Given all the interest in urban chickens this Spring, I shouldn't be too surprised at the news coming in from across the country that hatcheries are scrambling to keep up with demand (Missori) and local feed stores are seeing their shipments of chicks disappear quickly (Oregon).
While it used to take six weeks to sell 800 chicks, the folks at Grain Growers sold out within ten days of the last shipment arriving. And looking at the pricing at some of the bigger hatcheries (like McMurray Hatchery), it's looking like getting chicks in the next month will cost you more than waiting until May. Of course, dealing with smaller batches from online retailers (like MyPetChicken.com) doesn't yet seem to reflect the price increases.
No matter where you get your chicks, if you're in the market for getting your first urban chickens, be careful you don't get caught up in the emotion of the moment and over-pay for your chicks to have them now-now-NOW!
And whatever you do, make sure you pick the right chick and don't settle for "what's left in this shipment." Remember, you're going to have this chicken with you for years to come and eating the eggs it lays. Don't settle for second best.
In the meantime, why not spend a little more time working on building the coop?
1 comment:
Good advice. We can't get our three little chicks from our local hatchery until June 2nd. At first we (I) were disappointed but then we (he) figured, more time for building the coop; more time to catch up on our gardening. We'll still enjoy them when we get them.
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