Our Barred Rock pullet chicks that we ordered on February 20 have now arrived. They are pictured above in the top picture. The second picture is of the little gals who arrived about one week prior to that.
I would say safely, but that isn’t quite the case. This order reflects the greatest loss we have experienced thus far in transport. Upon opening the box, we found we had exactly a 25 percent loss. The hatchery will credit our account for loss up to 48 hours, which is very fair we think. Thankfully, the rest seem healthy and happy as can be.
For someone who wants to get into raising chickens for the first time or for someone who has been doing it for years, a decision has to be made as to where to procure the baby chicks. In some places, this will be easy as there are no local options. However, in other places, such as central Virginia, there are both local options (like us) in addition to the hatcheries. So, which should you do: order the chicks from the hatchery yourself or buy them from a local farm? (Again, like us.) The following will present some of the benefits to you of buying the chicks from a local farm. Of course, in addition to these benefits to you, you also support the local farm and food network, which is a good thing.
So, here we go. Placing a chick order from a hatchery can be surprisingly expensive and daunting. At this point in the year, most hatcheries require each order to be at least 25 chicks. The more chicks of one breed that you order, the cheaper the chicks are priced. However, most people want a variety of pure heavy breed brown egg layers along with a chocolate egg layer and an olive/blue egg layer. This variety, and the fact that most people want all pullets, keeps the chick price at its highest. There are also added fees for vaccinations. The lowest shipping is usually a bit under $20. So that basically adds close to $1 per chick in shipping and vaccinations.
If you place an order like that (the minimum for the time of year with a variety of chicks, all or mostly pullets, and a few of the rarer and more expensive breeds but mostly just heavy breed brown egg layers,) then your cost will be somewhere around $4-$5 per chick. (This also varies depending upon the hatchery you are using and how far you are from the hatchery. These estimates are for Virginia.)
If you incur loss in transit or shortly thereafter (24 to 48 hours,) most hatcheries will either give you an account credit or refund the money to the card that you used. However, they will only refund the price of the chick in my experience, not its relative share of shipping or its vaccination costs. Then, you have to place another order to replace the chicks that died. And, of course, it will have to be a big order because you can’t just order three or four chicks. (It seems that it is typical to require a minimum of 25 during the colder months and 15 during the summer months.) Now you have many more chicks than you originally wanted (and, of course, a lot more money tied up in them.) Further, depending upon availability, this can really have the potential to create big age spans in your chicks. Two weeks are no big deal in hens at point of lay, but on young chicks it can be a problem. The bigger gals will pick on and bully the littler gals. In addition, at night when they roost, the bigger ones can sit on and kill the smaller ones.
Further, hatcheries have a 10% error rate in sexing chicks. They will not credit your account if you receive a rooster rather than a pullet. So, even if all goes perfect in your order and every chick survives, it is still possible to end up not getting the exact sex ratios that you wanted among your breeds. (Based upon all of the foregoing, I would suggest ordering more chicks than you want given that some will die (in transport or otherwise) and some will be the wrong sex. Thus, you have to try and adjust for these issues, which means you probably need to order more in order to get what you want.)
The point being that there is great benefit to purchasing from a local farm, like Wolf Hill, who deals with the hatchery rather than ordering directly from the hatchery yourself. Our price is higher certainly but there is great benefit in the added expense.
Purchasing from Wolf Hill will give you the ability to hand pick and mix and match your pure breed chicks. You can purchase from none to all of the chicks we have. (If you don’t like them, you are not obligated to buy, and, if you really like them, they are all for sale!) This means you can get a smaller number instead of having to order 25 from the hatchery. Of course, you get them immediately. We bear the initial loss that comes from shipment, and we provide the chicks with their first high quality food, drink, and chick grit. We also will bear the cost of the 10% error rate the hatchery has during sexing. In other words, if you bring back your purebred rooster and your receipt we will refund your purchase price. Or, to put it another way, we will buy the rooster back from you for what you paid for him as a chick. There is some real value added here.
We currently have a limited number of other purebred five-week-old Coop-Ready™ Pullets available for $10 per chick.
In just a few weeks, we will have Aracauna/Ameracaunas, Barred Rocks, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Delawares, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, and Rhode Island Reds. These will be sold as Coop-Ready™ Pullets for $10 per chick as well. Further, they will come with our our No-Rooster Guarantee™, which means that, if you do get a rooster, you can return him with your receipt and we will give you your money back.
For people who don’t necessarily care whether it is a pure breed or not, we have Wolf Hill Hybrids™ ranging from about 4-16 weeks available for $5-$10 per chick, depending upon age. These are straight runs, so we don’t offer our No-Rooster Guarantee™ on these. (In other words, you could get either cockerels (males) or pullets (females)).
We take all major credit cards, PayPal, and, of course, cash. Call or text (540) 358-1494 for more information or to schedule a time to pick-up your chicks!
