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How much are your chicks and chickens and do you always have them available?

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We are a small hobby farm, not a commercial hatchery or poultry farm. Although we have chicks throughout the year, we have limited quantities and often sell out. The "Chick Availability" page is usually updated with what is currently available. If there are specific breeds you are looking for, send us a message and we will let you know if and when it will be available. Pricing depends on the breed and sex of chick(en), time of year, and how old they are. The most current price list can be found HERE. Except for custom hatches, all chicks are sold on a first come, first served basis. We do offer waitlists for eggs and chicks with a $20 nonrefundable deposit IF we will have your desired breed available. Once our waitlists are full, we will no longer take deposits but will post any extras we have. The deposit will be applied toward the cost of the eggs or chicks. All pricing is cash pricing. However, we accept cash, Paypal, and Venmo. There is a 3% surcharge added to Paypal and Venmo payments that use the "Goods and Services" or "Purchase Protection" options to cover the additional cost. We do not have set "hours of operation". We work regular jobs so an appointment is needed to pick up.

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Do you ship chicks/eggs?

 

Yes! But only within the state of California and as weather permits. We do not ship from June-September as temperatures in our area can reach 110 degrees or higher, which is unsafe for shipping live animals and will affect the viability of eggs. We prefer and recommend that all chicks and eggs be picked up locally in Fresno, CA. However, we can ship anywhere in California. Shipping rates are as follows and are subject to change at anytime:

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Shipping Eggs: Up to 1 dozen eggs in a foam shipper Priority Mail $35, Priority Express $65

                           Up to 2 dozen eggs in a foam shipper Priority Mail $40, Priority Express $80

Shipping Chicks: 6 chick minimum, up to 15 one day-old chicks in a USPS approved ventilated chick box with Grogel, crumbles, and heat pack if needed, Priority Mail Express 2-Day only $70 (Even if sent express, USPS only guarantees delivery of live animals in 2-3 days)

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All eggs are packed securely in a foam shipper and sent Priority Mail with $100 of insurance included. You may upgrade to Priority Mail Express for an additional fee. Chicks are sent Priority Mail Express and will usually arrive in 1 or 2 days. Shipped eggs are always a risk. We do not guarantee the fertilization or hatching rates of any of our eggs, shipped or not. However, it is common knowledge that shipping can often reduce the hatching rate of eggs by 50% or more. We routinely hatch on our homestead and have excellent hatch rates in our GQF Sportsman incubator. We always test hatch every pen at the start of the season and then continuously throughout to make sure each pen has good fertilization rates before selling hatching eggs from them.  We can not control what the post office does to a box of eggs or chicks once it has left our hands. Rough handling, X-rays, exposure to weather, cold, heat, and shaking of the box can all affect the viability of eggs and health and wellness of chicks. We do our best to pack eggs and chicks to the best of our ability but the rest is in the post office's hands. If you order from our homestead, you assume all risks. There are no refunds due to broken eggs or low hatch rates. You acknowledge that your hatch rate with our eggs can be anywhere from 0% to 100%. We try to include extra eggs and chicks with each order if they are available. In the event that there are more broken eggs than the extras included, you are responsible for filing an insurance claim with the USPS to recover your losses. There are no refunds for eggs.

 

Shipped eggs are hatched differently than your own eggs or eggs that were purchased locally. When you receive your eggs, place them in a hatching tray or egg carton pointy end down. Allow the eggs to sit out for 24 hours to allow the airsacs to settle before setting them in the incubator. Candle the eggs before setting. If the airsac is detached, we recommend not turning the eggs in the incubator for at least 4 days. If the airsacs are intact, you may proceed to turn them as normal during incubation. We have also found that hatching the eggs upright in an egg carton during lockdown also helps to improve hatching rates on shipped eggs. We do offer a live arrival guarantee for the chicks of the breed and number that you ordered. We require that you open the shipping box and send us photos of any deceased chicks still in their shipping box to ellisonfamilyhomestead@gmail.com immediately. Failure to do so will void all guarantees. If chicks in excess of the extras arrive deceased, we may, at our own discretion, choose to replace or refund the price of the deceased chicks. We do not offer any other guarantees beside live arrival for chicks. All shipping and handling costs are non-refundable under any circumstances. You have the choice of filing an insurance claim with USPS to recover your losses. If you do not agree with all of our policies, do NOT purchase from our homestead.

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What do "pullet", "cockerel", and "straight run" mean?

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A "pullet" is a juvenile hen. It is a female chicken that will grow to become a hen. A "cockerel" or "stag" is a juvenile rooster. It is a male chicken that will grow to become a rooster. "Straight run" means that we do not know if the chick is male or female. It is unknown at hatch because the males and females look the same in the particular breed. If you absolutely do NOT want a male, we recommend purchasing our auto-sexing or sex-linked breeds.

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Which of your available breeds are the best egg layers?

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That depends on your definition of "best". 

Most brown eggs: Rex Sex Links

Most white eggs: Brown Leghorn

Most colored eggs: Our Whiting True Blues lay an abundance of large blue eggs.

Biggest eggs: Red Sex Links and Whiting True Blues lay extra large eggs.

Prettiest eggs: The dark brown eggs from our Black Copper Marans always gets a lot of attention.

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Which breed lays the darkest egg?

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Our Black Copper Marans consistently lay eggs in the 6-8 range on the Marans color chart. The name is always "Marans" with an "S" at the end. This is because the breed is named after the town of "Marans" in France and is not a plural noun. All knowledgeable breeders should spell the name correctly! Our main focus is to breed for the darkest egg, but we are also trying to bred towards the breed standard. Most of 2023 was spent breeding for heavy dark speckling and bloom in our eggs. The result is that some of the hens will lay a lighter but highly speckled egg or purple/mauve colored eggs. We only hatch our chicks from the darkest and most speckled eggs. However, we can never guarantee that any specific hen will lay a dark egg. There are over 2 dozen known genes that control egg color and we can not possibly control them all. Egg color, even if they start off dark, will lighten throughout the laying season and as the hen gets older.  Be very weary of a breeder who is going to "guarantee" a very dark egg. Those #9 color eggs are rare. Starting 2024, we are releasing our own project breed named the Ellison Chocolate Egger. This breed is sex-linked, meaning we can sex them at hatch. These pullets will grow to lay dark brown, large to extra large eggs with a matte finish. They often look like milk chocolate candy eggs.

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Do you sex your chicks?

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Some of our breeds are auto-sexing or sex-linked so we know which ones are female and which ones are male at hatch. These breeds include the Cream Legbar, Ellison Chocolate Egger, Red and Black Sex Links, and some lines of our Olive and Easter Eggers. All other breeds are sold as "straight run" only, meaning we can not tell which is male and which is female. Sexing as chicks is not always easy. Even with the sex-linked or auto-sexing breeds, it can sometimes be questionable. The commercial hatcheries only guarantee 80-90% correct sexing. If you buy a sexed pullet and it turns out to be a rooster, we will refund you the difference in cost between the rooster and hen as long as we are notified within 6 months from the hatch date. This excludes straight run breeds where each chick has a 50/50 chance of being male or female with no guarantees. We do not take back roosters due to biosecurity. No, we will not "trade out" a straight run chick that turns out to be a rooster with a female. That's absurd. If you purchased chicks knowing that they are not sexed, be prepared for at least a 50% chance of roosters. We also do not take back roosters due to the biosecurity of our property. But, we'd be willing to help you rehome the rooster.

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What does "auto-sexing" and "sex-linked" mean?

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Auto-sexing and sex-linked chicks are great because they allow you to tell which chicks are male and which chicks are female at hatch. People who do not want roosters or can not have roosters can be assured that they are getting chicks that will grow up to be hens. Auto-sexing breeds refer to the same breed of chicken being sexable at hatch. Auto-sexing is due to a mix of many different genes but are usually wild-type partridge colored with barring. "Sex-linked" chickens refer to chickens that are first generation hybrids of two different breeds where the defining characteristic is located on the chickens' sex chromosome. For example, breeding a Bielefelder rooster to a Bielefelder hen will give you auto-sexing, pure Bielefelder chicks that will breed true from generation to generation. Breeding their offspring will continue to produce auto-sexing offspring in the F2 generation and beyond. Two different auto-sexing breeds will also produce auto-sexing offspring. Breeding a Rhode Island Red rooster to a White Plymouth Rock hen will produce "sex-linked" chicks known as Red Sex Links. The males will hatch out yellow and the females will be red. However, "Sex-Links" will not breed true from generation to generation. Breeding two sex links will NOT produce sex-linked chicks in the F2 generation. If you want to buy chicks but want to make sure they are all hens, check out our auto-sexing and sex-linked chickens.

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What are your most popular breeds?

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We only have breeds that we like. Whether it is for eggs, meat, or purely ornamental, if we do not like the breed, we will not keep it on the homestead. We process our dual purpose birds for meat. Our most popular egg laying breed is the Black Copper Marans followed closely by the Easter Egger. For those who want a talking point in the chicken yard, the Indio Gigante (World's Tallest Chicken) always turns heads and the Ayam Ketawa (Laughing Chicken) has a crow that sounds like a person laughing. You can not help but chuckle every time you hear it. The Ayam Cemani and Hmong Blue Skin Chickens are especially popular in our Asian community. The dark meat is rumored to have healing properties and is especially moist and flavorful. The Brown Leghorns are lean and very popular during the Hmong New Year and for the Asian post-partum diet. My personal favorite is the Liege Fighter because they are a big, beautiful bird. The roosters are also amazing flock protectors. I also love our Black Copper Marans their friendliness and gentle disposition. We also have a mixed laying flock of many different breeds that make up our "barnyard mix" pen. My husband's favorite chicken on the homestead is an extra fluffy English Orpington named Miss Fluffington. My daughter loves her Silkies and my son's favorite is an Easter Egger named Hawk (because she looks like a hawk). If you are looking for colored eggs, our most popular blue egg layer is the Cream Legbar. They lay beautiful blue eggs but also have the added bonus of being auto-sexing at hatch.

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What is the difference between Ameraucana, Americana, and Easter Egger?

 

"Ameraucana" (note the spelling) is an American Poultry Association approved breed. It comes in 10 accepted colors (blue, black, splash, white, buff, brown red, silver, wheaten, blue wheaten, and self-blue (lavender) and has a standard. The splash and blue variety is created by adding dilution genes to the black variety so you will often see "BBS" which stands for Blue/Black/Splash. There are a few "project" colors that have not yet been standardized such as Ermine and chocolate. True Ameraucanas will always breed true for blue eggs, have muffs, beards, and slate colored legs (except the dominant white from Ermine lines). We no longer breed nor sell BBS Ameraucanas but are currently working on a line of Ermine and Chocolate Ermine Ameraucanas that we hope to release in 2025. We have replaced the majority of our Ameraucanas with Whiting True Blues which still breed true for blue eggs, lay more, and come in every color imaginable. Easter Eggers are a hybrid (sometimes multi-breed), mixed chicken that had a blue egg layer somewhere in its genetic tree (most often an Ameraucana). F1 Easter Eggers are first generation where one parent was a blue layer. F2 Easter Eggers are second generation with two Easter Eggers bred to one another. A backcross (BC1) is an F1 Easter Egger that has been breed back to one of its parent breeds. Easter Eggers usually lay a blue or green egg depending on who the parents were but sometimes can lay brown, white, or even a pink egg. Most commercial hatcheries will sell Easter Eggers that are F2 or further down the line. This means that they will have a higher possibility of laying a brown egg. Of note, Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers can look very similar to the untrained eye. Easter Eggers can also have the muffs and beards if one parent was an Ameraucana. However, Easter Eggers often have green tinted legs and come in a multitude of feather colors. They will NOT breed true for egg color or feather color. Even if the Easter Egger lays a blue egg, chances are, it only has one blue gene, and therefore, only half if its offspring will receive a blue gene. True Ameraucanas should have two blue genes and all of their pure-bred offspring should also have two blue genes, keeping the blue egg color from generation to generation. Some commercial hatcheries will call their Easter Eggers "Americanas" in an attempt to confuse people into thinking they are buying purebred "Ameraucanas". Some hatcheries will purposefully mislabel their Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas to sell more chicks. Any good breeder of true Ameraucanas should use and spell the name correctly. The best way to tell if a bird is an Easter Egger or an Ameraucana is to look for slate colored legs, muffs, beards, and standard feather coloring. The breeder's stock should lay all blue eggs. Good breeders will almost always preface their Ameraucana with the color variety i.e. BBS Ameraucana or Buff Ameraucana. If the legs or eggs are green, chances are, it's an Easter Egger. True Ameraucana will have the price to match its genetics and will almost always be more than the price of an Easter Egger. However, we love our Easter Eggers just as much as any other breed. The array of different colored eggs is beautiful as well as the feather colors.

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Do Whiting True Blues breed true for blue eggs like Ameraucanas?

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Ameraucanas lay a blue egg with a glossy finish. Whiting True Blues lay a blue eggs that can either be glossy or matte. Whiting True Blues also should have two blue genes and breed true for blue eggs. However, we have found that this is not always the case. We originally received our Whiting True Blue stock from a commercial hatchery as well as other breeders. After genetically-testing all of them, we've found that about 15% of the birds only carried one blue gene. Some also laid green-tinted eggs. We have culled all of the single blue gene birds from our breeding flock along with any birds that lay greenish eggs. The result is a pure flock of Whiting True Blues that all predictably lay a large to extra large beautiful powder blue egg.

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Do you offer guarantees on egg color and/or conformation?

  

We cannot 100% guarantee anything. Chickens are living animals. They are not a plastic toy made in a warehouse. We know which parents the pullet came from. Therefore, we can tell you, with relative certainty, what egg color the pullet will "most likely" lay. However, there are over 2 dozen different genes in the chicken genome that control egg color and there is no way to test for all of them in every breeding. Even two sisters from the same two parents in the same clutch of eggs can lay different colored eggs. For instance, Easter Eggers will 90% of the time lay a green or blue egg because one of the parents is homozygous for the blue egg gene. However, every now and then, one will still lay a brown or pink egg. Conformation is a whole different story. Two show quality parents do not always equal show quality offspring. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Of 20 Black Copper Marans roosters we grow out in a year, there may only be 1 or 2 that can be considered "show quality". Even then, they may have some faults. No chicken is perfect. But, we do make a strong effort to improve on our stock every year and to minimize flaws. However, our first focus will always be vigor, health, and eggs because that is the bulk of our farm. Many of our breeds are also imported, rare breeds that do not have a standard and are not yet accepted into the American Poultry Association. 

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Do you offer refunds or replacements if a chick or chicken dies?

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We guarantee that we will not knowingly sell sick chicks or chickens. We try to maintain good biosecurity on the homestead and do lab testing of our birds with the state Department of Agriculture. We do not allow people into areas of our property where chickens are. Chickens can only be selected and picked up from a viewing pen at the front of our property. The pen and area is sanitized after each buyer leaves. No customer is allowed to touch a chick or chicken before it is paid for. We routinely clean out and sanitize our chicken areas with Oxine and/or Virkon, industrial disinfectants that kill everything from Marek's to Parvo. We may ask you to sanitize your hands, wear clean clothes, and spray your shoes on arrival. We even have unlimited memberships for the carwash so that our cars are washed every time we go somewhere where poultry is being raised. However, we live in an agricultural community densely populated with commercial poultry operations, backyard flocks, and wild birds that can easily spread disease to chickens. Marek's disease can travel in the air up to a mile away or travel home with you from the clothing of people you meet at the feed store. Fowl pox is spread by mosquitos which run rampant in the Central Valley during the warmer months. Even with all the vaccines available, there can still be breakthrough infections. Just like any other vaccine, poultry vaccines are not perfect and are dependant on the host's immune system to work. If your chickens have a weak immune system, vaccines may not be effective. It is estimated that up to 80% of backyard flocks have a poultry disease present, even if there are no symptoms. If you have or have ever had a commercial hatchery bred chicken (ie. Tractor Supply or Feed Store), you already have Mycoplasmosis (a chicken respiratory disease) in your flock. All of the major commercial hatcheries have it in their flocks and they freely admit it. A farm that is NPIP certified only means that they have been tested for Pullorum and Fowl Typhoid, not necessarily any of the other major chicken diseases like Marek's Disease, Mycoplasmosis, Infectious Coryza, Infectious Bronchitis, Fowl Pox, Fowl Cholera, etc. We can not guarantee the health and wellness of any birds after they have left our property. We carefully inspect all of our birds before they leave our property. Any of these diseases can be present anywhere and can infect a chick/chicken at anytime including from previous chickens, neighboring flocks, the feed store, a poultry show, visitors to your property, wild birds, mosquitos, rodents, etc. If you take your chicks home and throw them outside in the coop in the middle of winter, they will die. If it's 110 degrees outside and you don't provide shade for your chickens, you will lose them. If you take your chicks home and put them in a box with no heat and feed them only rice, we can not be held responsible. Anyone touching chicks should wash their hands before and after to reduce the possibility of spreading disease to the chicks and/or the chicks spreading disease to you. Although it's tempting, we do not recommend playing with chicks. Children especially, should not be handling chicks too often in the first two weeks. Chicks are fragile and constantly handling them increases the likelihood of chick death due to cold, contamination, or mishandling. Please, please, please, if you do not know how to brood chicks or raise chickens, please do your research and have your coop/equipment ready before purchasing chicks or chickens from us. We are happy to help give suggestions and answer any questions you may have. We absolutely want you to be successful with your birds. 

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How many chicks should I buy? Can I brood them all together?

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We do not have a minimum of chicks to purchase for local pickup. If you want to have your chicks shipped, there is a 6 chick minimum for safe travel and delivery. However, if you do not currently have chicks that are the same age as those you are buying at home, we recommend that you purchase at least 3 chicks. They like to huddle together to stay warm. Chickens are also very social. You should never raise a chicken alone by itself. Chicks can be brooded together as long as they are within 1.5 weeks of age of one another. If your chicks are different ages, you may need different brooders for each age group to avoid bullying or food guarding. If you have bantam breeds or Cornish Cross, we also recommend brooding them separately from standard size chicks. Certain breeds, like the polish and silkie, are prone to being picked on due to the crests, vaulted skulls, and size. Indio Gigante chicks, although they grow fast, are slow to feather in and are prone to being pecked in the areas of bare skin or newly growing feathers. Keep an eye out for these things and separate if necessary. Watch for pecking, guarding food and water, and the biggest culprit: chicks trampling one another when trying to stay warm or out of fear.

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We have to brood chicks? We can't just put them outside in the coop?

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Chicks need to be warm until they are fully feathered and able to retain their own body heat. In nature, the mother hen provides the body heat for chicks to stay warm. If you do not have a broody hen under which to place your chicks, most people will create a safe brooder space for them with artificial heat. We use the GQF and Producter's Pride battery brooders to raise our chicks but yours can be much simpler if only raising a few chicks. Make sure you have the following:

 

1. An enclosed, dry area free from drafts. Most people will use a stock tank or build a box.

2. Ventilation and air flow. Do not enclose the box completely. You can use a baby gate, wire, or mesh over the top of the box. You can start with no top but will eventually need one. After 3 weeks, chicks will start to fly out of the box. If you plan to use a plastic tote, please note that these totes heat up very quickly even if the top is not fully closed. You should either put ventilation holes in the sides of the tote or use it outside where there is a breeze to help move the air. If you are planning to use a brooder plate, we recommend getting a large tote at least 3 times the size of your brooder plate. Place the brooder plate on one end of the tote leaving at least 5 inches of space all around the entire plate. This allows air to escape out from under the plate and then room for it to rise. Otherwise, the heat comes out and is pushed right back under the plate because there isn't enough airflow, especially if the brooder is indoors. No air movement will trap excess heat under the brooder plate and could overheat your chicks quickly. This is not so much of an issue with heat lamps because the heat source is higher and doesn't impede the air flow. 

3. Some bedding material on the bottom of the box if not brooding on wire floors. We recommend pine wood shavings or pellets. The shavings help to absorb moisture from the chick poop and cut down on ammonia. Do NOT use newspaper or the bare plastic bin bottom as flooring. Slippery surfaces like plastic and newspaper will cause chicks to develop splayed legs due to lack of traction. Do NOT use cedar shavings as it is toxic to chicks. You can even use puppy pads or disposable underpads but make sure the chicks are not pecking and eating the pad.

4. A heat source. You can use a heat lamp or a heat plate. Although a fire hazard, we find that chicks do better under a heat lamp because you can easily adjust the temperature as needed by moving the lamp up and down and checking the temperature with a thermometer. You can also easily see if chicks are overheated or cold by the way they are acting. Chicks can also find the right temperature for them by simply moving toward or away from the lamp. Temperature control is not a one-size fits all. Some chicks are larger, some smaller. Some chicks feather in faster and need a lower temperature while slow feathering chicks need a higher temperature still. Mounted lamps like the GQF heat lamps have exact temperature controls. Heat plates often do not have temperature control. The heat is adjusted by moving the plate up and down and you can never be sure what the temperature is. Chicks must be in contact with the plate to stay warm. If you have chicks that are small or weaker, they may not be able to touch the plate or get pushed out from under the plate by other chicks and can not stay warm. On the other hand, even if chicks get too hot, they will tend to stay under the plate because the moment they stop touching the plate, it's cold. Just like you can't adjust the temperature on a plate, neither can a chick. We've had plates literally singe the fuzz off the heads of little chicks and they continued to stay under the plate. We've had customers complain of lethargy and the chicks did better once they were switched to a heat lamp. If you do use a heat plate, we recommend you get one that is made for at least 2x the number of chicks you plan to brood. Make sure you have an area in the brooder that has heat and an area that does not have heat so chicks can move out of the heat if needed. The other side of the brooder should have no heat and stay at room temperature or even slightly lower (65-75 degrees have worked best for us). This way chicks can cool down quickly if needed. Start your day-old chicks at 95 degrees (directly under the lamp or plate) then decrease by 5 degrees each week until fully feathered. Temperature is not as important as the behavior of the chicks. If they are huddled under the heat, it's too cold. If they're on the other side of the brooder away from the heat, it's too hot. When the temperature is good, chicks will move freely in and out of the heat and sleep near but not directly under the lamp. For plates, please check the chicks under the plate occasionally by lifting it up to see what the chicks are doing. If they are panting, it's too hot. If they are closely huddled together, it's too cold.

5. A high protein (18% or higher) chick starter feed. We recommend you use a medicated starter feed. As they say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Medicated feed has amprolium, which helps to prevent coccidiosis, a disease that can quickly kill chicks. Amprolium is NOT an antibiotic, it is a thamine-inhibitor that stops the spread of the protozoa Coccidia which causes Coccidiosis. Amprolium is the same medication in CORID, which is the treatment of choice for chicks with coccidiosis. The first sign of coccidiosis is usually a lethargic chick or blood in the poop. We feed Super Chick Starter by Kruse Perfection, which is made by a local mill. If you chicks are vaccinated for coccidiosis, do NOT feed a medicated feed as the two will cancel each other out. Check for pasty butt regularly and clean them as necessary. 

6. Clean water. We change our waterers out at least twice daily. We also add electrolytes, vitamins, probiotics, and sometimes apple cider vinegar to the water as needed for an additional boost of nutrition. We recommend lifting the food and water up higher than the ground so that chicks don't kick wood chips into them. We use small waterers with a small tray around it like the one below and dip each chick's beak into the water when they are put into the brooder. This helps to orient chicks to the water location. For some chicks, it will take multiple times dipping their beaks into the water for them to get it. They are switched to a water trough at 3 weeks. I do not recommend watering nipples for very young chicks. There's a definite learning curve with nipples and the pecking watering cups. It also gets very hot here in the summer (and sometimes in the brooders) and the nipples just don't dispense enough water quickly enough. We have switched all of our brooders, pens, and coops to watering troughs or watering cups for this reason.

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7. A clean environment. Brooding chicks is a dirty job. They make an immense amount of dust and dander and it will get all over EVERYTHING. This includes your heat lamps. Make sure you clean off the dust and dander from your heat lamps or they will be a fire hazard. We brood our chicks in our garage which has both heat and air conditioning. We also run air purifiers/scrubbers in there 24/7 to help keep the dust and dander down. Some people brood their chicks in their bedrooms, kitchens, or bathtubs. I, personally, cannot do that and do not recommend it. We completely clean out our brooders at minimum, every other day. They are professionally power washed and sanitized in between hatches. We also keep a shopvac plugged in at all times to clean up any feed spills, feathers, or excess dust and dander throughout the day. Waters are cleaned and replaced twice a day. I usually wear a mask when hatching, sorting, vaccinating, and moving chicks because I have very bad allergies. A clean environment keeps the chicks healthy and happy.

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No-You cannot just put the chicks out in the coop alone or with full grown chickens. No-You cannot just feed them rice or corn as their only source of food. No- You cannot expect just any hen to adopt and raise the chicks. No- You cannot put 5 week old chicks and 1 day old chicks together. No- You cannot brood chicks without a heat source. Please do your research before purchasing chicks.

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Something is wrong with my chick, what do I do?

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There are a multitude of reasons why your chick is lethargic. Chicks are fragile and can die for a number of reasons: getting trampled by other chicks, not eating or drinking properly, sickness, bullying, accidents, being too cold, being too hot, pecked in the wrong spot on their heads (especially with breeds that have vaulted skulls like Polish), failure to thrive, lack of nutrients, etc. It is normal to lose up to 10% of chicks in the first few weeks. Sometimes you will not be able to tell what happened because you weren't there to witness it. Two big reasons for chick death other than sickness are bullying or accidentally being trampled by other chicks. Oftentimes, you will wake up in the morning to find a dead chick and wonder what happened. Chances are, it was on the bottom of the dog pile as chicks were jostling for sleeping position the night before. We've had chicks fall from the top of a 6 foot tall brooder and be fine but other chicks die after being stepped on by another chick weighing less than 2 ounces. We can only guess at what is wrong. There are some things you can try: 

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1. Check the heat source and make sure the chick is warm enough or not overheated. How are the other chicks acting? Is the chick huddled under the lamp/plate? If it's a particularly cold night, you may want to switch to a heat lamp instead of the plate. See the info about heat sources above. If it's too hot where the chicks are (like garage in the summer), you will see the chicks laying down, panting with their wings outstretched. You will need to cool your chicks down. Try putting ice cubes in their water. We use a AC unit in our garage and in emergency cases, dunk the chicks in water.

2. Are the other chicks picking on the chick?

3. Are all chicks acting the same way or just the one chick?

4. Are you giving proper feed and water with necessary vitamins? Sometimes chicks will stop eating if you switch to a different food suddenly. If chicks are missing vitamins, they can develop conditions like wry neck. Try mashing up food with water and feeding the chick slowly through a syringe on the side of their mouth. You can also do this with an electrolyte/vitamin supplement like Nutridrench or Poultry Cell.

5. If they develop splayed legs where the legs are spread apart and the chick can't walk, it's usually due to your bedding material. Avoid slippery surfaces on the bottom of your brooder like newspaper or plastic. Splayed legs can be easily fixed if addressed early on.

6. Always have supplements available such as Nutridrench, Poultry Cell, or Electrolyte solution and give to the chick in a dropper slowly on the side of the mouth or syringe it into their crop on the side of their throat while carefully avoiding the opening of the trachea. Forcing liquid into their mouths blindly can cause the chick to choke or drown.

7. Sometimes it is necessary to separate the chicks if the issue is bullying or food guarding. Food guarding occurs when a chick is not allowing other chicks to eat or drink. They will peck or attack another chick if they come near the feed or water. When this occurs over a period of time, you will see some chicks fail to thrive. They will be smaller than the other chicks, feather in more slowly, and not look as healthy. The solution to this is to separate the chick so that they have their own food and water.

8. Sneezing, swollen eyes/head, gasping for air, and wheezing are often signs of chicken diseases. It is best to figure out which disease it is before selecting the course of treatment. The CA Dept of Agriculture estimates that up to 80% or more of backyard flocks have respiratory diseases of some type including mycoplasmosis, infectious coryza, and infectious bronchitis. The treatment is usually antibiotics targeted to the specific disease. Gapeworms can mimic the symptoms of respiratory infections but can be treated with a dewormer. Blood in the poop, lethargy, and multiple chick deaths is a sign of Coccidiosis, a parasite infestation, and can be treated with CORID (Amprolium). Uncommon in chicks, fungal/yeast infections can occur with use of antibiotics or if the chicken's normally occuring bacteria is unbalanced. You can balance their gut bacteria using natural remedies like apple cider vinegar in the water and feeding them yogurt and probiotics. If the infection is bad, you can use an anti-fungal like Nystatin for birds. The CA Animal Health and Food Safety Labs operate throughout the state with the closest branch in Tulare, CA. They are a great resource for testing your poultry for disease and/or necropsy of deceased birds. They run a state subsidized program open to all state residents for low cost testing. Make use of them! 

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Do you have chickens for meat?

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Yes, we do. For years, we bred the American Bresse chicken is the American version of the French Bresse, called the "Kobe" of chicken. We no longer breed them as we process our dual purpose roosters for meat. Olive Eggers, and Marans, along with Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Orpingtons in our mixed flock, are all dual purpose breeds that also make great table birds. Unlike the commercial Cornish Cross Chicken that you find at the store, these heritage breeds have more "chicken" flavor. Once you've eaten succulent heritage chicken, it's very difficult to go back to the rubbery, tasteless, water-infused grocery store chicken. Did you know that store-bought chicken is usually pumped with salt water as a preservative and meat tenderizer? It also adds to the weight of the chicken so you pay more. The Sex Links, Brown Leghorn, and Hmong Blue-Skin Chicken are very popular within the Asian community, especially for post-partum diets. The Hmong Blue-Skin Chicken in particular, is rumored to have medicinal properties so is often cooked in soups to help people recover from sickness. The dark meat of the Hmong-Blue Skin and the Ayam Cemani is also a little more oily on account of the pigmentation, making it less likely to dry out during cooking and giving you lean but moist meat with lots of flavor.

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What do you do with all the roosters that hatch?

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Meat. Yes, we eat our chickens. Heritage chicken meat is far superior to the cornish cross found in the grocery store. We do not inject our chickens with hormones or salt water. Many of the extra rooster chicks we do not plan to use in our breeding programs are raised for meat which we put into our own freezers. We also donate to soup kitchens, the elderly, or needy families. Sometimes the extra rooster chicks are traded to other breeders for breeds that we do not breed ourselves or are sold at deeply discounted prices or given for needy families to raise for meat. Unlike some large scale hatcheries, we do not kill our male chicks when they hatch.

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Why are your chicks so much more expensive? I can get a chick at Tractor Supply for $4.

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We are a small hobby farm, not a commercial hatchery or poultry farm. Our priorities are completely different than those of factory farms and big corporations. We do not breed chickens for profit. They are a hobby. Honestly, we probably spend more money raising our chickens than we ever make from selling them. Have you seen the cost of feed lately? There are lots of things that large factory farms do that allow them to sell you chicks and chickens at low prices:

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Commercial Hatcheries:

1. Often kill their male chicks right after hatch by gasing them or grinding them up alive. That way, they don't have to feed them or waste space on raising them.

2. Value quantity over quality. Their chickens will often be very poor representations of the breed or their egg color is nowhere near what the true egg color for that breed should be. Chicks are mass produced without regard to health, vigor, or conformation. They often give chickens fancy names to mislead customers about what they are buying when it's, at best, a barnyard mix.

3. Give their chickens the very basics to keep them alive long enough to lay eggs. They're often crowded into small pens where hens are overbred, killed, then quickly replaced. Disease often runs rampant and flocks are constantly medicated. Chickens are fed nothing but the bare minimum in food and nutrition.

4. Hatch thousands of chicks and ship to thousands of customers. You're just an order number. You get zero support after the fact.

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How are we different? We personally watch over our own flocks every day. We feed them high quality, locally milled, high protein diets supplemented with fresh fruits and vegetables and animal protein, like meal worms. Our chickens are given free range time, sand to dust bathe, fresh water with electrolytes, vitamins, and probiotics. Many of them are considered pets and have names. We know each chicken's personality. Most of our chickens we hatched on the homestead and raised ourselves. We do NOT kill our male chicks as they hatch. We raise most of them ourselves and the meat is later put in our freezer or donated to needy families, shelters, or the elderly. Why waste a perfectly good food supply just to save some money? We've also spent thousands of dollars to provide clean, sanitary living areas for our flocks so our chickens are healthy and happy. A lot of time is spent, sometimes years, to selectively breed specific birds for the most desirable traits in each breed. We value quality over quantity because we are mostly breeding for our own flocks. When we are breeding, we don't just find any old hen and rooster. We search the entire country for the best stock to bring to the homestead. Oftentimes, our breeding birds are shipped across the country from the farms that originally imported the breed into this country. Or, we spent the time and money (and risk) to ship eggs from top breeders and then incubated them ourselves. Half of the time, the eggs end up not being fertile or damaged in shipping. Another quarter of the time, the eggs do not hatch for whatever reason. When all is said and done, it can sometimes cost us hundreds of dollars to produce our first chick. Then we make sure our chicks are healthy, eating, drinking, and vaccinated for Marek's before they are ever sold to a customer. We don't just throw them in a box and hope they make it. We take the time to speak with each customer to get to know their wants and preferences and help them pick the right breeds for their situation.

 

We grow out dozens of our own birds every year to check vigor, health, conformation, laying rate, egg color, and to verify genetics. After growing out 100 birds, we may keep a handful of the best to breed on the next year. It takes a lot of time and feed to grow out birds that we don't even keep in order to make sure we are breeding the best birds for our customers. We buy all of our feed locally from a local feed mill. We purchase brands that are locally produced because it's the freshest and most nutritious for our birds. We believe in supporting other small family businesses. Even if it costs us a little more, we know we're getting a superior product with the customer service to match. We are always available before, and after, you've purchased chickens from us to answer any questions and to help you on your chicken journey. Past customers can tell you they can call, email, text, or message us and we will try to answer any questions or concerns they have, even months or years after the fact. If you do not care about the conformation or egg color and just want eggs or a pretty chicken, grab some chicks from Tractor Supply. But don't expect Tractor Supply to answer your questions 5 months later. If you're looking for quality, a good breeder is your best bet. You may not want to pay $10 for a chick. But it probably took the breeder 5 years and hundreds of birds to hatch those chicks that already lay the egg color you're wanting. You're not just paying for a chick. You're paying for those 5 years of work and expertise. If you were getting heart surgery, would you want the cheapest surgeon or the one with the most education and who has been doing the same surgery for years? We appreciate our customers who support our little hobby and we are happy to share our birds and our knowledge with them. We hope that you'll grow to love and understand chicken math as well as we do.