIN.They either dont know the difference between a ROSE and STRAIGHT combs or they tried me twice and lost.

We ordered 25 cockerels (Cornish Rock X) for butchering and 24 female and 2 males of a brown egg laying variety. We didn't know what type of chickens we were getting. We ended up with Plymouth Barred Rocks and they are egg laying machines!!! Beautiful birds and nice large eggs. The chicks all arrived healthy and happy. This was our first experience with chicks and it was awesome!!!! Our meat chickens did better than we expected and they were wonderful. My brother has raised chickens all of his life and said that he has never seen such large chickens (we let them grow to 10 weeks instead of 8, so they dressed out at about 6-7 lbs. each), that were as tender and juicy as these were. They were fantastic! We will definitely be ordering more of those from Welp this spring. We did just what they had said about taking their food out for 12 hours etc., and never had any "flip" problems that you can sometime run into with the fast growing meat birds. The people at Welp are very knowlegeable about the chickens and very friendly and easy to deal with!!!!

We have ordered chickens from Welp twice now.
We haev not yet received our second round of birds but our first experience was very good.
All the babies were alive and healthy.
I have recommended this company to others and I hope that they will order from them.
I also like the idea that shipping and handling is included in the price and does not have to be figured seperately.I would like to see a little bigger selection of birds and I would also like to see them offer the colored bands for the birds for easy identification (like for male from female).
I am glad I found your company!

I got all the chicks I ordered. They were all alive and healthy. I had a problem with my post office, but got all that ironed out and everything went smoothly as far as picking up the chicks. I am very satisfied with the whole transaction. The people at Welp were very courteous and helpful.This was my first time ordering chicks and I was a little nervous, but I will not hestitate to order again.

I ordered chicks from a hatchery for the first time, and they arrived today. I always have gotten my chicks from the local feed store, but thought I'd try Welp a chance.

The hatch was on Wed. Feb. 6th and I recieved my chicks Fri. Feb. 8th. I ordered 25 rode island red pullets, one rode island red male, 20 white leghorn pullets, one white leghorn male, 10 buff orp pullets, one buff orp male, and 3 arcauna females and one aracuna male. also 25 cornish rock broiler chicks.

When I recieved them two were dead from the start. As I got them home and placed them in the brooder I noticed they sent me two males of every breed I ordered [now thats impressive!] but they marked there head[s] with blue paint and the paint was thrown on carelessly and was in most of the chicks eyes.

The chickens were full of life, etcept the white leghorns, they looked tired and unhealty. Welp sent me a spraddle legged chicken [how lazy can they be?]

Within the first six hours five more chicks died, but all the others seemed to be fine.

Over 100$ worth of poultry and they were dieing on me. I called Welp and they are open Monday through Firday, but it says you must contact them within 48 hours of arrival for dead chick replacement. I think its one of there tricks to prevent from having to replace chicks.

I will try a different hatchery next time, but customer service was great [so far, until I have to talk to them on monday about the dead chicks] and I would purchase cornish rock broilers and rode island reds again, but not buff orps and NOT white leghorns.