Baby Chicks

[Kala]

We're looking at getting our first batch of chicks this year and I was just wondering where everyone else got theirs?? I know alot of you hatch your own, which we would eventually like to do, but we need to get a good stock to get started this year.

I've looked locally and everyone just has the same old highly commercialized stock of chickens. I'm wanting some kind of heritage breed that still knows how to forage and will hatch and raise their own chicks. So I'm thinking I may have to order online to get that. But shipping costs are kinda crazy! It was going to be about $22 to ship 30 chicks. But I think I may have to just bite the bullet and get over it if I'm wanting to get started.

So I guess my question is, do you all buy local or order online, or both??

 

[BarredBuff]

Mt Healthy Hatcheries!!

My cousin has BOs from there. They layed all winter, fat as mud, forage like crazy, and has had 3 broodys. Check my journal out for some pics of a hen with chicks he lent me a broody.

 

[Javamama]

I have priced chicks at the feed store vs. having them shipped and it's worked out to be about $3 per chick no matter which way I go because I want a small order. Meyer hatchery is good too.

 

[hoosier]

A friend of mine has had great luck with Meyer Hatchery. They replaced her losses. I have never had a loss from Murray McMurray.

 

[pinkfox]

we got our girls from healthychicksandmore.com, its a minimum order of 10 chicks, and sexed pullets are $5 each, theres also a $5 boxing fee but FREE shipping...

so youll get 10 pullets (you can mix and match breeds with as few as 1 per breed) for $55 total.

when i prices up mypetchicken and others that do small orders i was looking at an addtional $30 in shipping because of the small order fee PLUS shipping...plus anywhere from $3-$5 per chick for sexed pullets so healthy chicks and more it was.

we ordered 10, 2 of each of 5 different breeds (given others experiences i expected to loose a few...) our box of 10 came + 1 "suprise pullet" all 11 chicks were super healthy, we grew them out for a week picked our favorite 5 (beacue we were origionally only goign to have 5) and sold the other 5 for what we paid for them...

then dad decided we had an 8x 8 house for 5 hens and would "need" more eggs so he had me place another order of 10...
this time they sent 12, and on arrival we had 1 weak chick that didnt make it...but the rest were all strong and very healthy!
we ended up keeping 6 of the 10 and selling the other 5 again for what wed paid for them at a few days old.

i was very worried about the possibility of getting a roo (we have "ninja chickens") but the girls we ended up keeping are ALL hens, and i kept in contact with the 2 people that took our extras and all thiers are hens too...
so we got a 100% sucessfull sexing rate too!

when i get my own place i will be ordering at least some of my girls from them...
there are a few breeds they dont carry, and the girls we have are very good lucking but i doubt there even remotly close to show quality...
but the breeds we chose came in spring of last year, started laying in fall at a great rate, wed have mabe 1 or 2 girls a day that didnt lay but it roated...and we even had 6-8 eggs a day throughout winter with no additional heat or light so im very impressed with laying for their first year...their production has already increased again for spring.

the only reason i wont be getting all my chicks from them eventually is because theres a few breeds i want that they dont carry...

all in all, for our first chicken experience im very impressed with them.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

I would do a hatchery order,.. & get what you want. You can go to the feed stores,..but mostly they are going to be production breeds. Plus the cost of shipping still comes out the same,..about $3 a chick. If I were closer to you,..I would set you up. I have 12 EE's in a brooder, 20 some mixed bantams in the incubator,..a broody hen who is getting the incubator babies, and an order from Murray McMurray of 25 Partridge Rocks and Delawares,..plus 6 hens laying and one cocky rooster.
I went a little overboard this year,.... I LOVE my chickies!!!

 

[Wannabefree]

Cheaper is Craigslist if you're not too too picky. LOTS of chicks for sale, and supporting local as well

 

[FarmerJamie]

Kala,
I've had good luck with Meyer, too. Since they are right here in Ohio, I actually drive and pick my order up directly. If you have the means, and it depends on your vehicle, other than time spent, gas costs a fraction of the shipping costs.

....and they always seem to have some "special discount bin" of chicks waiting for you at the door. Do not bring the kids....

 

[Kala]

Thanks for all the ideas guys!! I'll have to keep comparing shipping costs. We've been checking craigslist but can't find anything we like so far. And I love me some craigslist!

I would do a hatchery order,.. & get what you want. You can go to the feed stores,..but mostly they are going to be production breeds. Plus the cost of shipping still comes out the same,..about $3 a chick. If I were closer to you,..I would set you up. I have 12 EE's in a brooder, 20 some mixed bantams in the incubator,..a broody hen who is getting the incubator babies, and an order from Murray McMurray of 25 Partridge Rocks and Delawares,..plus 6 hens laying and one cocky rooster.
I went a little overboard this year,.... I LOVE my chickies!!!

Funny you should mention Delawares, those are totally one of the breeds I am considering! Lol.

....and they always seem to have some "special discount bin" of chicks waiting for you at the door. Do not bring the kids....

If it were only the kids I had to worry about...

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I placed my first order with Murray McMurray. They sent an extra (which worked out, since one weak chick died), and even though the PO held them an extra day or two, they arrived in good shape.

They were amazing for production purposes. Many breeds started laying young (especially their sex-links) and kept right on through the winter. They were healthy enough.

Pitiful foragers. I had a great property for them, but they were feeder hogs. I did get a few broodies from their standard breeds ... I think from them I got red and black sex-links, silver-laced wyandottes, black australorps, rhode island reds, and barred rocks.

The bantams I received from them were wonderful broodies, and in fact would do almost nothing else. Some rock bantams and a black rosecomb. The rosecomb used to disappear and show up with over a dozen chicks, several times a year. The rock bantams set for months on end -- they were impossible to break. They would set a rock, LOL.

I have also gotten chicks from the feed store, which of course are essentially hatchery chicks. I found about the same with them.

Oh, btw, Murray McMurray had a line of black australorps with congenital food defects, crooked toes. Some would limp, but it wasn't a terrible defect. I wouldn't breed birds like that though.

Now, my chicks last time came from a local farmer. They have been a different sort. They were later to lay, and didn't lay well through the winter. However, production is ramping up nicely now. What they do do well is forage. I use FAR less feed per bird than I did before, and they have foraged under harsher conditions than my first flock did. It's hard to say much on the broodiness of them, as they are not yet a year old, but it it looking like the percentage of broodies is much higher. Just too early to tell for sure. I have only buff orpingtons, rhode island red, black australorps, and barred rock from them (in fact just lost my last BR hen). They do have more health issues than my chicks before had, but it may be the place where they are. This property had roosters raised on it before, and also lots of careless trash thrown out, which I am constantly cleaning up and it keeps getting unearthed. I have seen more diarrhea and clumpy poos than I did with my first flock, and one bad foot. I'm considering worming them, which I never did before. Should have done it while the production was down.

I'm planning to work out my own flock with the traits I want, if I can do it. I have silkies which lay almost as well as the big girls, eggs with huge orange yolks, and eat almost exclusively forage, and will brood of course. Right now I have three silkiy-RIR chicks that just hatched. The silkies raise chicks for me, and so far they teach the chicks to forage just as they do. I'm hoping some broodiness gets transferred in as well, so maybe in a few years I'll have some medium-large chickens that forage and lay well, and raise their own chicks. Dunno what I will call them yet.