Comments regarding Meyer Hatchery

We have been Meyer Hatchery customers for 10 years, purchasing both egg layer and meat chickens. We do one batch of meat birds a year and always purchase all of our feed from the hatchery. We've always been reasonably happy customers, never complained when a chick or two died right after purchasing, didn't even fuss when they called us on hatch day one year and told us our entire order of meat birds was cancelled and made no effort to replace them in a timely manner, leaving me scrambling to replace them elsewhere. Right now, though, I AM complaining, and I will not be shopping with them again. Because of Covid shortages, my husband and I decided this year to purchase our meat bird feed early, in the spring. We weren't getting the birds until August, but we wanted to make sure we'd have feed for them in case there ended up being shortages in that supply chain too. We bought 1 bag of chick starter and 7 bags of Walnut Hill Non-GMO Broiler Grower Finisher. They were transported inside a car, and stored in our enclosed, covered, completely dry and non humid sun room, where I also store our grocery dry goods and other animal feeds. We store our feed there every year and have never had an issue.
Fast forward to now. We opened a bag of chick starter two weeks ago, and it was fine. It was stored right next to the grower/finisher. We opened a bag of grower this morning and the feed is damp and black with mold. opened another bag, same deal. And another, and another, all junk. I am devastated, this is a huge expense for my budget. I called Meyer Hatchery and told them what happened and expected them to do SOMETHING to make it right, but nope, not even an apology, nothing. I offered to send them photos showing where and how they were stored, complete with pictures of the totally dry cardboard boxes and human foodstuffs stored in the same area. They would not give me any contact info for a manager, absolutely no customer service whatsoever. Unless I hear from them, I will never do business with them again and will tell everyone in our rural community, especially our 4H friends, about our bad experience. We are honest people, I am not looking to take advantage of them or cheat anyone. I just want them to make this right since this feed was transported and stored properly by us and obviously was exposed to something before we got it. We bought it from Meyer to support a small Ohio business. I wish now I had bought it from Tractor Supply or another chain instead. Very disappointed, I thought Meyer Hatchery had more integrity than this.

I wanted to report my experience with Meyer Hatchery 2/2018. I ordered 10 Marans and 5 Buff Orpingtons. The chicks were shipped and received within 24 hours picked up at USPS 10:00 a.m. The outside temps were mid 60's no winds to speak of. Opening the box at home I noticed the 2 white Maran females and the 2 Blue Copper Maran females and 2 Blue Copper Maran females were VERY TINY. The Orpingtons seemed small but I had never experienced that breed. Chicks were placed in NEW brooder with 97* readings on heat lamp, puppy pads on brooder floor, Medicated starter and supplements. I ordered GroGel, probiotics/electrolytes/vitamin packs and prepared Grogel immediately presenting to the chicks - prepared water with filtered spring water room temp with feeder filled with medicated crumble. One of the white Marans was listless and would not take Grogel, water or food. That bird died by end of day. The next morning the other white Marans died. I notified Meyer, they refunded the $23 for the birds. I told them my concerns with the frail/listless condition of the 4 Blue Copper Marans. Over the course of the first week, 2 white Marans, 4 Blue Copper Marans and 1 Golden Cucko Marans femal and all five Orpington were dead. Folks that 11 chicks out of 15 dead within the first week. After the first two losses, I mixed up an ACV in second water in the brooder. Those birds failed to thrive while one Black Copper Marans male, one Golden Cuckoo Marans and one meal maker (?) have survived. Clearly Meyer mailed chicks infected with coccidiosis. I cancelled other orders with two other sources because I didn't want to loose those chicks. I wrote to Meyer expressing all this. Their response is they don't refund chicks older than 48 hrs, directed me to a book that covered coccidiosis and basically told me to pound sand. This is clearly the wrong customer service response. I plan to challenge the $197 credit card charge and will post this on all forums. Order from Meyer at your own risk. They completely failed to step up to a problem that rests solely on their hands

Meyers Hatchery 16 ordered 15 arrived 1 doa and then another with in an hr The first was trampled 1 month later I find they are all roosters , WOW Meyers cant sex must be the transgender Confusion , Males have Peckers females dont . So pissed im tempted to wright to BBB and let them know how they are screwing people ! VENT check or even color check these are sexlink chicks YOU can look and see what they are No excuse and meyers says OH well you cant prove they came from us . UM No but i can Use my radio station loud and clear to discuss their Customer service

I've placed many orders for chicks over the last several years and Meyer has had the absolute best quality chicks. Our order arrived Feb 14 with every chick happy, healthy, and warm! They're just about 11 weeks now and much friendlier than any other batch of chicks we've raised, even though we haven't done anything different. I haven't seen any signs of our 35 pullets being roos. I will definitely order from Meyer again.

Hmm where to start, I used Meyer this go around because my usual hatchery dropped my desired breed.
I may have been living in a bubble since the other hatchery is about 4 hours away, but I was not expecting the issues that have presented themselves.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, lets start off with the order:
4 Silver Dorking Female
2 Silver Dorking St Run
9 New Hampshire St Run
15 Total.

Well they ship March 13th 2017 and arrive on 15th, one DOA, a first for me but nothing alarming.... but after looking the dead one over, seems as though it has feather legs. Check the rest that are by now in the brooder, yep, sure enough 8 more feather legged chicks. Placed a call to the hatchery, which was already closed, so called back the next day (16th) customer service guy seems genuinely confused, says send an email with pictures. Still no word back from them as of the 19th, so will call them back monday to see if this can be resolved.

Meanwhile, 5 more of these UFO chicks have died, the 3 remaining ones seem in good health and have not lost any in 2 days. Also lost 2 of the 6 dorkings, this is a rather foreign sensation to me as I have always had high survival rates (95% or greater).

Will attempt to update this when more information comes to light, but I did want to pen my experience before the minutia fades. This is ongoing, and as such I will reserve drawing any conclusions.

I had a wonderful experience with Meyer Hatchery from start to finish! I pre ordered in January for my Small order of ten chicks. I had a huge selection of breeds avaible. I was able to choose my hatch and ship date. I choose April 11th. I was concerned because the hatchery is in Ohio and I live in California. The chicks shipped out on the 11th as scheduled I received the chicks the afternoon of the 12th. ALL THE CHICKS WERE ALIVE AND HEALTHY AND BEAUTIFUL ! Extra care was taken in shipping. NO UNWANTED MALES USED FOR WARMTH LIKE OTHER HATCHERIES DO...instead they packed a long lasting heating pad and extra nesting material to keep the chicks cozy for the trip. I couldn't be happier! I'm never going anywhere but Meyer for my chicks! They have a customer for life in me! ALL my chick's were vaccinated for a very small fee. I couldn't ask for more. Meyer has made me feel truly blessed! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND MEYER HATCHERY TO ANYONE WANTING CHICKS! They have wonderfully healthy and beautiful stock and the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE AROUND! I couldn't ask for a more better experience! Thank you Meyer. I'm enjoying the chicks! I got Seven beautiful Female Barred Rocks, One Lovely Silver Penciled Rock, one sweet Golden buff, and one lovely Silver laced wyannadotte, and one Golden laced wyannadotte. All beautiful and healthy! I give Meyer TEN STARS!!

All dead chicks. If I could add the picture I would. I ordered 3 lavender orpington chicks ( female) months ago, my first mail ordered experience. Things seemed fine, I was told my chicks would be delivered in April. Yesterday got an email that my birds had shipped. Great,now I'm excited, I've wanted this particular variety awhile, they were $20 each but worth it to me. Post office called today, I went immediately to pick them up, got in my car, opened my much anticipated box. Three cold, dead chicks. I stormed back in the post office to show them, the woman informed me they had called me right away, in fact the driver was standing right there and both were horrified by my box of very dead chicks. Just want my money back now. Never buying sight unseen again.

Ordered 6 Buff Orpingtons back in July 2015. They also sent a free meal maker chick. They were all sexed correctly. They arrived in perfect condition and grew and thrived. Unfortunately we had a problem with critters killing them so we have had to deal with those losses. We have 2 hens left and they each lay 1 egg a day without fail. They started laying at 6 months. The Buffs are very sweet and follow us around. They are also very pretty. We will be ordering other chicks and maybe turkeys also. It was a good experience for us. We did have them vaccinated. We have had no illnesses with them. These birds would be suitable for children to raise as they have such nice dispositions. Eggs are medium size.

Posted on January 31, 2016, updated January 31, 2016
Posted on April 29, 2014, updated January 31, 2016
I am an experienced chicken owner on a small farm and I sell a lot of eggs direct to customers. Mt. Healthy is usually my preferred hatchery for replacement chicks but last time I put in an order I tried Meyer because of the larger variety they offer. I thought I'd give some insight about my experience.

Biggest Pros:
- Great variety. Offers many different birds all across the spectrum, certainly many more than Mt. Healthy does.
- Allows you to mix these birds in any number, even as few as 1 of each kind, as long as you meet the minimum to be shipped to you.
- Sexing seems to be very accurate. Of the entire batch I ordered I see no signs of any being roos.
- Probably the biggest pro... Excellent communication and service. I received emails of each step along the process. When I had to file a claim, the claim was promptly responded to and promptly taken care of to my satisfaction (and even above and beyond that).

Cons:
- Shipping cost me twice what it did for Mt. Healthy. They did have a heat pad in the box, though, which Mt. Healthy did not have. However, that didn't seem to make a difference because...
- I had casualties... The most I've ever had at once. One chick was DOA (a Marans, of course one of the most expensive), one was visibly weak and soon died despite being given electrolyte mix, a third died randomly overnight with no signs of having been sick, and then a 4th had leg/toe issues and soon couldn't walk. After trying to help it and seeing it fail to thrive and continue to decline, I had to put it down. Meyer did refund me in full for all 3 birds that died, though, and even though the 4th was outside of their 48 hour guarantee window, they refunded me for that one as well (see point in 'Pros' for communication/service). I accept that deaths are a possibility but this is the most I've lost at once before. If deaths bother you a lot... a caution (and a caution against even keeping chickens at all, honestly).

Birds seem a bit closer to breed standards than the ones I've ordered from Mt. Healthy. It's a bit too early to tell for certain, though, as they have a lot of growing left to do. So far, the colors and combs seem right, though.

I was satisfied with my experience and the resolution of my issues with it. I would order from them again.

Two years ago we ordered from Meyer Hatchery and were very pleased with the results. We had three losses.. one Salmon Faverolles chick, a Silver Grey Dorking who had an injured foot, and one a buff brahma bantam chick who just failed to thrive. I did not report these losses to Meyer Hatchery, because they have such SUPER customer service and had already solved one problem for us and included three extra Welsummer hens shipped separately from the others, but only charged us for the cost of the three chicks.. they did not charge for shipping. We had good results with the chicks that grew up... I will say that their buff orpingtons don't seem to be a very hardy strain. Their Silver Grey Dorkings, Welsummers, and Brahma Bantams especially are beautiful birds!
A year later we were going to order another batch of chicks, but because we were given a bunch free from a friend, we canceled our order, and they were awfully kind about it. All round, I would say this is an excellent hatchery to order from. As far as shipping goes, I was shocked by how many people fuss about the HATCHERY in regards to losses they have had... it's only common sense to realize that a lot of losses that result from shipping are the problem of the POST OFFICE... not the Hatchery! So that's why I give these people such good ratings, because they did their best on their end, and it's not their fault if the P.O. handles the chicks badly.

Very bad at sexing chicks. I ordered 2 black copper marans females and one male. All three turned out to be male. They'll refund the price difference if you ask, but that hardly compensates for the 4 months I've spent raising them.

i ordered from them before. one order good.next related to hot weather and post office issues very bad. so i started with looking into other hatcheries. i wanted some rare breeds. other hatcheries did not take an order before christmas. so meyers took it. i was glad to be in line for my rare breeds. even so the arrival date was scheduled for april. the weather should be good for shipping than. march would have been a better date for me.a friend with whom i ordered did wanna stock up because she lost her hens to a predator. so i called and worked with the friendly customer service out what i can extend without losing my anyway late shipping date.i made payment arrangements too. all is well until than. we got another phone call to give us a voucher because i waited one hour on the phone for customer service. two lousy bucks. my wife felt insulted better nothing at all and we declined. a view weeks later another another call and they offered 20$. which we accepted and felt appreciated. we tried to attach this to the outstanding delivery. no problem. than the customer service informed us our shipment was canceled. for meyers there were no other solution than to start a new order. and go back in line. this year i changed to a different hatchery. see how this goes. if meyer would have made the same effort to work on my order as to dangel vouchers in front of me to rail me in for the next purchase all would be well. its all about money and they take enough for their birds.

Customer service is stellar. There was a small problem with my order and replacement chicks were sent immediately. Chicks arrived healthy and are thriving.

While the customer service was very good and the chicks are healthy, DO NOT order from them if you expect accurate SEXING. I understand that they will most likely credit me the minimal amount difference I lost by getting several roosters instead of the females I had ordered. It is not really worth bothering to contact the company. A small credit will not fix the fact that I am out three females I was counting on and possibly more as I can't tell about the 6 marans (I ordered 2male?/4female?) and the 2 Sussex(I ordered 2females?)-These breeds are difficult to visually sex early. I can only hope for the best. Time will tell. I still must feed and rehome several males. I have ordered from Mcmurray many times over the years and they are extremely accurate in sexing. Never missed in fact! I will most likely order from Mcmurray next time. They do a better job of counting your chicken before they hatch.

so here is what happened i ordered 6 hatching egg's from Meyers because i don't like the idea of shipping live animals through the mail and because it was way cheaper then buying live chicks. And it was all i could afford at the time it was also my last ditch effort after 6 months of trying to get chickens.

I live in the deep south the eggs where coming from the north. I expected the egg's to be have a heating element of some type because it was 40 degrees here in Texas at the time. God knows how cold it was where Meyers was. The egg's where several days late they where suppose to have arrived on the 11th and didn't until the 15th of April. They didn't have a heating element and all but one egg had a detached air cells and the one that didn't have a detached air cell had no air cell at all. So i set the egg's the next day after they reached room temp and This is where the fun begins.

Even though I'm new to hatching eggs in a incubator I'm not new to hatching egg's period. I have been helping my grandma raise chickens since i was a little kid. And i have hatched under broody's just fine.

Long story short none of the egg's hatched. When i opened them to see what had happened the yolks looked like store bought egg yolks. No blood, no veins, no embryo's, no development of any kind. Nothing they looked like i could cook them.
So i called up Meyers to see if their was a chance these egg's had not been fertilized. And i was told by one of their people that i would get either a one time replacement of hatching egg's or my money back since none of the egg's hatched. which i was very happy about and made made the mistake of hailing them for not a week ago.

i don't know if it's me but when someone tells me that they are going to do something i expect them to do it

i then got a e-mail saying i in fact would not be getting a refund of any kind. So i called them again and i had a heart to heart with a very rude person from Meyers. And i found out the hard way that they discriminate ageist new hatchers. And won't give me a refund because i am new to incubator hatching and because i don't have a professional incubator. How did they even know this to begin with you ask? They used a online chicken forum called backyard chickens to spy on my conversations. And used my updates on the Hatch a long thread as an excuse not to give me a refund.

But you know what that's OK because not only am i never going to order anything from them ever again. But I'm going to tell every one that doesn't turn a deaf ear to me not to order from them either because if that's how they treat paying customers i don't want anyone Else to have to go thought this shear amount of stuff they have finished putting me through.

And for the record to the people from Meyers that think it's OK to use my confidence in more experienced hatchers ageist me. I have read EVERY hatching thread, post and book i could get my hands on and i went through the hatching process just like i was suppose to. So if my hatching process was wrong you need to take it up with sally sunshine because her process is the most professional i have seen and i followed her instruction's to the letter and YOUR eggs didn't hatch.

And further more i hope you Meyer people are paying attention I was going to order from you after i got my refund. So i could add some ducks. Now every season i get birds I'll get them from people who sell poultry and have nothing to do with your site. i was going to order from you but i see you all are full of it i can and will get my birds ELSE WHERE.

I will never order anything from Meyers ever again and you shouldn't either

"On May 21, 2014 3:10 PM, Meyer Hatchery responded with:

Unfortunately, there are too many variables involved in a successful hatch, that we do not guarantee hatching eggs. Our policy states:

"...We will ship fresh eggs - the same eggs we hatch here. We guarantee the eggs to be true to breed variety and to arrive in good condition. However, we do not guarantee hatchability due to conditions beyond our control during shipment, and hatching equipment or methods used..."

In your case, April 11th was the ship date, not the arrival date. Most all of our eggs ship on Fridays, expect turkey eggs.

No mention was ever made to our company about detached air cells, cold weather, etc so we can't speak to that.

Found in a general "Meyer Hatchery" search on a forum, not by purposefully spying, comments post by yourself were discovered, that in summary, stated you had second thoughts because you weren't sure what you were doing and were also considering using methods that would be less likely to produce good hatch rates. E.g. homemade parts, heating pad element, etc. We can stand behind our product but can't stand behind those methods. It is why we have the policy in place that we do. So many unknown things can happen during shipment and incubation and clearly did, since we hatched the same eggs, from the same hens, the very same week with great results.

We simply do not replace or refund hatching eggs unless they arrive damaged. It was not a matter of discrimination, but rather sticking to our policy."

Ordered some RIR Hatching Eggs from Meyer. It took a bit longer than expected, but that was USPS' fault. When the eggs arrived, they looked gorgeous and were wrapped up and padded by multiple layers. I was very impressed with the care put into these eggs. There were no cracks or dirt on them as well. I will be updating on the chicks that hatch, but so far, very impressed!

"On May 21, 2014 3:11 PM, Meyer Hatchery responded with:

That's wonderful! We hope you have a successful hatch. Keep us posted."

Excellent customer service, promptly responded to questions I had and everything went smoothly. Really easy to order, you can pick a date estimate so you know when to prepare for your chicks, site has a nice layout, and the prices are as good as anywhere I've seen. I ordered 15 sexed chicks, they put in one extra one, which didn't make it, but I still got all 15 I ordered alive and well. 6 months later, they are doing just great, all have turned out to be girls, and have consistently been laying everyday. Compared to high quality breeder stock, I think it takes a trained eye to tell the difference. I noticed that a couple of my hens have been born with some white on what is supposed to be a red ear lobed chicken, so I believe its possible that they are not 100% pure bred. For the average chicken owner, who isn't into showing or anything, I think they will be just fine though, and mine are super pretty. Great experience overall, will order again!

I placed an order on 12/12/13 for 26 birds including 6 bantams with a ship date of 1/27/14. I several phone calls at 5:30am on 1/24/14. I finally answered the phone, and as soon as Ursula announced who she was and where she was calling from I asked her if she knew it was 5:30am. She seemed unconcerned and told me she wasn't used to the time difference (I am in Alaska) and just kept talking. I feel that as a manager looking at my order she should have been able to note the location of my address. They are in the business of shipping birds all over the US right?
I interrupted her and told her I would call her back at a more appropriate time.

I understand that mistakes happen but I thought it VERY rude for her to not apologize or seem in any way contrite that she woke my entire family. I called them back at 8am and was told that they had an issue with their incubator and would not be shipping my bantams.

I was very very disappointed because they were for 4-H project but hey, things happen right. They said they could ship half my order Monday and then ship the bantam at the next hatch. Sounds okay right? Wrong, I was told they could ship them in July. Uh What??

No one seemed apologetic in the least about disturbing us at 5:30am with multiple phone calls, and they were unconcerned about the order that I had already waited over a month for. What a joke. I canceled the bantam portion of the order and am just hoping they manage to get the rest of it to me next week.

They did credit me the cost of the bantams that I will not receive but my shipping stayed the same.The sales staff were very nice and tried to help the best they could. The management was a joke however, apparently it was the office manager who called my home at 5:30am.

As a business owner I would have done everything I could to correct the failure and had I disturbed someone so rudely in the morning I would have called back at a later time and apologized along with sending a note and maybe small token. This was our first time ordering with Meyer and I think it will be out last. I will update my review to let you know how the birds arrive. I am not particularly hopeful at this point.

I ordered day old chicks.
They were promptly shipped and all arrived healthy and alive.
I raised them, and they are now large hens.
I ordered Barred Rocks, Dominiques and Rhode Island Reds.
Very happy and will order from Meyer Hatchery again.

I ordered two shipments from Meyer hatchery this year. The first was for 10 ducklings back in April. Having had terrible luck with another company last year, we were so glad that these duckings arrived healthy and STAYED healthy. Right now, they are grown up, laying eggs, and I am definitely satisfied with their service in the duck department.

Chickens are naturally more fragile, and unfortunately, two arrived dead in the box at my second order this May. Another two died withing the next 48 hours. Thankfully, Meyer sent replacements later on. Having raised chickens for many years, I know these things happen during shipping, and it has not given me enough reason to dislike this company. Also, as you many have seen by my putting the word 'stayed' healthy, in caps above, I am someone who looks not so much at the short term, but at the longevity of the animals within the next few weeks. Many people only judge a hatchery by the first 2 or 3 days after receiving the birds. Well, I must say, Meyer excels in having longer-term healthy birds. No failure to thrive, a strong immune system, and they have managed to avoid genetic defects present in other commercial hatcheries.

All this said, I am very happy with Meyers, and will certainly be ordering from them in the future.

I ordered 20 chicks back in April. Lost 2 within a few days after arrival and one had a leg problem, but the remaining pullets and cockerel are beautiful and the pullets are laying great. Would defiantly order from them again.

I ordered a batch of chicks from Meyers that arrived in the 14th of august. Within 2hrs. of getting them home the chicks started showing signs of illness. I made sure they were not in a draft, the heat was correct, they had plenty of water, etc. I also used vital-pack plus water additive and gro-gel plus for their food. Nothing has worked and now all are either dead or dying. If your thinking I can't handle mail order chicks this is the 6th time I've ordered chicks and have always had good results. UNTIL NOW. Meyers Hatchery has completely let this farmer down. There isn't any reason in the middle of august for chicks to have this kind of trouble. The worst situation I have experienced is when I ordered chicks very early in the year. I will not be ordering from Meyers again.

Ordered 5 baby chicks and had expedited delivery. 2 arrived dead and the 3rd died a day later. The response from the company was call on Friday to give the final number dead and we can send more. I know to a hatchery this may be normal but not to me or my family. I understand the risk of shipping live baby animals but to have heartless, disrespectful individuals ask you to wait till they all may die... is disgusting. Will never use them again

Today we received 9 Indian Runner ducklings from Meyer Hatchery, Ohio. We're in PA, so we figured it would be safe to order from an adjacent state, given post office problems of late. 8 of the 9 were dead, some for some time. Only one remains, and seems o.k. One month ago, we received a shipment from Meyers, for 5 Rhode Island Reds, 5 Barred Rocks, and 5 Columbian Wyandotte chicks. 3 arrived dead, and 2 more succumbed despite dropper feedings with electrolyte water. We are not novices to raising chicks and ducks, and lost at the most 1 per shipment before. It's not so much the money; it's the suffering of these little ones, which were to be basically pets. We won't be doing business with Meyers any more, needless to say. No refunds can compensate for what those poor birds endured. Our advice is to pick up at the hatchery. We believe the fault lies with both the post office and Meyers. KanaKukkula, PA

Spring 2012 I ordered a rainbow pullet pack. Spring 2013 I have 22 hens that lay brown eggs. I tried to order another rainbow assortment and asked them to tell me what chicks they are sending me so I know I'm getting what I paid for. Basically they said we don't care if you're not happy about what you already got and no we aren't going to verify that what we send you is what you paid for. They cancelled my order and don't seem the lease bit concerned that I'm unhappy. Fine, I'll take my business elsewhere and be sure to let other potential customers know about how I was treated.

I ordered 7 chickens in November 2012 with delivery for April 2013. When ordering these chickens the representative was very helpful in helping me decide which chickens would best suit my needs. Very helpful and did not rush me in the least. I ordered all different breeds as i just want them for pets. In March i received a message from Meyer that the chickens were due shortly and i would be getting an email informing me as to the ship date. I received another message and finally one stating that the chickens had been shipped. I received them the next morning at 9:30. Great delivery. One chick was very sickly and i didn't think she was going to make it and when i spoke with the rep. she told me what i should do but gave me a credit for the bird. Well, it was a Buckeye and the poor thing did struggle to survive. But she did finally, after a few weeks pull through. I would recommend Meyer to anyone looking for good quality chicks delivered by a company that provides outstanding service.

I ordered 3 started pullets in January 2013 (1 easter egger, 1 golden buff, 1 black australorp) . I live in Medina County Ohio about 40 miles away and drove to pick up the hens on April 27. I had them about 1 week and the golden buff started sneezing and shaking her head. About 2 days later the other 2 started doing the same thing. They all have a terrible "odor". Not anything I've smelled before. I called Meyer and talked with a customer service person. I asked her if anyone else had called with these symptoms and was told no. I asked her what she thought was wrong and she said its just a respiratory cold because the weather has been cold. Not true. Its been in the mid 70's around here. Perfect weather. She didn't seem to know anything about chickens and was on the "My Pet Chicken" website trying to answer my questions. Never once asked me if I wanted a refund. I'm thinking they have CRD (or Corzya, even worse) and went to TSC to get Duramycin-10. It's been 2 days and none of them are better yet. It's looking like I will have to "do away" with the 3 because CRD is easily spread and I don't want my flock exposed to this. It's treatable but is often reoccurring and the 3 will always be carriers. I'm glad I have not formally introduced the sick ones to my flock yet, but time will tell if my chickens will get sick from the 3 new ones. I will never purchase chickens of any age from Meyer Hatchery. Just be warned!

My experience with Meyer has been totally great. I received 2 orders this month on 3/5, and on 3/12. 15 chicks ordered for each date15 chicks arrived alive each date and all chicks still alive and doing well. Very strong, eating good, and no pasty butt. I did request a heat pack and it was still warm when the chicks arrived. I ordered 52 chicks and 17 ducks from another hatchery delivered 2/26. I lost 15 in the first 24 hours and 6 more within 48 hours. 6 ducks were DOA and 3 more died within 24 hours. To say the least, I was disappointed. I will definitely order from Meyers again.

Posted on February 11, 2013, updated February 13, 2013
I ordered chicks on the 4th(Monday) and recieved them on the 7th(Thursday). It took them three days to get to me about 2-3 hours from the hatchery per mapquest. This was the first time that I had ever ordered from a hatchery and to say that I was excited to get my babies would be an understatement. I tracked my ordered and found that they had finally made it to my Post Office as I getting my youngest daughter ready for school. I called the Post Office and was told that I could meet them at the back door and actually pick my order up early before they opened...gotta love small towns!! :) Right away, I noticed 8 that were DOA. :( I called Meyer as soon as I got them home and informed them of the casualties and sadly,within a few hours there were more. The death toll was 11 out of 16 on the first day of arrival. They told me that they would replace the 11 but, that I had to order additional chicks to make an order of 15 because they no longer ship any less than that. I was fine with that but, they would not sell me the 4 chicks at the same price I had just bought just three days before in the same week.This is where I have a problem. Not only were my chicks dead and/or dying but, I had to order more and pay more! To me, this is bad business! My second gripe is that the shipping container was too large, not enough holes punched out, only one small heating pad that covered less than half of the box. The shipping costs are too high. I've since shopped around with other companies and their shipping is way less and most were on the other side of the US whereas, Meyer is just a few hours away. At this point, I'm not sure that I will be doing business with this company again. It'll depend on how fast the replacement chicks arrive and if they arrive alive this time and stay alive. I will keep everyone up to date as to what hapened after recieving them which should be within the next couple of days.

Just a response to ambertx90:
You asked what makes shipping day-old chicks different from shipping newborn puppies or kittens, and here's the answer: As mammals, newborn puppies and kittens rely on their mother's milk from the time they're born, so shipping them before they're older and more independent would be a pretty bad idea. Chicks are different, though: for up to 72 hours after hatching, they are still ingesting their yolk sac, which means they really don't need food or water during that time. Those first couple days are actually the single BEST time you could ship a chick. They need to be sent in a group, though, so they can stay warm from each others' body heat.

And why day-old chicks instead of eggs? The embryo inside a fertilized egg is actually quite a bit more fragile than a day-old chick. When you ship fertile eggs, the success rate is 75-80%, and it's not unusual to lose more than half of them because of rough handling during shipping (you may not know it until later, when they don't hatch). Meanwhile, when you ship day old chicks, the standard rate of survival is about 99%. Which one of those sounds more humane?

I'm surprised this is still legal. Honestly, the people who are paying to have these defenseless LIVE animals shipped within a day of birth in a cardboard box to be days without care are just as greedy as the people who run this company. This is a sickening practice and no one would think to do it to a newborn dog or cat, but somehow think it's ok to do to birds?! What makes it different? Just buy fertile eggs and an incubator, atleast there is not developed, feeling, breathing life that you're gambling with.

We order many chicks every year, and have ordered from several different hatcheries, among them Murray McMurray, Mt. Healthy, and Meyer.

I've had no problems with any hatchery, and different varieties from different hatcheries perform differently. For instance, my MMM Easter Eggers outperform Meyer Easter Eggers in terms of laying ability, by I prefer Meyer's red sex links to MMM's.

Although I have received chicks through the mail from Meyer, we have started driving to pick them up to save shipping costs when we buy started pullets. Meyer has such a great price on started pullets--we can't start them ourselves for that price, so buying the started pullets saves us money and effort. I was concerned that pullets started at the hatchery would be afraid of people, but the red sex link pullets we get from them are the friendliest chickens I have, and were from the start. I don't know how they keep them so friendly, since clearly they aren't getting individual attention and there are many birds in one pen, but even when we picked them up the hatchery worker just walked into the pen (they're floor raised) and picked the hens up for us--the hens didn't run away. They also lay extremely well. We are in our third year with some of our Meyer RSL hens, and they are still laying 5-7 off-the-charts super jumbo eggs a week. No health problems, no behavior problems, just great hens.

I do wish they had an option to not have the beaks clipped on their started pullets. We don't need it done, and it looks gross. I will say that they free range just as well as the rest of the flock even with the clipped beak, which was something I worried about.

My experiences with Meyer have all been positive. The customer service has been pleasant and has resolved any small problems I've had quickly and nicely. I'm an experienced chicken raiser and have ordered several hundred chicks through the mail and Meyer is as consistent as any other hatchery, with good prices.

WHAT A GREAT COMPANY~! We have a small farm and were looking to add ducks. This company had a very nice selection of ducklings, so my children put together our FIRST online poultry order ever. A little scared to buy living things to be mailed, we decided to add to the order with a couple more items. No problem with Meyer. Then added some health items the day before hatch date, again Meyer said no problem. I even called on the hatch date , asking how my babies were? Meyer said great, they were going out later that day. recieved an email saying they were coming, and sure enough (after letting my post office know) got the call that I had a chirping box. My son drove into to town with me, and to our DELIGHT, the box was smartly constructed for our live animals, and all were happily chirping. We have BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY ALERT fabulous ducklings. I would reccomend this company as a truely good source for poultry. Customer Sevice A+. Would buy again. And as my ducklings grow up, I will be thankful that the mother stock at Meyer was obviously good stock.

My first experience with my was with my first order I ordered 39 chicks and only got 37 not only did I receive 37 chicks I also received someone else's box of 50 now my chicks were supposed to have been vaccinated against Marek's but I am for sure that the 50 were not I called Meyer and they sent me the chick that we could not identify as our own not only that we sent them pictures of all the chicks, now you would think that someone that is in the business of hatching chicks could identify them...guess again...the next box I received 3 dead sultans and 3 dead lakenvelders now Meyer has closed my account...which is probably a good thing...Back to the 50 misc. box it had what looked to be like 6 Welsummers in it 3m and 3f now here it is 2 mos. later and I have a female Welsummer acting like it has Marek's I have segregated her from the rest of my flock but Doc says its to late they have already been exposed, that means all my chicks I have hatched or bought from a private dealer have been exposed too....WILL NEVER RECOMMEND BUYING FROM MEYER...WONDER IF THEY WILL PAY TO REPLACE MY FLOCK IF THEY ALL DIE...NOT

I ordered my chicks from a different hatchery but bought supplies from Meyer because they were priced more reasonably. My supplies were delivered in a very timely manner. I was very pleased with the packaging of the supplies-nothing was broken, smashed, or missing. There was also good communication via email from customer service about products that I had questions about.

We placed a small order of six chicks, based on their detailed website listing availability and hatch dates. We got two each of Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, and Columbian Wyandotte. Hatch date was June 3, and ship date June 4. They arrived at the post office June 6, all healthy and active. The phone personnel were helpful and knowledgeable. The website has photos and info on many breeds, along with availability of each for months upcoming, making the choice of one's purchase simple. I originally went to the site to buy a breed that would not be hatching for a month, so I chose the ones I did based on availability. I will be doing business with them again.

Posted on May 3, 2012, updated May 5, 2012
Posted on May 3, 2012, updated May 3, 2012
Where, oh where, shall I begin? You know the saying, “Don’t count your chicks until they hatch”, well “I put all my eggs in one basket” and now I’m sitting here with an empty brooder. To say I’m disappointed would be a mild understatement.
I started my search for hatcheries this winter when I came across the “All Pullet Rainbow Pack” at Meyer Hatchery that boasted “We will make every effort to include as many different breeds as possible, but guarantee a minimum of 5.” Perfect!! That’s what I want! So I read some reviews, some positive, some negative, but decided that I’d give them the benefit of the doubt anyhow. This was in February.

Strike 1: (should have listened to the warning bells going off in my head)
March 21st, I called to place my order. When it was completed, she said “You should receive those between the 4th and 6th of May” “May?” I asked, “According to the website, they’re available is the first weeks in April?” To which I was told, “the website is a little misleading!” Really? You think? If you’re going to have a very clear and concise weekly calendar with availability dates listed on it, it should be accurate!!!

Strike 2: (I don’t have a good feeling about this)
May 3rd, a month and a half later, having yet to see an update on my order status, I call Meyer and get a very pleasant lady looks my order up and says ”Hmmm…I’ve never seen this before, there are no line items on your order. I see that you placed an order on March 21st, that you were charged $71 on April 19th, but nothing was shipped out. I’ll have to check into this, and I’ll call you back”

Strike 3: (Really? You call that customer service?)
I receive a call back from Meyer within 15 minutes explaining that there was a “glitch” in the computer and that they were sorry, but my order was not shipped out because there was no order to ship. And that all they could do was to place another order and that I would receive it at the end of May? Another month?? Unacceptable!!! No offer to discount my order. No “we’ll add some chickens to your order for your trouble”. Not even a mention to deduct the shipping charge. Just a sorry, better luck next time.

I live in Maine; production tips off in October as it is. They wouldn’t lay until the end of November at that rate, if at all, until the following spring. I can’t even begin to tell you how dissatisfied and disappointed I am!

So now I’m left scrambling to find a hatchery or a person or a neighbor that might possibly have some chicks that I can purchase as I’ve already missed out on the orders from the local feed stores because I put my faith in Meyer! I’m not the type that makes mistakes twice, so I will NOT be doing business with them again, and being human, the story of my dissatisfaction will be told again and again and again…

My original order was for 27 chicks including their "meal maker" offer. The first chick death was likely caused by poor handling by the USPS, arriving to me dead in the Meyer container. Their customer service was good even offering to let me wait the full 48 hours of their guarantee period to report any other deaths/problems. By the end of that period I had lost another and a credit was added to my account.

Since then (the chicks are 10 days old today) I have lost six chicks total, despite the new brooder, new coop, no other chickens on the property to pass disease and constant monitoring of food, water and temperature status. I require my children to wash their hands before and after handling food and water containers AND the brooder has been placed inside our house for constant monitoring.

For clarification, this is not my first time with chicks. I have started and grown six flocks of chickens of various breeds over the last twelve years. This has never happened to me before, not even the first time when I was 'green' and probably just got lucky, raising 24 of 24 hatched out and given to me by my neighbor.

This time I have had to watch my eleven year old daughter run away from the brooder crying after finding one of her "babies" lying dead. Not only that but just yesterday I learned a local farm supply store ordered 1500 chicks from Mt. Healthy hatchery and only lost three (3!).

Meyer tells me I have a credit on my account. I will never use it. I would strongly recommend anyone not yet supplied with chicks avoid Meyer hatchery; any savings on their "cheap chicks" is lost to chick demise. These birds are not healthy.

We ordered a batch of 32 chicks. They all arrived alive, and after 2 days we had 29 left (out of an original count of 34, 32 plus 2 "free"). I called the company and they issued credit very willingly. The mortality rate was a little higher than we have experienced with McMurray or Cackle, but overall not bad. We ordered these May of 2011, and they have developed into a nice flock. My one issue would be that we ordered 4 white Cochins, and I'm pretty sure that we didn't receive 4 Cochins. Pretty decent place. We placed another order for April, so I'll update then.