Day old chicks can be ordered on the internet from various breeders, or you can pick them up from a local breeder if you are able to find one. Day old chicks generally cost between $3 – $6 each depending on breed and sex, and can be delivered to your local post office via mail, where you have to pick them up. The breeders ship them via USPS because they are the only carrier that allows live animals to be shipped.
I strongly advise that you do a lot of research before you buy or order chicks. There are a lot of factors you will need to understand and consider to ensure you get what you want in a chicken, and not something that will need to be rehomed later, or worse, something that dies. For more detailed information on selecting the breeds you want to buy, see my article titled Picking a Chicken Breed.
Roosters, Hens, and Straight Run
One of the big decisions when ordering baby chicks online is what sex you want to get. You will see 3 categories when ordering a particular breed; Male (Rooster), Female (Hen), and Straight Run (a “random” mix of males and females). I say “random” in quotes because you need to know that hens will always cost more than roosters. Roosters are louder once they mature, can be more aggressive, and not only do they not lay eggs, they are not needed for the hens to lay eggs either. Because of this, a lot of “straight run” chicks will lean heavily towards having more roosters. Make your own guesses as to why this may be the case. Some reasons you might actually want a rooster is to guard the flock from predators, fertilize their eggs if you plan to hatch your own eggs, you want to pay less and use them for meat, or just because some of them have pretty colors and look neat.
Choosing a Hatchery
There are a lot of hatcheries to choose from online, although there are only a few major hatcheries that most people use. Murray McMurray is one of the largest and most popular. I have ordered from them many times in the past. They have always done a good job on the sexing of what I order, and getting me what I ordered in a timely enough fashion that I have never had any DOA. I have had some die once I received them, and I feel like if they had put some food gel in the crate that could have been avoided. However, being shipped is stressful to baby chicks, and you should expect some to die in an order. For this reason, I always order a few more of each breed than I actually want. If you have too many chickens, they are not hard at all to sell later once they are laying.
One of the main factors when selecting a hatchery will be whether they sell the breeds you want, and will they have them in stock when you need to order them. My last order with Murray McMurray took almost 3 months to receive. This is not the normal wait time, and was due to the large number of chickens that the FDA required to be destroyed. If a commercial farmer found any birds infected with bird flu, they had to destroy their entire flock for that poultry house (usually tens of thousands of birds). The major players were ordering anything they could get that would lay to replace their flocks, and it was diminishing what was left for the rest of us backyard chicken farmers.
Also, not every hatchery will carry every breed of chicken. Most will carry all the most popular breeds, but if you want something special, you may have to shop around. Some breeds are specific to a certain hatchery, and can only be ordered from them. For example Whiting True Blue or Whiting True Green are a Murray McMurray hatchery exclusive. They are not the only chickens that lay those color eggs, but they are the only ones with those specific gene characteristics and traits.
Reputation
You will also want to search for reviews from various sources for the hatchery you are considering. Some hatcheries may not pack their chicks well, or may not ship fully complete orders, or may have a bad reputation for their quality of bird. Do some research and keep in mind, no hatchery will ever make everyone happy every single time. So look for the overall reviews and read the comments.
Ordering
Every hatchery that I have seen has a minimum order for baby chicks. It may be a total order minimum, or a per breed order minimum, or both. These are in place for many reasons, but mostly to avoid a small order fee, or to ensure you order enough chicks that they are likely to survive being shipped. When you ship a lot of birds, they can help keep each other warm, and act as padding for each other so they don’t get tossed around too much. Many times you will be better off to just order more birds than to pay the small order fee. Like I said above, some of them will die for various reasons either in shipping, or afterward, and you can always sell the unwanted ones later for $20 – $30 (more or less depending on the breed and your area) once they start laying, if not before. If you know anyone who already has chickens, always ask them if they would like to add to your order before you place it. Many times they may need just a few birds and are holding off on ordering until they need enough to make it worth the minimum purchase limits. Alternately, if you only want a small order, they can add that to their next large order to save you the fees.
Shipping and Receiving
Once you have placed your order, the Hatchery will give you an estimate of when it will ship. This is based on their planned hatch dates and estimates based on past experience. It is not an exact science, so be prepared for the possibility of substitutions, deficits, or a canceled order. Once hatched and sexed, the baby chicks will be packaged together fairly tightly to ensure they don’t get banged around too much, and to help ensure they have enough heat. If it is very cold weather, they may even put a hand warmer packet under the shaving to help keep them warm longer. Day old chicks can live for up to 72 hours without food or water because of the yolk sac they absorb before hatching. That being said, you don’t want them to go any longer than necessary without food and water, so be ready to feed and water them as soon as you get them home. I always bring some water with me when I pick mine up and hydrate them immediately before the drive home. For more information on feeding and watering baby chicks, see my article Caring for Baby Chicks where I go into greater detail.
Make sure you are tracking their progress. They day they arrive the Post Office will call you EARLY in the morning to let you know to come pick them up. Make plans to go as soon as they open on delivery day. The sooner you pick them up, the better their chance of survival.