Tammie H.
Yelp
We ordered 19chicks from Cackle(5blue layers, 5chocolate layers, 3faverolles, 3wyandottes, & 3 exhibition orpingtons for 4H/state fair exhibition).
We have kept chickens for ~10y, starting w/my now 21&24yo 4H chicks, at one point we had over 80 chickens&20 ducks, adding each year, then moved twice,so this was the first batch in our new state, younger 3 daughter's first time caring for chicks "on their own,"& our first time ordering from Cackle(we had chickens from breeders, Meyers, McMurray, Hoover, & Ideal).
Was a bit worried as we had never shipped so far or in such cold weather(were in Idaho). Plus my oldest young daughter(13) is autistic, how would she handle a box of dead peeps? Or waking to dead peeps everyday for a week? Luckily we will just have to keep wondering!! Everything went perfectly, USPS did an amazing job getting the babies here in 2d, even sent them by plane in a couple instances when they could have sent a truck, we picked them up & had a peeping box of 24!
Usps updates are a bit wonky, ours went from "label printed,awaiting shipment-MO" to "delivered to usps sorting center-Boise ID"with nothing in between, so keep that in mind if it feels like no movement, there probably is, you just don't see it.
We had 1 tiny runt that was a smidge weak(but similar to chicks from other hatcheries, honestly), 2 chicks with pasty butt(one so bad I couldn't believe she was alive, took over an hour soak in Epsom water to get it off-papertowel wasnt going to do a thing), & 21 super active, super healthy chicks!!(these were comparable to pickup breeder chicks-have never gotten such healthy chicks from a hatchery in the mail!)
24h later the 1h soak baby was still weak, her eyes glued shut, by the end of the day, she had passed-we tried everything, but the stress was just too much. It happens, I do not blame Cackle, she obviously got stuck outside of the huddle or against something cold, & just couldn't recover. Plus, some birds are just a bit weaker from the start, it happens, unfortunately.
HOWEVER the other 2 that were a bit weak upon arrival could no longer be distinguished from the rest of the flock!!(obviously tiny was still tiny, but health wise she was everywhere, preening, running around the brooder, jumping on the hotwater bottle, etc), we even have one trying to fly already, oy!!
From what we can tell, our surplus blue & chocolate layers have a huge variety, which makes my daughters super happy!! They were hoping for maximum variety & it looks like we got at least 4, possibly 5 types!!! Exciting stuff!!
We did get an "eye pecker"(can be fairly normal with a black chick housed with light color chicks-theory is they believe they're bugs on their sibling's face), this should be resolved in a couple days, until then she's in an isolation brooder with another black chick, doing just fine.
We are adding the "jungle gym"(just a mini perch setup)tomorrow as they all seem ready for it!! I'm used to waiting a week or so to add it, needing to health them up a bit first. We will add "eye pecker" back with the jungle gym & hopefully that will offer enough distraction for him to keep his beak to himself
For anyone curious, we used hydro-hen in their water(mixed 24h prior to arrival with hot well water & set next to the brooder), and chickhouse premium crumble(mixed with hydrohen water straight out of the box for "wet oatmeal" texture, then as is after that).
We added a bit of chick-grit at 36h(just in a quart jar lid, not much, as we went to bed on day 2).
The combination of premium, healthy chickens and healthy food/water, we have 23 happy, healthy babies going into day 3!!! Couldn't be happier!! I've NEVER not had a decent amount of chick loss(think ~10/20% is normal for shipped chicks, I've had entire shipments lost, never where nearly the whole batch lives).
Also,believe a few babies were a smidge older(maybe 2-4d instead of day old on shipping day),that's normal, it happens & is perfectly ok!! Mother nature doesn't hatch all babies on the same day(someone mentioned this as a negative, its not, it's perfectly normal & will happen from all hatcheries & breeders).
P.S. they did put orange marker on the necks of a couple chicks, this scared my daughters, they thought the chicks were bleeding when the marker got wet &orange began "dripping." So be aware,check your packing sheet!! We had green heads, green chins, & orange necks(but paid no attention, we can just be surprised as they feather out, but do appreciate the effort!!)