Every spring backyard chicken keepers excitedly flock to the feed store to pick out their new chicks. But during any year with events that cause egg shortages at the grocery store, chick buying panics can ensue. Trying to find chicks during a buying panic can be stressful. Here is how to navigate the mayhem and find healthy chicks for sale quickly!
How to Find Chicks During a Buying Panic
You just left the feed store where 200 chicks sold out in 15 minutes and left a line of people empty handed. The line up for the next shipment of chicks will start hours before the feed store opens and folks are getting panicky. Here is how to navigate the situation to get your hands on the chicks your family needs to keep you in eggs this year.
Order Directly from the Hatchery Yourself
Did you know that feed stores are ordering chicks in bulk from hatcheries and selling them to you at a slight markup? The trade off is the hatcheries will have a minimum chick order, usually 15, while feed stores will let you buy 1 or 2 chicks. But if a chick buying panic is underway, you will EASILY be able to sell any extra female chicks you order! Begin checking hatcheries to see if they have the breeds you want. Here is a list of some United States hatcheries in alphabetical order:
SCAM RISK: Zero. You are in control of what you order. Opt for all sexed females if possible. If splitting the order with someone, be willing to show screen shots of your order page with sexed females visible as the only thing you ordered.
Split a Hatchery Order with a Local Acquaintance
If you’re in a local Facebook chicken group, you might find someone who has ordered 15 chicks from a hatchery but needs to split them with another person. You’ll want to pick the chicks up as soon as possible after they come from the post office so you can get them home and warm. This is not a time to attempt to get “free” feeding and care from someone else; there are a dozen other buyers who will want them if you don’t show up. Clear communication, texts when you are en-route, an on-time arrival with exact change in cash are what is needed to guarantee you get the available chicks.
SCAM RISK: Very Low. Request a picture of the order sheet that came with the chicks for your records. The chicks should clearly be marked with a P for pullets (female) or S or SR for straight run (mixed males and females). An order of all-male chicks will have M or C (cockerel) somewhere in the product code or clearly visible on the sheet. Splitting an order is generally very safe because the other person wants females and that is likely what was ordered.
Use Facebook to Find Local Breeders
Facebook does not allow the selling of livestock but you are allowed to request the contact information for (or directly message) a chicken breeder. The breeder cannot advertise animals for sale but she may post pictures of chicks that she has recently welcomed to her farm. This is a hint she may have some she’s willing to part with. The chicks will be straight run and go for full asking price within minutes so be prepared to pay top dollar for straight run. If your neighborhood forbids roosters, you will be safest ordering sexed pullets directly from a hatchery and splitting the order with someone. Buying a feather-sexable breed (sometimes called sex-links) from a breeder is also a safe option but feather sexable pullets will be expensive.
SCAM RISK: Low. Look for a breeder who is PT tested. This means she has been breeding for a while and has birds who have been disease tested. She will be safe to buy from but the chicks will all be straight run as it is difficult to sex most breeds of newly hatched chicks. If you arrive to the farm and it is filthy with large piles of feces and horrendous uncleanliness, leave. The chicks have been exposed to whatever is there and may be at a greater risk of illness.
Side of the Road Sellers
You may see chicks for sale on the side of the road or at flea market venues, especially if you have a hatchery within driving distance. (Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania for example.) The seller may have driven to a hatchery and bought any available chicks, which is usually a mix of common dual purpose breeds, and the chicks are likely to be straight run. Or perhaps the seller owns a rooster and an incubator and he’s offering less than 25 of a single breed of chicks or barnyard mixes for sale. (Less than 25 chicks is a hint they are incubator hatched since the Nurture Right holds 22 eggs and most others hold less than 30 eggs.) Chicks being sold this way at a local permanent structure, like a green grocer stand, are a little safer because the seller is usually set up to take credit cards and knows unhappy buyers will be able to locate them to complain.
SCAM RISK: Medium. The chicks are likely to be straight run and there is a medium risk of the chicks being an all-male hatchery order. You can attempt to visually sex the chicks if they appear healthy. A permanent stand location that takes credit cards and is willing to confirm they are selling a hatchery order of sexed pullets or straight run chicks is the most favorable roadside seller option.
Craig’s List, with Serious Caution
Craig’s List is the option of last resort. You’ll need to very carefully vet the sellers here. A few will be okay, some will be selling hatchery birds bought in bulk and marked up (but they are likely healthy chicks) and some will be running scams.
SCAM RISK: HIGH. If you are not familiar with visually sexing chicks, you are at risk of being sold all males. Resellers are able to buy boxes of all male chicks for about $1 per chick from hatcheries. They realize they can capitalize on the buying panic and will post on Craig’s List after they’ve been discovered and kicked out of Facebook Groups. They know most new chicken keepers cannot tell males from females. This is if they even have chicks for sale – some scammers will have you pre-pay with a cash app and the address to pick up the chicks is bogus. Proceed with extreme caution on Craig’s List.
Order an Incubator Instead
During chick buying panics Amazon often sells out of incubators available for immediate delivery but they still accept orders and ship dates are pretty accurate. If you have an incubator, you can get hatching eggs from local breeders and never again do you have to endure the hassle of a chick buying panic. I love my Nurture Right 360 incubator, which is a very beginner-friendly home incubator and is the only one most keepers ever need to own. (Affiliate link.)
Wait Out the Panic
Chick buying panics tend to erupt in February and stay strong through March and April while people scramble to find chicks. Summer vacations generally cool off chick buying as families hit the road and do not want to be stuck at home with brooders full of baby chicks. As the summer months begin, chicks can usually be found in the feed stores again. Sometimes waiting out the panic is all you need to do. But remember the rhyme “Born by June or they won’t lay soon” to remind you that if you want new hens coming into lay during the late autumn months when your existing hens slow down laying to molt, you must buy chicks hatched no later than the first week of June. July and August hatched chicks have a tendency to wait until February (7 months old) to come into lay. October hatched chicks, who will start to lay in early March, will cost less to feed before you begin getting eggs and are a better option than August chicks.
Avoiding Future Panics
Chick buying panics are generally triggered by grocery store egg shortages that happen in late winter, where the shortage is believed to be something that is likely to continue. Any perceived threat to people’s ability to easily obtain eggs from a grocery store will spark the panic, which actually begins the first week in January when hatcheries open for pre-orders. It typically becomes evident to the public sometime in February when the feed store’s first shipment of chicks is sold out in minutes. (Chicken chick buying panics also trigger Coturnix quail chick buying panics that are even worse but receive less attention.) Placing your hatchery chick order as soon as they accept pre-orders (sometimes as early as November) or arranging to be the first on a breeder’s spring wait list (plan to make this request around Halloween) are good ways to avoid the impacts of future panics.
This, too, shall pass!
Chick shortages happen. The best advice is to keep a level head, invest in the breeds you want at a price you feel comfortable paying and wait the frenzy out if you are not satisfied with your options. I hope this has given you some helpful advice on how to find chicks during a buying panic!
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