Meyer hatchery?

[Sublight]

What is a meal maker? Is it like it sounds? Chickens meant for eating?

 

[Frazzemrat1]

What is a meal maker? Is it like it sounds? Chickens meant for eating?

Well, they judge it based on your order. If you buy meat birds, they send a Cornish x. If you buy egg birds, they send another egg layer, I got a leghorn, which are known for their high egg production.

 

[CuccoMomma]

I just ordered 15 chicks from them Sunday. Got 1 meal maker.
They hatched Monday and I got them about 27 hours later.

The weather was in the 30s. I didn't use any electrolytes, gels, anything except medicated feed from tsc. They are all up and running, eating, drinking happy chicks. No issues so far, I am very pleased with my experience.

 

[Acre4Me]

We ordered 26 chicks - all arrived dead. Likely USPS fault, but will never know. When they arrived after spending 31 hours in some transport truck - without any scanned updates, they arrived at my PO, dead. I live only 3 hours from Meyer in a larger town, so the USPS transport was pathetically long. I think the chicks died very soon after leaving the hatchery as there was little evidence of poop, the strawlike material was basically undisturbed, and the chicks were beginning to smell. Here is a link to my post about the experience: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ordered-chicks-assortment-surprise.1216721/

It is possible I would order from Meyer again. The chicks certainly looked like a wide variety. Also, Meyer did refund my cost of the chicks. When I called they indicated it was pretty unusual for someone in Ohio to not receive their orders the day after shipment, so I find it interesting when various BYC posters indicate that they received chicks from one hatchery or another that is many states away, the next day - perhaps my strategy should be to order from a farther hatchery and the birds might arrive sooner! LOL.

All ended well - we ordered from a closer hatchery and picked up chicks in person. I figure we should get out chicken adventures started on a good note and then we can consider our next order once we are ready for more.

 

[CuccoMomma]

We ordered 26 chicks - all arrived dead. Likely USPS fault, but will never know. When they arrived after spending 31 hours in some transport truck - without any scanned updates, they arrived at my PO, dead. I live only 3 hours from Meyer in a larger town, so the USPS transport was pathetically long. I think the chicks died very soon after leaving the hatchery as there was little evidence of poop, the strawlike material was basically undisturbed, and the chicks were beginning to smell. Here is a link to my post about the experience: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ordered-chicks-assortment-surprise.1216721/

It is possible I would order from Meyer again. The chicks certainly looked like a wide variety. Also, Meyer did refund my cost of the chicks. When I called they indicated it was pretty unusual for someone in Ohio to not receive their orders the day after shipment, so I find it interesting when various BYC posters indicate that they received chicks from one hatchery or another that is many states away, the next day - perhaps my strategy should be to order from a farther hatchery and the birds might arrive sooner! LOL.

All ended well - we ordered from a closer hatchery and picked up chicks in person. I figure we should get out chicken adventures started on a good note and then we can consider our next order once we are ready for more.

That's so sad
I live in NE Indiana and got them about 27 hours after the first shipping scan.

 

[Acre4Me]

That's so sad
I live in NE Indiana and got them about 27 hours after the first shipping scan.

The first real scan (not when the label was printed) was at the local PO near Meyer around 6pm if I'm remembering correctly. They went to Cleveland (expected) and then were scanned as having left Cleveland at 11pm that Monday night. No.More.Updates. after that..... until around 6AM Wednesday morning at our PO (31 hours later). That week the weather was mild (but cold), however the heating packs were still warm and there were 26 chicks, so I don't think they got too cold. I would suspect that they might have been in the proximity of Dry Ice which might have caused them to suffocate. But maybe something else happened.

The reason I did not risk another shipment was because we had no other chicks, and my 11yo was pretty disappointed - she was with me when we picked up the dead chicks (and we luckily opened them up at the PO to check for any dead ones and were able to refuse them there), so I didn't want to get more dead chicks in case the same unknown issue occurred. Oh, and I thought it was interesting that since we refused shipment due to all dead birds, they were shipped back to Meyer....now that is not a shipment I would like to receive!

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

The first real scan (not when the label was printed) was at the local PO near Meyer around 6pm if I'm remembering correctly. They went to Cleveland (expected) and then were scanned as having left Cleveland at 11pm that Monday night. No.More.Updates. after that..... until around 6AM Wednesday morning at our PO (31 hours later). That week the weather was mild (but cold), however the heating packs were still warm and there were 26 chicks, so I don't think they got too cold. I would suspect that they might have been in the proximity of Dry Ice which might have caused them to suffocate. But maybe something else happened.

The reason I did not risk another shipment was because we had no other chicks, and my 11yo was pretty disappointed - she was with me when we picked up the dead chicks (and we luckily opened them up at the PO to check for any dead ones and were able to refuse them there), so I didn't want to get more dead chicks in case the same unknown issue occurred. Oh, and I thought it was interesting that since we refused shipment due to all dead birds, they were shipped back to Meyer....now that is not a shipment I would like to receive!

Wow, same. I could only imagine how bad that they stunk. We had two of our chicks pass away so we wrapped them in a box and put them in the garage so we could bury them. They stunk so bad the next day

 

[pennyJo1960]

I wanted to report my experience with Meyer Hatchery 2/2018. I ordered 10 Marans and 5 Buff Orpingtons. The chicks were shipped and received within 24 hours picked up at USPS 10:00 a.m. The outside temps were mid 60's no winds to speak of. Opening the box at home I noticed the 2 white Maran females and the 2 Blue Copper Maran females and 2 Blue Copper Maran females were VERY TINY. The Orpingtons seemed small but I had never experienced that breed. Chicks were placed in NEW brooder with 97* readings on heat lamp, puppy pads on brooder floor, Medicated starter and supplements. I ordered GroGel, probiotics/electrolytes/vitamin packs and prepared Grogel immediately presenting to the chicks - prepared water with filtered spring water room temp with feeder filled with medicated crumble. One of the white Marans was listless and would not take Grogel, water or food. That bird died by end of day. The next morning the other white Marans died. I notified Meyer, they refunded the $23 for the birds. I told them my concerns with the frail/listless condition of the 4 Blue Copper Marans. Over the course of the first week, 2 white Marans, 4 Blue Copper Marans and 1 Golden Cucko Marans femal and all five Orpington were dead. Folks that 11 chicks out of 15 dead within the first week. After the first two losses, I mixed up an ACV in second water in the brooder. Those birds failed to thrive while one Black Copper Marans male, one Golden Cuckoo Marans and one meal maker (?) have survived. Clearly Meyer mailed chicks infected with coccidiosis. I cancelled other orders with two other sources because I didn't want to loose those chicks. I wrote to Meyer expressing all this. Their response is they don't refund chicks older than 48 hrs, directed me to a book that covered coccidiosis and basically told me to pound sand. This is clearly the wrong customer service response. I plan to challenge the $197 credit card charge and will post this on all forums. Order from Meyer at your own risk. They completely failed to step up to a problem that rests solely on their hands.

sorry for the bad experience you do not say where you are that can make a issue
not the most common outcome from any of the hatcheries mostly used

 

[Alexandra33]

Meyer is just wonderful. We live about 2 1/2 hours away, and have both picked up chicks and had them shipped to us.

The quality of their birds seems pretty good to my untrained eye. Then again, I'm only in it for the eggs and personality, not show purposes. Overall very healthy, never lost a single one of our Meyer fluffies. The facility itself is quite clean, their employees are kind, ect.. Definitely will continue to be a loyal customer.

Sadly, I've heard horror stories about treatment of chicks during shipping....I'm guessing that's the cause of death in a lot of cases.

~Alex

 

[MrsChickens]

Meyer is just wonderful. We live about 2 1/2 hours away, and have both picked up chicks and had them shipped to us.

The quality of their birds seems pretty good to my untrained eye. Then again, I'm only in it for the eggs and personality, not show purposes. Overall very healthy, never lost a single one of our Meyer fluffies. The facility itself is quite clean, their employees are kind, ect.. Definitely will continue to be a loyal customer.

Sadly, I've heard horror stories about treatment of chicks during shipping....I'm guessing that's the cause of death in a lot of cases.

~Alex

I live TN the weather was 60s and 70s the week chicks arrived - were received next day. One by one they died - out of 15 chicks only 3 have survived. Local vet said clearly one or more of the chicks were diseased which spread to the rest of the birds. The 3 that survived likely were in early stages and the medicated feed and Sav-A-Chik probiotics and electrolytes were effective. He suspected either yolk infection or cocidiosis. Regardless, my issue with Meyer is their attitude in not covering more than the 4 chicks that didn't make 1st/2nd days - they didn't even offer replacement. They clearly had an issue and I believe they know they had and issue. When you're paying $22.00 per chick it begins to total up quickly. Order your std breeds but not any of the exotics - they do not stand behind their product or health of the birds.