Hatcheries, Day Old Chicks

Was so pleased with my experience with MPC (my pet chicken). They answered all my questions, made suggestions on breeds for my climate, allowed me to change my order as many times as I wanted up until the Thursday before hatch day (Mondays) and all my babies showed up healthy and thriving, Will absolutely order from them in the future. Since they are still babies I cannot tell if they were sexed correctly, but I have faith in this company.

I’ve used Cackle several times and I’m waiting on 36 Orpingtons now.
always gotten extras and always had any questions answered in a timely manner.

Second time ordering from Cackle Hatchery. Five chicks died within 3 days. Sent an emailed and followed up with a phone call. Stephanie the rep I spoke with was new and some one was helping her, would put me on long hold times. I've been doing chickens about 15 years and have never had this happen before. In 2017 I ordered 30 chicks from Cackle and didn't have any problems. Stephanie said some one would contact me and either i would receive a refund or replacement chicks. Never heard from Cackle. Will not order from Cackle again. Very disappointed and dismayed over the dead chicks as I did everything per Cackle instructions.

I am a first timer to raising chicks. Splitting my order between Cackle and Hoover to be sure.

I’ve ordered from Cackle on multiple occasions and had good success. I’d invest time in a call to a supervisor and get it resolved.

I have ordered from Cackle 5 times now, even my broilers were an excellent strain. Broilers from other hatcheries do not grow well here have a lot of losses and little growth. Cackle broilers are excellent. Chicks always arrive healthy, with extras and grow into beautiful adults. I always get what I ordered when I wanted them and Cackle keeps in touch. Every breed I've selected (8 now) has grown into gorgeous adults.

Hoover's really impressed me! It was my very first hatchery experience, I was scared, reading many failed hatchery shipments. Nervous that I would receive a box of dead babies, I emailed and called Hoover's, as well as calling the post office (again, only because I was nervous...there were no problems leading to my phone calls).

The chicks were all in there - with no extras (I hear other hatcheries do that... I would have no complaints about receiving an extra little chicky or two

haha). There was a nesting mat with the nutritional goo for them. The birds were shipped on a Wednesday (from Iowa) and I received them that Friday! (in Colorado)

The baby chicks arrived beautiful and healthy, and they still are (now they are 3 weeks). Hoover's will probably be who I order through in the future (though I plan to hatch my own, so I may not hatchery order again)

I ordered from McMurray on June 21st with a shipment request of the week of the 25th. They sent me a "hatched & shipped" email on the 27th, and I received them on the 29th. Bear in mind it was in the high 80s/low 90s that week, ALL SEVENTEEN were alive, and still are. I ordered 15 Wyandottes, received 1 free, and also 1 free rare exotic chick (a Dominique, I believe).

They will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and all are very healthy, eating/pooping well, and VERY lively. We shall see how they do from here on out, but so far, they've been great little chicks.

Only downfall, is that they will sneak in a few extras here and there, and they will usually be roos. I ordered a certain # of pullets and roos, so good luck with a straight run. Other than that, I would definitely recommend them and order from them again.

Healthy, thriving, accurate order:

This was my first order of chicks - received right on schedule a box full of healthy chicks, all alive, beautiful, healthy.

As of 6.5 weeks old, they are still thriving, all appear to be the breeds and genders I ordered (plus two extras that were sent - one might be a Cream Legbar that I didn't order but who is absolutely stunning; the other was an extra Buff Orpington). Haven't had to contact customer service, but when I was putting together my order and asking questions, they were Johnny-on-the-Spot helpful.

I was nervous about my very first chick order, and my hatchery options were limited since I just wanted to order a few from specific breeds. Having seen positive reviews from the folks at backyardchickens, I gave it a shot; and I would definitely place my order here again.

I called the advice line before making my purchase. The lady I spoke with took her time and answered all of my questions. She gave me great advice. I felt so much better about becoming a backyard chicken farmer. I was confident in my breed choices and in my ability to take care of the day old chicks. I purchased 14 hens and a rooster. They are all thriving and I couldn't imagine life without them.
Day 1

5 1/2 months later

I have used Cackle at least a half dozen times (for both chicks and Broad Breasted Turkeys) and they are my go-to hatchery. The prices are good & the birds are always healthy and vigorous upon arrival. I've also never had an order arrive and be incorrect, which can sometimes happen- but it's so much better when it doesn't! Also, I have been fortunate enough to never have sexing errors of more than 10% which is a BIG plus.

There's always so many new people wondering who is good to order from, and Cackle, in my opinion, is always a safe bet for quality hatchery birds.

Of all the chickens I've ordered online, this is the best place I've ever gotten them. My chicks always arrive perfectly healthy and on time. Meyer Hatchery always makes sure that every customer satisfied and updated on their packages. They're extremely reliable, amazing service, and perfect birds. I recommend them to everyone

I got a box of 50 chicks and 10 ducks, all of them arrived alive and are doing wonderful! I love their surprise box and their different bargains! The staff is super friendly also.

I love Backyard chickens hatchery! If you read the pros you'll see why, iv ordered chicks three times from them, and just ordered another batch that should be here in two more days! Backyard chickens is by far the best hatchery I think is out there, the only problem I don't like is their costs currently. Now I don't remember the costs ever being like this before, but this time I ordered I paid 50+ dollars for only 3 baby chicks including shipping!!! I love their hatchery, but I hate their prices! Their baby chicks come healthy tho which is good, and they guarantee a refund for any dead bays chicks so many days after they come in the mail, or something like that.

Okay, so my story goes like this: It was April 2014. We had just picked up our first chicks from a feed store. They were 4 Black Australorps. We still have them, and they are very tame and laying well. Since we had a good first experience with chickens, we decided to order 4 more hens from Mcmurray hatchery. We ordered 2 buff rocks (not Buff Orpingtons) ,one barred rock, and one easter egger. We were ordering as a large group from 4-h, so someone just went to Iowa to get them. Well, they gave us 6 chicks instead, so we got 3 Buff rocks, one barred rock, one Black Australorp,and one Easter Egger. One of the Buff Rocks died a few weeks later

, so we were left with 5. As they got older, one of the buff rocks started to crow. We realised he was a rooster,so we tried to keep him quiet. Then the barred Rock started crowing. Then the black Australorp. They were making som uch noise, we just had to drop the Barred Rock and Australorp at someone's farm. We kept the Buff Rock, though, because he was so friendly. We eventually found a wildlife rehab center that would take him and put him with a large flock of hens. So we were left with 1 easter Egger, and one Buff Rock (which we thought was a hen,because it looked exactly like one.) We left for a trip to see some relatives, and when we got back, it was like someone swapped it out with a rooster. We didn't know what to do, so we just kept looking for homes for it. Until, one day we got an Email from someone who had seen out old posters at a feed store. He wanted to know if we had any left (he wanted to start incubating) so we said we had 1 left. That day I was also preparing a barn for the rabbit show at the County Fair, so we just met up there. I was happy to get all the roosters homes, but not so happy with Mcmurray hatchery.

The moral? Don't order day-old chicks from Mcmurray hatchery.

I ordered from Ideal and was pleased with what I recieved all chicks arrived healthy and alive. the order was on time and exactly what I ordered.
Even the packing peanuts (sexed barred roo's) were healthy and I was able to re-home them to a 4h group.

In the future I would order from them again without question.
The chicks are 11 days old in these pics. I have had no losses.

I was very nervous ordering from them because of what I had read in this forum and it was also my first time getting chicks this way. Thankfully, my three chicks arrived exactly on the day that were scheduled. Chirpy, active and they look healthy. Its only been 3 days but so far so good. They were nicely "packaged" with multiple layers of wood shaving mats and a heat pad.

I recently ordered 6 chicks from Chickensforbackyards.com. I was attracted to their selection of hard(ish)-to-find chicks, their early ship date and their low minimums. I selected five chicks from their fairly generous selection and asked the customer service rep to "surprise me" with one of the breeds that I couldn't decide on. The lady I was working with was very sweet and seemed delighted by the task. She seemed to put some real thought into the matter. Six peeping, warm healthy chicks were delivered to me, double-boxed and with a heat pack. I asked the customer service lady which hatcheries they work with, and she said they work with a few of the local hatcheries in Missouri, very vague. I did a bit of sleuthing and noticed that the available/unavailable dates for each breed on the Cackle website exactly matched that on the chickensforbackyards.com website. So I suspect that chickensforbackyards acts as a middle man/shipper for Cackle, which allows you to get a small number of chicks (Cackle's minimums are 25 chicks I think) with a not-unreasonable markup. The price paid also comes with customer service that a backyard flocker like me would be pleased with. We are notoriously high maintenance... I emailed several times with questions and received replies the same day, and not just computer-generated auto emails. Perhaps this is Cackle's answer to backyard chicken keepers.

At any rate, the chicks are now 11 days old and all are happy and healthy. The Black Copper Marans is growing like a weed and is feather-legged. The Gold-Laced Wyandotte has very nice lacing so far. My Easter Egger developed a badly crossed beak at 6 days old and had to be culled by day 10. I don't hold this against the hatchery as it seems common among EEs and looked perfectly fine until day 6. There aren't many reviews on this company, so hopefully someone will find this helpful.

I ordered 6 chicks from Meyer Hatchery with a 7/21 hatch date. They had so many different breeds to choose from and it took me a couple of weeks before I could finally settle on the breeds I did. The only breed I had to switch with another for the date I wanted was Speckled Sussex. Anyway, the chicks hatched on Monday and I had them on Tuesday, my post office called me three minutes before closing saying that they had arrived (I was very thankful that the gentleman took the time to do that seeing as he was probably a little late leaving). The only downside to Meyer and probably any hatchery (unless you do a large order or pickup) is the cost of shipping. For the 6 chicks I paid just about 60 dollars. I would definitely order from them again but would probably try to wait until I could order one large flock to help drop the shipping costs. I would certainly recommend this hatchery to anyone who asked. I know there have been some people who have had unpleasant experiences with them, but mine was not.