My pet chicken? or other hatcheries?

[coffeenutdesigns]

So I lost a few chickens to a neighborhood predator in the last week. I usually buy a few each spring to keep my stock fresh and producing well. I usually get them from the local feed store who buys from a local hatchery, but they have limited breeds. I am considering placing an order online now for some in spring. Last time I ordered online, I ordered from Ideal-poultry and wasn't real thrilled with the animals I got. McMurray seems a little pricey for no more than I need. So, has anyone tried Mypetchicken.com? If so, how was your experience? Any suggestions about other hatcheries?

Also, I usually stick to production reds/gold sex link type hens, but I am thinking of adding in a couple of white egg layers? Does anyone have a white egg breed that is heat tolerant that they love?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

MPC doesn't hatch, or really do anything with, the chicks. They just buy from Meyer hatchery, double the price and sell smaller orders. A barred rock at meyers is $2.00. A barred rock at MPC is $4.00. Meyers is in Northern Ohio.

I like mcmurray, but they can be pricey.
Why didnt you like ideal? We've had good luck with them, but I still prefer mcmurray.
I don't like cackle much, but they're well priced and have good birds. Just I hate their site...
Strombergs sells pigeons and chickens. Idk about chick prices.
There's also hoovers and welp hatchery (2 different hatcheries)

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

Ideal was fine to deal with, I just didn't didn't like the birds I had once they were grown. They weren't what I was expecting despite being assured by someone on the phone that they would fit my needs.<br /><br />__________ Wed Dec 11, 2013 7:15 pm __________<br /><br />what about efowl?

 

[TwoAcreDream]

I would suggest going on craigslist and doing some searches.
Especially in the early spring. You might find somebody like me....

I have 60 chickens now, and plan is to add 60 layers in the spring.
Then I will be putting eggs in my cabinet incubator, I bought this summer.
Plan is to run 1 tray, and each week fill another one. I plan on selling
chicks reasonable. I will have mixed and some purebred chicks.

My 12 amber sex links from February hatch, remind me of white orpingtons.
They are white hens who are laying a rich dark brown egg. I was thinking
about getting some more from TSC, but I can use either of my white roosters and
still come up with some nice crosses on my own. I have 6 Rhode Island Reds who
finally started this week. Their egg is a medium light brown.

I started with buff orpingtons, and production reds. All good birds.
Nice brown eggs and winter hardy.

I figure my eggs are worth more to me in chick form, than they are
as eating eggs. My plan is to sell local. Not through the mail.
Last year, I sold some fertile eggs and got decent money for them.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

TAD- maybe I'm missing something, but if you fill 1 tray in 1 incubator, then fill the rest of the same incubator every week, you will have losses since ones that need to be in lockdown won't be, or if you do lock down the other eggs could drown.
I assume I'm missing something, but that's what I got. Sounds like a good plan, but then you have to realize you won't have the best hatch rate, unless you can divide the temprature and humidity between trays.


What purebreds do you have? Just curious. I want to get Delaware hens and a couple red roosters (can't think of the breed I was thinking of) and sell sex links. But that'd be in fall, and then next spring.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I've always had good luck with McMurray, and both times I ordered not only did I get the 'free mystery chick' that you have the option of getting (FYI it's always been a rooster for me. They say they're straight run, but I think it's rigged!) but they've also always thrown in an extra chick of what I did order. They ship quick, great customer service, and I've never had any dead chicks when I pick up my birds at the post office.

The only reason I won't be ordering this year is that I have decided not to raise any more meat birds until I get my own land to raise them. My lot is too small, so I've done them at my mom's, but this year she decided to use my meat coop for her layers, and they nearly killed my chicks when we finally put them out. Then, she sectioned the run in half and built all 25 of my chicks a 2x3 house, while her layers were still in my $300 8x8 coop to keep them from fighting. When the spring storms came through I lost them all to pneumonia from their cramped little house. She still blames the cold, not her housing choice.

But hey, if I didn't loose $300 in meat chickens and feed, I'd have never got Into meat rabbits. So maybe ther is a reason for everything. (Or so I tell myself, tryin to look on the bright side.)

 

[TwoAcreDream]

Maybe I don't understand this incubator. It has 4 trays. Think dresser drawers.
Wood cabinet. I was under the impression I could fill a tray every week.
But then again, maybe not. This bator has capacity of 500 eggs. No way
can I come up with that many eggs all at once.
In the past, I have used broody hens and a small incubator.

I have purebred buff orpintons, 3 colors of wyndottes, ameracaunas,
black sex links, amber sex links, rhode island reds, barded rock.
All I can currently breed for purebreds will be the ameracanas.
My head rooster is a production sex link. My other white rooster is
his son and his mom is a ameracauna. He has the pea comb but yellow legs
so I know definetly who Dad is. The ameracuanas have green legs.
Some of my hens look like Delawares but they are a mix.
Plan is to sell mainly mixed chicks to make backyard flocks for egg
laying. Not for show or anything else. I don't need purebreds.
If it takes off for me, I can add a couple more roosters and split
the groups up. I need a maternity area for chicks first, that will be
the priority.

The 60 I am buying in the spring are production reds.

If I was buying any at a store in the spring, I would go for more
amber sex links. I am totally impressed with them.

 

[akane]

I prefer local stuff or hatching eggs bought online. I got far better stock than ordering from a hatchery. I had some wonderful really dark and large egg layers from ebay, bantam ee from a woman a little south of here, and some nice japanese bantams from GA. I did buy 3 standard ee from the feedstore because they were very cute little chicks and they produced well for 2 years. The one laid jumbo green eggs for months her first year. They would have been from welp hatchery. I traded them off after 2 years. We also got in to seramas our last year of chicken ownership but they are expensive and hard to hatch for no real purpose except seeing interesting tiny chickens about. Oh we had 3 buff orpingtons but they didn't live to lay. The shiba killed 2 and a fox killed the last one with the guinea fowl.

I have no experience with white egg layers since I prefer brown or colored eggs.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

In each one, does it have its own thermometer / humidity gauge? Or is there one thermometer for the entire thing? Or (since it might have not a thermometer or humidity gauge) is there only one heater for the entire thing?

If you can regulate the humidity in each drawers, it'll work fine. If you can't, then you will have some unnecessary losses. Not horrible, just a fore warning. Heck, if each drawer has its own temp. Heater then you can hatch different types of eggs! Most eggs use 99.5 for a base line anyways, but still..

Sounds fun. I've always liked EEs but their laying never impressed me much. How are the ameracaunas? All the EEs look very similar to them, so I'm pretty sure most hatcheries get ameracaunas, and then just poorly breed them. From what I've heard 'back in the day', EEs used to be MUCH more varied, and better layers. Sadly, it seems perhaps the hatcheries thought people were catching on, so they started getting more ameracauna like EEs. Or they just kinda crippled a good mix. I like green eggs, but my only good EE was an ugly, old hen who was the meanest and flightiest thing you'll ever meet. I liked her at first, but she was so smart, AND mean, I came to hating her. She once spent an entire winter laying in the shed - 3 dozen eggs had to be thrown away - 3 dozen GREEN eggs - because who knows when they were laid or if they were viable (to eat). Then she started eating eggs, and one day I carried her to the neighbors, and just 'released her' because she was fighting me and I didn't want to carry an annoying chicken back up the road (500 ft if I had to guess). Well, she lost her way (500 ft! She's wandered down this far before!) and the neighbors and I spent an entire day catching her. After that, I was just like 'ok, I'm done with this bird'. My neighbor had a yummy casserole dinner, and the next few days we started getting twice as many eggs as before. She WAS laying (she had yolks in her tract) but she was also eating them, so, sorry gal.

Ok done with my rambling, lol.


I like having white, brown, green, and blue eggs. So we had brown egg layers, an EE (who never did lay!), and ducks. The ducks gave me greenish - white eggs (the green would come from an oily layer on the egg, it was very interesting, but a very light tint), the egg layers gave me brown, and the EE should've gave me a green / blue egg a day / every 2 days, but she never laid. I also thought I had a leghorn, but it was a Welsummer, so brown eggs.
I like having white eggs because after seeing nothing but white eggs for 6 years (storebought), brown eggs become a SPECIAL and MAGICAL and BEAUTIFUL thing. Same applies if you get nothing but brown eggs for 3 years, having white egg layers becomes AWESOME.

I just like having a variety, lol. Also gave me an excuse to own duckies!

 

[Schipperkesue]

You probably buy your rabbits from a breeder, so why not chickens? There are many chicken fanciers out there dedicated to improving our breeds. Their birds are true to type and healthy. People who show their chickens take a great deal of pride in developing and maintaining beautiful and important heritage breeds.

 

[skysthelimit]

The only reason I won't be ordering this year is that I have decided not to raise any more meat birds until I get my own land to raise them. My lot is too small

One of the reasons I sold my Barred Rock Flock. I ran the meat bird idea past my parents at Thanksgiving, they didn't seem to bat an eye, so I might try just meat birds next year. See if they think it's short term then it's not so bad.

I have not figured out he end result though, seeing I cannot eat what I butcher, I'll figure that out later.
My sheep herding instructor is the source of most of my chickens. I hatched them in my classroom a few years ago, and kept the pure barred rocks. I got a few here and there on CL, and I know someone who will sell them in the spring. I even ordered from eBay once, very strange, but they were all live and and healthy. And beautiful.

I am within driving distance of Meyers, so that is probably where I will get the meat birds.

My herding instructor has Leghorns for white eggs. I have no idea how heat tolerant they are, but they survive Ohio winters.

 

[akane]

Hatcheries cross white and brown layers in to their colored layer lines which makes for random personalities, laying, and sometimes not even getting colored eggs from color laying breeds. That's how we got EEs and most green eggs. A green egg is a blue and brown egg instead of a blue and white egg. The exact color depends how many brown genes are on it, the quality of the blue layer, and how long it's been since the chicken last molted. You can also get pink and purple eggs if the calcium ratio is altered by the bird's body for various reasons. I used to get a lot of purple spotted eggs in the fall and a lot of pink japanese bantam eggs in the spring. Mine were free range and ate more forage than chicken feed. In fact during late summer/early fall sometimes the feed bin didn't empty for months and we'd end up throwing out feed. Their laying varied a lot by season because of that. Eggs in the fall were usually pet food because they'd taste like bugs. How I miss fresh scrambled bantam or quail eggs with a little goat cheese.

If you want good colored layers don't use a hatchery. Find a local breeder and ask them about the specifics of their chickens. Even if it's mutts you are looking for. My wonderful brown layers were penedesenca x maran x welsummer. If you deal with a purebred breeder you can use this chart for a rough comparison http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

http://www.backyardchickens.com/product ... ks/reviews

Boom.

Hope that helps

 

[JessicaR]

I also go to Meyers Hatchery. Its close enough that I can drive there. What sucks is they had a one day sale on meat chicks a couple of days ago, only 99 cents a chick! But I wasn't prepared to bring in chicks, so I will wait until this spring.

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

Thanks CBL.

I live in BFE nowhere and it's not like we have a lot of locals hatching their own chicks (though I'm thinking about doing that myself someday when I learn patience, lol). The one our local feed store buys from has an exclusive, so they don't sell to people just wanting to pick up a few chicks. Now if I wanted to find some game-type fighting roosters, I could probably get one for $25-100 bucks, such is the area I live in.

I am not really particular, I just like a somewhat docile production cross for my own eggs. I do have people who always want to buy eggs, so I do sell my extras when I have them, but that's not a main goal for me. I thought I might want some white egg layers this year so I can have eggs to dye for Easter next next year. My one Easter egger that is laying give me some pretty teal eggs, so I'm pretty happy with the feed store stock. I was expecting mostly brown or olive eggs, but these are a nice color.

I think I have talked myself into getting a few guineas, too. I haven't had any noisy little brats in several years. I kinda miss them.

 

[bobqdevon]

We ordered 100 from Mt. Healthy and were able to get them delivered way up north here, in the middle of November. They seem to have some decent prices. There's no hatcheries that we can drive to. Even to get beekeeping supplies is mail order or a 4 hour each way drive.

 

[desertcat]

Depending on where in Texas you are, you might consider Privett hatchery. They're somewhere in eastern NM and I've been pleased with the birds I've gotten from them. Of course if you're anywhere near Amarillo, that's the hatchery all the feed stores here use.

 

[skysthelimit]

I also go to Meyers Hatchery. Its close enough that I can drive there. What sucks is they had a one day sale on meat chicks a couple of days ago, only 99 cents a chick! But I wasn't prepared to bring in chicks, so I will wait until this spring.

I'm about and hour north of there. Perhaps if the times align, we can make a combined order, meet there and split them? I can only keep 10 or so on this lot, a friend might be interested, and maybe we can hit one of those discount brackets?

CND-- You should consider hatching your own, there is nothing like hearing peeps inside the eggs. I even built my own incubator and hatched chicks two winters ago. It's unbelievably easy.

 

[coffeenutdesigns]

Depending on where in Texas you are, you might consider Privett hatchery. They're somewhere in eastern NM and I've been pleased with the birds I've gotten from them. Of course if you're anywhere near Amarillo, that's the hatchery all the feed stores here use.

I'm in very far west Texas, so that might be worth looking into! Thanks.<br /><br />__________ Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:06 pm __________<br /><br />

CND-- You should consider hatching your own, there is nothing like hearing peeps inside the eggs. I even built my own incubator and hatched chicks two winters ago. It's unbelievably easy.

You overestimate my ability to NOT bother them after lockdown. I'm afraid I would kill them all with my fiddling and messing with them. :lol:

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I mess with my chicks after lockdown... Not in bator's as much, but under hens. I don't pull them out of the shell, but I love grabbing an egg with a beak sticking out and listening to it chirp.
Soon as they're out of the shell in the bator, you can *technically* take them out, LOL.