Four Questions to Ask a Chick Seller
My phone has been ringing, my texts have been chirping, my inbox is beeping, my messages are piling up. Why? Cackle Hatchery had to temporarily stop shipping birds due to weather, which means that a big chick flipper — let’s call it BeeBee — a few counties south of me won’t be getting their orders, so they cannot fulfill the orders customers have placed with them. The sad part is that many of their customers were ordering under the impression that the chicks were hatched on site. And some of the chicks are, but many are not. And whoever thinks to ask?
I’d like to share with you four questions that I think should be asked of any chick seller.
Are the chicks hatched on-site?
If not, then your source is a chick flipper. He or she is buying chicks from a commercial hatchery, having them shipped in, marking them up, and selling them to you. If you are comfortable with shipped chicks (I am not, more info here), you are better off just ordering straight from the commercial hatchery yourself. The chicks will still have to endure being shipped, but at least you will save some money.
Are the hatching eggs from your hens?
Most of the chicks hatched here are from my own flocks, and to make this clear, my flocks are tagged on my website as “a Flower Feather Farm flock”. Sometimes I bring in hatching eggs from a friend of mine, and sometimes — for a proprietary hybrid — from a hatchery. I think it is important that my customers be able to easily discern between chicks from my flocks and chicks from elsewhere, so I try to make this really clear on the website. If you ask this question, and the seller is not comfortable fully disclosing the hatching egg origins, that would be a cause for concern.
How old are the hens that laid the eggs from which the chicks hatched?
Did you know that a juvenile female chicken is considered a pullet — not a hen — until she has gone through her first molt, which usually happens in the first year? We should not be hatching her eggs prior to this, for the health and vitality of the chicks that may hatch. Yes, chicks may hatch from pullet eggs, but they may not be as robust or healthy as chicks hatched from her eggs after her first molt. Personally, I would never purchase pullet-laid chicks or hatching eggs, as the fact they are willing to sell a compromised chick reveals to me their prioritizing of $$ over flock health and well-being. I would wonder what other corners they are cutting. You can read more about Pullet Eggs here.
What is your health guarantee?
2% of hatched chicks will not make it past the first ten days. The problem is that your seller won’t know which ones will and which ones won’t, but they do need to have a plan in place for what happens if one of the chicks you go home with is the statistic. If they won’t discuss this with you, that is a cause for concern.
And of course, ask the ordinary questions:
What have you been feeding them?
When did they hatch?
Are you available for questions and support?
