Cackle Hatchery reviews

[buckbye]

 
...Like on some of the pics where it stated they are not pics of Cackle hatchery birds.  As I have said It not Hatchery birds I have a problem with.Its the misleading selling techniques.

I caught that, too, when I was paging through the catalog.  I was a bit irked.

 

[Katt66]

The way I look at it hatchery birds are to birds bred by individual breeders to meet or exceed the breed standard as and I hate to say it, puppy mill puppies vs puppies from a quality breeder.

You can still end up with good birds who will lay eggs and if you're lucky will be nice representatives of the breed. Just like you might get a decent looking well tempered lab from a puppy mill BUT you'll get a far better dog that will actually hunt, retrieve, and work like the breed is meant to do if you get it from a good breeder interested in the betterment of the breed rather than making money.

Any time you put dollar signs above quality this will happen.


With that being said, I was happy with the birds I got from Cackle for the most part. We ordered 15 pullets. 5X EE's, 5x Speckled Sussex, and 5x Welsummers back in Sept. They hatched and shipped the beginning of October. We got 16 chicks with an extra Speckled Sussex thrown in the mix. One of the EE's was a severely deformed crossbeak with one eye who I ended up culling on day one. I didn't bother pressing the issue over a single $3 bird so close to the end of the hatching season and I chalk it up to simple human error. We all goof up occasionally and I'd imagine their sorters and sexers are very busy on hatching and shipping day.

We kept four, my Aunt has the others so I can't speak of the whole order in general, though they do look nice and well feathered and fat as well from what I've seen in visits to her place, but our 2 EE's we kept, 1 Speckled Sussex, and 1 Welsummer seem pretty nice so far. We've held them nonstop and they are extremely outgoing and bright and friendly. Growing fat and happy and well feathered. The Sussex seems to have nice color coming in already though she'll be a WIP till she molts a time or two and her spots come in more. The Welsummer has a gorgeous little salmon breast and partridge coloring as she should. I only expect them to improve with age. Do I intend to actively breed any of these breeds for my own personal use? Nope I just want a bright and colorful flock and carton of eggs. So for that purpose I was quite happy with Cackle.

Here are the ones we kept from last week, from left to right, EE pullet, Speckled Sussex pullet, EE pullet, and Welsummer pullet.


I guess the Speckled Sussex does have a lot of white on her from what I've seen in other better bred ones. But I kind of like her little white belly and hope she keeps the patchwork appearance as she grows up personally. Though it's nowhere near breed standard, as I said I'm happy with a bright and colorful flock. If I'd have paid $15 apiece or something for her, that would be a different story...But, for what she is, I like her a lot.

 

[kenzier093]

They are nice looking birds. I am going to order 15 pullets probably at the end of January next year. I'd like to get 5 EE's, 5 Salmon Favorelles, and 5 Brown Leghorns. Hopefully I will have a good experience with them

 

[popsicle]

I'm happy with my Cackle birds, and will order from them again.

 

[MNKris]

Have to say I am extremely happy with my birds from Cackle. I purchased Wheaten OEGB, Bantam RIR, a few production egg layers, a few brown leghorns, a few BBR OEGB and a group of blue OEGB. The wheaten are tiny, tiny birds. As small as I have seen. The BBR are about the size of the ones I already owned and totally acceptable for showing. I did sell all the blue OEGB. I don't recommend them from Cackle. They are too large and the roosters are mean.

The RIR bantams are beyond awesome. The color is deep dark red, the appearance is the brick build I was looking for and out of 18 hens, I am regularly getting 12-15 eggs a day. AND, they are light BROWN eggs. Normally hatchery RIR bantams will produce an off-white egg at best. I really wanted a brown egg and I got it. They are the friendliest chickens I have ever seen.

As far as eggs being delivered to the hatchery - I would hope so. NPIP recommends separate locations for breeding flocks vs. hatchery. They do have their own flocks, but in order to offer a deeper product line, they also purchase eggs from a limited number of different breeds. Ask if you are concerned. All hatcheries that sell chicks across state lines have to be NPIP certified. In fact, all hatcheries in my state have to be NPIP certified if they want to sell chicks OR eggs. This includes a formal inspection of the site for cleanliness and humane treatment. I am NPIP certified and went through the process. I am also a certified disease tester. During my inspection I was concerned with some imperfections in setup. I was told by the federal vet that I had the cleanest small facility he had ever seen. Although our place is clean and relatively new, it is a backyard flock, not built for a business. It made me think about how many other people are selling chicks and eggs and what conditions other backyard breeders keep their flocks in.

Regarding hatchery cleanliness, this is their livelihood, not a hobby. The flocks are vaccinated for many more things than a typical breeder would vaccinate for. Not sure if that is good or bad, but definitely the norm. I haven't had any disease issues with my Cackle birds and they haven't caused any issues with the birds I owned prior to getting the Cackle crew.

Also, some of the worst experiences I have had are from show breeders. Over-priced chicks, not very hardy and I even got a Marans that had muffs - it was an olive egger! When I asked the breeder that I bought this chick from, the reply was "oh, I must have gotten it mixed up with my wheaten Easter eggers". No refund, worthless roo from a person that brags on having contributed over 50 birds to the breed standard authorization. Another "reputable" show breeder sent me chicks that looked great until they started to age. Had to cull nearly every one because of one issue or another. And, from both of these examples, the egg color was less than ideal. I have had to cull hundreds of birds to get my egg color where it should be. At $10/chick + shipping, that was an expensive lesson.

Guess what I am trying to say...it goes both ways. There is good and bad everywhere you turn.

 

[kenzier093]

Well I just ordered 15 chicks last night and they are supposed to come Feb. 21st! I hope It all goes good. The customer service was great too!

 

[NaNaDuMmEr]

My daughter and I recently ordered 40 chicks from them. They ended up sending us a sick batch. 21 of the chicks died. They would not even replace half of what we lost. Overall, we had a terrible experience, and would not reccomend anyone buying from them. My daughter is an expert of sorts when it comes to raising chicks, and she has never had a problem like this in the past.

 

[MNKris]

Please be careful when accusing hatcheries of "sending sick chicks". Although we don't ship chicks, we hear this all the time.

Unless diagnosed by a poultry lab, one can usually assume the most likely cause of death / illness is the result of stress by shipping. I am not saying things don't happen at hatcheries, because they certainly do and I have personal experience with this years ago, but accusations should be formally diagnosed prior to posting on a public forum. JMHO.

 

[flockbreeder93]

If I could add my two cents I am a flock owner that sells to hatcheries and I work my but off to breed my birds correctly and to breed standards not production standards we have show quality birds and yes some breeds from this Hatchery may be breed out of standard and into production but not all birds and when they are hatched they are separated if they are not the right eggs that they were supposed to be and put in the right places

 

[jc12551]

I have nothing but praise for Cackle. The only problem I have had that was not a post office problem was they accidentally sent me a box of turkeys one time. I offered to pay for them but they said keep them. Someone even called me to help when one of the pouts had a problem. That same year the post office crushed a box of chicks and lost a box of chicks. Neither was Cackles fault but they re shipped after the crushed box. That re shipment was lost. And they re shipped a box I finally got.

I like how they post videos of their breeder flocks (I don't know if any of the other hatcheries do that) and are upfront about how some of the pictures are not of their birds (I don't know if any other hatcheries do that). They sell their EEs as EEs and explain why. I called about the Spitzhauben and they were up front that the crests aren't perfect, which is common in the US, but they have imported new breeding stock to try and correct it. Their cinnamon queens are not cinnamon queens though. But they are excellent layers and foragers.

Last year I accidentally ordered cockerals and they called me to ask if it was a mistake or if I did it on purpose since I usually order pullets. Great customer service! They shipping charge is simply and straightforward. No half box up charge etc.

I always order in April when the weather is nice and rarely lose more than 2 out of 25. Last year they sent three extra and I had all 28 pullets until last month when a dog killed 6.

I agree with a poster above in that all of my show breed stock has been poor in health and too finicky for the way I keep chickens. I have ordered from other hatcheries before but decided to stick with cackle a few years back. I order every year.