Buying Chicks

The chickens are in the mail, figuratively for now and literally in a few months. It just took a few minutes to complete the process of buying them online, not much different from buying a chicken book from Amazon.com.

After weeks of research, reading websites, forum threads, and half a dozen books, I purchased the chicks from mypetchicken.com. I was impressed by the amount and quality of information on the site, but in the end it came down to their ability to send me the chickens I wanted in the quantity I desired.

There are numerous chicken breeders who offer online ordering. Mypetchicken.com even supplies the names of many of these breeders, who are their competition. The common minimum order from breeders is 25 chicks; that's a standard minimum in the industry. A scan of Craigslist in my area last night showed no less than three people looking for someone to share their order of chicks because they didn't want 25 babies.

Breeders want you to order that many because the body heat of all those chicks in the packing box helps keep them alive during shipping. Mypetchicken.com includes a heating element in their box to keep the chicks warm so their minimum order can be as low as three chicks, depending on where you live. The US Postal Service delivers the chicks through Express Mail. It's interesting that UPS, FedEx and other mail carriers will not ship live chicks. They typically arrive at your post office, they call you, and you pick them up.

Because I wanted one chick from six different breeds, Mypetchicken.com was the only source I found that offered the ease of getting exactly what I wanted. I settled on these pullets (the term for a female chicken less than a year old): Australorp, Barred Plymouth Rock, Golden-Laced Wyandotte, Red Star, Rhode Island Red, and Speckled Sussex. They also offered the option of specifically choosing female chicks with the additional option of having them vaccinated against Marek's disease, an illness that can cause paralysis and death in chickens. Of course those extras cost extra.

The basic cost for chicks is only about $3.00 each. The vaccination cost was $1.00 extra and the female option was 50 cents more. Surprisingly if you want a cockerel (a male less than a year old), it's 50 cents cheaper; most flocks don't need many roosters so they sell them for less. For less than $5.00 each you can have a baby chicken that is protected from disease.

The biggest cost for small purchases is the shipping fee. To ship them overnight from their home in Connecticut to my home in Colorado is about $36. For orders of fewer than seven birds, it costs more to ship than it does to buy the chicks. When it was all over, total cost was about $10 each for my six personally-selected pullets. That wasn't too much in my opinion because I got exactly what I wanted.

There are two basic ways to select chicks. You can choose a specific sex and pay more for females or less for males. You can also choose a Straight Run option. With straight run, you get the number of chicks you want chosen randomly from the breeds you want. Statistically you get half female and half male, but that is no guarantee. It's a risk for someone who wants hens for laying eggs because a straight run selection could deliver nothing but roosters. I was willing to pay more to get female chickens.

Even the sex selection only has a 90 percent guarantee. It's an art to look at a chicken that is only a few hours old and determine the sex when it has no external genitalia. This sorting process at the breeding facility is called sexing and even the best chicken sexers occasionally get it wrong. I have faith my six chicks will all be female. Of course I won't be sure for many months, until they get big enough to display the feather, size, and color differences that differentiate cockerels from pullets.

With online ordering, after you've selected your chicks you choose your delivery date. Incubated eggs take 21 days to hatch. Breeders know exactly when they need to put eggs in the incubator to get a hatched chick and can offer precise hatching and delivery dates.

As I checked mypetchicken.com on a daily basis doing my research, I began to notice that early delivery dates were becoming sold out very quickly. My original plan was to receive chicks in mid-March, raise them in a brooder (more on that in a future blog) for six to eight weeks and then move them to a permanent coop in May when the weather is warm, and start getting eggs in late July or early August. By the time I ordered my chicks this week, the earliest delivery date was late April; I checked today and now some of the birds I wanted aren't available until May. As a result, my timeline is pushed back a month.

Late winter is the time of year that most people are ordering chicks. Chicks hatched in early spring have plenty of time to grow and mature to the point that they begin laying eggs while the weather is warm. Hens tend to slow down or cease egg production when the weather is very cold. Pullets delivered in summer are just getting to the point that they would be laying eggs at the same time of year that they would normally stop laying eggs in winter (I'm sure that's more confusing for the chicken); not a good scenario for someone raising chickens for the eggs.

Delivery dates vary by chicken type on mypetchicken.com. Many of the popular and common birds like Barred Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red still have delivery options for early March. Less common birds or those with greater demand sell out early. The Red Star and Speckled Sussex aren't available now until May.

My selected chicks have different availability dates and it's the latest that determines when my order is ready. With ordering and payment complete, my chicks should arrive by April 27th. That gives me plenty of time to prepare the brooder and be ready for their arrival.

Another option for buying chicks is through a local farm store. Ours sells chicks beginning in late March through early April. They have fewer options of breeds and tend to offer the common birds like Barred Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red. They're available as straight run, pullets, or cockerels. In a few years when it comes time to replace or add chickens, and if I like those two breeds, I'll consider that option. It will definitely save on shipping costs.

In about six months from today, I should be getting the first of the eggs laid by my pullets. As challenging as the selection process was, I suspect the hard part has yet to come. Expect more when the chicks arrive and the brooding begins.

Go to: mypetchicken.com

The chickens are in the mail, figuratively for now and literally in a few months. It just took a few minutes to complete the process of buying them online, not much different from buying a chicken book from Amazon.com.

After weeks of research, reading websites, forum threads, and half a dozen books, I purchased the chicks from mypetchicken.com. I was impressed by the amount and quality of information on the site, but in the end it came down to their ability to send me the chickens I wanted in the quantity I desired.

There are numerous chicken breeders who offer online ordering. Mypetchicken.com even supplies the names of many of these breeders, who are their competition. The common minimum order from breeders is 25 chicks; that's a standard minimum in the industry. A scan of Craigslist in my area last night showed no less than three people looking for someone to share their order of chicks because they didn't want 25 babies.

Breeders want you to order that many because the body heat of all those chicks in the packing box helps keep them alive during shipping. Mypetchicken.com includes a heating element in their box to keep the chicks warm so their minimum order can be as low as three chicks, depending on where you live. The US Postal Service delivers the chicks through Express Mail. It's interesting that UPS, FedEx and other mail carriers will not ship live chicks. They typically arrive at your post office, they call you, and you pick them up.

Because I wanted one chick from six different breeds, Mypetchicken.com was the only source I found that offered the ease of getting exactly what I wanted. I settled on these pullets (the term for a female chicken less than a year old): Australorp, Barred Plymouth Rock, Golden-Laced Wyandotte, Red Star, Rhode Island Red, and Speckled Sussex. They also offered the option of specifically choosing female chicks with the additional option of having them vaccinated against Marek's disease, an illness that can cause paralysis and death in chickens. Of course those extras cost extra.

The basic cost for chicks is only about $3.00 each. The vaccination cost was $1.00 extra and the female option was 50 cents more. Surprisingly if you want a cockerel (a male less than a year old), it's 50 cents cheaper; most flocks don't need many roosters so they sell them for less. For less than $5.00 each you can have a baby chicken that is protected from disease.

The biggest cost for small purchases is the shipping fee. To ship them overnight from their home in Connecticut to my home in Colorado is about $36. For orders of fewer than seven birds, it costs more to ship than it does to buy the chicks. When it was all over, total cost was about $10 each for my six personally-selected pullets. That wasn't too much in my opinion because I got exactly what I wanted.

There are two basic ways to select chicks. You can choose a specific sex and pay more for females or less for males. You can also choose a Straight Run option. With straight run, you get the number of chicks you want chosen randomly from the breeds you want. Statistically you get half female and half male, but that is no guarantee. It's a risk for someone who wants hens for laying eggs because a straight run selection could deliver nothing but roosters. I was willing to pay more to get female chickens.

Even the sex selection only has a 90 percent guarantee. It's an art to look at a chicken that is only a few hours old and determine the sex when it has no external genitalia. This sorting process at the breeding facility is called sexing and even the best chicken sexers occasionally get it wrong. I have faith my six chicks will all be female. Of course I won't be sure for many months, until they get big enough to display the feather, size, and color differences that differentiate cockerels from pullets.

With online ordering, after you've selected your chicks you choose your delivery date. Incubated eggs take 21 days to hatch. Breeders know exactly when they need to put eggs in the incubator to get a hatched chick and can offer precise hatching and delivery dates.

As I checked mypetchicken.com on a daily basis doing my research, I began to notice that early delivery dates were becoming sold out very quickly. My original plan was to receive chicks in mid-March, raise them in a brooder (more on that in a future blog) for six to eight weeks and then move them to a permanent coop in May when the weather is warm, and start getting eggs in late July or early August. By the time I ordered my chicks this week, the earliest delivery date was late April; I checked today and now some of the birds I wanted aren't available until May. As a result, my timeline is pushed back a month.

Late winter is the time of year that most people are ordering chicks. Chicks hatched in early spring have plenty of time to grow and mature to the point that they begin laying eggs while the weather is warm. Hens tend to slow down or cease egg production when the weather is very cold. Pullets delivered in summer are just getting to the point that they would be laying eggs at the same time of year that they would normally stop laying eggs in winter (I'm sure that's more confusing for the chicken); not a good scenario for someone raising chickens for the eggs.

Delivery dates vary by chicken type on mypetchicken.com. Many of the popular and common birds like Barred Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red still have delivery options for early March. Less common birds or those with greater demand sell out early. The Red Star and Speckled Sussex aren't available now until May.

My selected chicks have different availability dates and it's the latest that determines when my order is ready. With ordering and payment complete, my chicks should arrive by April 27th. That gives me plenty of time to prepare the brooder and be ready for their arrival.

Another option for buying chicks is through a local farm store. Ours sells chicks beginning in late March through early April. They have fewer options of breeds and tend to offer the common birds like Barred Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red. They're available as straight run, pullets, or cockerels. In a few years when it comes time to replace or add chickens, and if I like those two breeds, I'll consider that option. It will definitely save on shipping costs.

In about six months from today, I should be getting the first of the eggs laid by my pullets. As challenging as the selection process was, I suspect the hard part has yet to come. Expect more when the chicks arrive and the brooding begins.

Go to: mypetchicken.com