Where to buy chickens?

[Ctwormsandgardens]

My husband and I have officially moved into the home we purchased in New York. Complete with a large multi stall barn and 15 acres of land. We are ready to start raising chickens, but, finding them is turning out to be rather difficult. As in, I haven't found any. Everyone I have spoken to that has chickens says that they only have their own chickens for meat and or a small flock for their own personal egg laying hens.
I haven't found anyone that has chickens for sale that are at or near egg laying age. I've spoken to a couple dozen people who have chickens, none of them know anyone that has any for sale. These are all farms that have roosters and hatch out their own eggs but don't sell chickens. Everybody is telling me to wait until next spring and go to the chick day sale at Tractor Supply.
I would like to find some that are a year old, or close to it, so I don't have to wait 1.5 years for eggs. Any ideas on how to locate laying hens?

 

[ChicNmom]

Young hens start laying at 5 to 6 months.

It will be harder to find some as our local farm stores only have chicks spring and late summer. There is one store here that does have some chicks and older pullets year round. It is a family owned place so maybe look for an independent farm store somewhere within a reasonable driving distance.

You may find someone on Craigslist that wants to down size their flock before winter. But you are also risking bringing in some diseases.

Also see if NY has a poultry group on Facebook.

You can order chicks from a hatchery but they will require a little extra care for a couple of months depending on the weather.

 

[WingItRanch]

Hi there! Welcome to chicken farming!

Here's NY state thread. You can try asking that forum.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=231485

Also, just FYI chickens start laying eggs around 6 months old. Waiting for 1 year old chickens would be a little silly because you'd be missing out on 6 months worth of eggs and they slow way down on laying after only a couple years.

Some online hatcheries will also ship starter pullets if you're not interested in raising babies. Do the research on what breed will be best for your temperatures, how many eggs they lay on average, temperament, egg color, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Ctwormsandgardens]

Hi there! Welcome to chicken farming!

Here's NY state thread. You can try asking that forum.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=231485

Also, just FYI chickens start laying eggs around 6 months old. Waiting for 1 year old chickens would be a little silly because you'd be missing out on 6 months worth of eggs and they slow way down on laying after only a couple years.

Some online hatcheries will also ship starter pullets if you're not interested in raising babies. Do the research on what breed will be best for your temperatures, how many eggs they lay on average, temperament, egg color, etc.

Good luck!

Thank you very much!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I don't live in New York, but do have some chickens for sale.

 

[Jener8or]

I highly recommend buying from a hatchery or hatching out your own chicks, just for the reason @ChicNmom suggested, so you don't bring any diseases into your flock. Plus having chicks is fun, and if you are wanting friendly chickens, this is the best time to get them.

It seems like a long time (20ish weeks), but if you purchased from a reputable hatchery now, you would have eggs right in time for Spring.

I have only ordered from 2 hatcheries (Cackle and Meyer (no 'S' on the end)) and have had good luck with them and I can't complain about the quality of the chickens (but I am not showing them.)

Some hatcheries do sell started pullets, but I have no experience with that and can't vouch for going that route. Happy chicken hunting!

 

[FrostRanger]

I also agree ordering from a hatchery would probably be best, Meyer and cackle are some good hatcheries to look into but there are certainly others too. Started pullets are going to be harder to source and much more expensive than chicks. Yes, chicks require a bit of extra care, but nothing too bad, just make sure they have food, water, warmth and check for pasty butt and they're good to go. Iirc Meyer sells chicks of most common breeds for between 5-7 bucks per chick and shipping starts at 50 bucks but that goes down the more chicks you order at once whereas started pullets are around 30 something bucks per bird and shipping is 75 bucks per bird. I ordered 8 earlier chicks this year and paid maybe 110 bucks but if I had ordered started pullets I would have paid 800 bucks. No idea who's selling locally in my area but I still would have paid more and probably would have had a bugbear of a time finding someone selling what I wanted and then I would have had to deal with the hassle of quarantine and all that. By going with a hatchery I ensured I got what I wanted and they're vaccinated for mereks to boot

 

[Ctwormsandgardens]

I highly recommend buying from a hatchery or hatching out your own chicks, just for the reason @ChicNmom suggested, so you don't bring any diseases into your flock. Plus having chicks is fun, and if you are wanting friendly chickens, this is the best time to get them.

It seems like a long time (20ish weeks), but if you purchased from a reputable hatchery now, you would have eggs right in time for Spring.

I have only ordered from 2 hatcheries (Cackle and Meyer (no 'S' on the end)) and have had good luck with them and I can't complain about the quality of the chickens (but I am not showing them.)

Some hatcheries do sell started pullets, but I have no experience with that and can't vouch for going that route. Happy chicken hunting!

Thank you very much. I will look into the online hatcheries you mentioned. I never even knew they existed. Just need to get a few things for them and we are ready to go