What's your favorite online chicken hatchery?

[OldGuy43]

I use Ideal. They'll do small orders.

http://www.ideal-poultry.com/

They're within driving distance for me, and have always got exactly what I wanted breed and sex-wise.

Real nice and helpful folks. I always deal with them by phone. Really helpful folks.

 

[canesisters]

Personally, I prefer to pick up just a few chicks at a time from local breeders. I've just heard so many stories of mail order losses... And since I have limited coop space AND want a variety of breeds, it works out best for me to pick up 1 of these and 1 of those until I have 5 or 6 chicks and raise them up to year olds. Then the next year I'll get 5 or 6 different breeds - and so on. I feel that I (might) get somewhat better quality from local breeders since most of them are raising only one or two breeds and are trying to improve their stock to get closer to the breed standard.

 

[ducks4you]

Isn't the NO DELIVERY ON SATURDAY from the Post Office going to be a problem for some home chick deliveries?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That's just in the talking stages. There is no way to accurately predict how that will turn out. Congress has not gotten hold of it yet.

No Saturday delivery has the potential to mess it up but consider a few things. It's really rare for those chicks to be delivered at anyone's home. Generally the post office calls you and you go get them. The no Saturday delivery proposal I saw would still deliver packages on Saturdays. I have no idea how that package delivery would work. But someone should be at the post office to call you Saturday morning to come get them.

The hatcheries I've checked on ship them early enough in the week that they will arrive before Sunday. I have not checked them all so I don't know that all hatcheries do that but I know some do.

If no Saturday delivery causes problems some hatcheries may have to alter their hatch-ship-clean routine to account for that. A lot of us have worked strange work weeks and odd hours. I just hope the hatcheries won't have to invest in new buildings or equipment because of this.

Change can be disruptive but I trust American ingenuity to work things out if people have a stable enough climate so they can actually make decisions based on something concrete instead of having to guess what the next change might be.

This is just about the major hatcheries. I'm sure not going to try to guess what individuals that hatch and ship shicks will do.

 

[OldGuy43]

Isn't the NO DELIVERY ON SATURDAY from the Post Office going to be a problem for some home chick deliveries?

Once again, The Law of Unintended Consequences will affect the USPS and not in a positive way. I'll bet that UPS and FedEx will continue Saturday deliveries so...

 

[April Manier]

I've been looking at McMurray.

I have done cornish cross before, but it's scary to me watching them fall over! I'm thinking of ordering the Red Ranger Broilers. Has anyone used these? My thought is to keep the best Roo from the bunch and let him breed with my hens, This way I can make my own muts to eat.

As for novelty birds, I'm over it. We had two Polish hens last year. They were so cute with their crowns. They laid a few times. Nervous little birds and fast. Everyone was amused by them. I, however, quickly saw they were not worth their feed. If they had been sweet, maybe.

They kept getting out and were eaten eventually. We are pretty pragmatic here! U want out? OK. See how that works for ya! My Wyandotte is out all the time. She has been attacked twice. I just shake my head at her. One of these days....

 

[catjac1975]

We have always been happy with Murray macmurray.