It's that time of year again. The feed stores are peeping with new life. Those sweet little fluff-balls run all around their containers begging to be taken home. And I am having a serious case of Chickie Baby Fever!!
I've been in the feed stores many times since their new chickie babies have arrived and, each time, I stand and admire their preciousness, but have proudly walked out without any boxes of chicks.
I got a head start this year in ordering, but I will still be getting my chicks much later than many others. The reason? I ordered from breeders this year.
I spent quiet a bit of time researching different breeds before deciding on the ones I wanted to get and then spend even more time researching breeders to see which breeder(s) I wanted to use to get my chicks from.
I ended up placing my order on Valentine's Day and, more than a month later, I still haven't received my chicks. It will actually end up being more than two full months after I placed the order before I will get my chicks.
I knew before I ever places the order that it would be a long wait before I got them. This is not a "Free 2-Day Shipping" kind of thing. When I placed my order, the hens hadn't even laid the eggs that my chicks would hatch out of.
It would've been so much easier and so much faster to just go pick up some chicks from the feed store. But it didn't fit what I wanted the chicks for.
Where you buy your chicks from depends on what you are looking for in your chickens. There are pros and cons of both. Here are some things to think about before making the decision.
Animal Treatment
The first and most important reason that we chose to buy from a breeder instead of a hatchery is because I don't want to support large scale commercial hatcheries. The treatment of the parent flocks in these hatcheries is not great and I don't want to support the quality of life that they are given by purchasing from a hatchery. Quality of life is going to be much better for a chicken raised by a breeder where the chickens have adequate space, feed, attention, and, when needed, medical attention.
Quality
The quality of the birds that hatcheries offer is far below what you'll get from a good breeder. When looking for some basic chickens that will only be used for eggs and enjoyment, this is not a problem at all. Hatchery birds will provide that with no problem at all. We enjoy our hatchery chickens very much and they are excellent layers. This time, we wanted good breeding stock of quality chickens and we can't get that from a hatchery. Hatcheries are "chicken multipliers", not breeders. The chickens in hatcheries are bred at random and aren't bred to any kind of standard. Again, this is fine if you're looking for chickens just to enjoy and that will provide you with eggs. Hatchery birds are not going to be show quality or heritage lines.
Sexing
Most commercial hatcheries have chicken sexers employed that are able to tell with 90% accuracy if a day old chick is male or female. When you get chicks from a hatchery, often times, you will be able to get the sex that you want. This is especially important for people that aren't allowed to have roosters and need to be certain that their chicks are female. If you buy from a breeder, you will likely have to take a gamble on the sex of the chicks you receive because most breeders aren't able to tell if a chick is male or female unless it is a sexlink or an autosexing breed. This can be a huge selling point for hatcheries and rightfully so. Unfortunately, the males that hatch in hatcheries are often butchered as soon as they hatch. Breeders will often grow out the extra males and use them as food for their families, which at least gives the males a purpose instead of being butchered as soon as they hatch.
Price
Hatcheries are able to produce lots and lots of chicks in short periods of time. Breeders focus on certain areas and aspects, many times studying genetics of breeding, in attempt to improve the breed. Breeders spend countless hours studying and planning breedings and hatching so that they can offer birds of excellent quality. For this reason, the price you will pay for chicks from a breeder is going to be significantly more than you will pay from a hatchery. A chick from a hatchery may be $2-3 whereas a breeder may charge anywhere from $20-$200 for a chick depending on the bloodlines, the availability of the breed, and many other factors. This is a major factor in deciding where to get your chicks. It's much cheaper to start a flock of egg layers from a hatchery than it is to start a flock from a breeder. There again, if you only want the chickens for eggs and enjoyment, a hatchery may be the way to go. After all, the chickens are going to lay the same number of eggs regardless of where you get them from.
So, for me and for our situation and what we are looking for in our flocks, buying from a breeder was the right choice.
I hope this will help you with your decision on which choice is right for you.
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