Poultry Policy
We hate the fine print, but it needs to be said.
We very much appreciate your support of our family farm! We try to make owning poultry a pleasant experience for all our customers. Communication and setting expectations is very important, so we have spelled out our policies. By reserving with us, you agree to these policies as a prerequisite of doing business with us. If you have any questions or concerns, address them before you commit. There are no exceptions to our Poultry Policies, so please read them carefully and be sure you are willing to abide by them before reserving your birds/eggs. You should also remember that we are real working farm. It is just the two of us and we both work full time jobs. So, there may be a delay in responding to your inquiries. Please be patient.
MINIMUM ORDER. The minimum order is:
three (3) day-old chicks
six (6) hatching eggs.
TIMING: When will I get my chicks? It depends...The number of breeds in your order, how many chicks, particular breeds lay slower than others...It just depends. We say SPRING and we mean spring. In 2024 Spring is March 19th-June 20th. Our goal is by the end of April, but you just never know with our luck LOL! We are not a big hatchery and cannot make big promises. What we can say is thar we are worth the wait. Refunds can be issued only if we do not meet the Spring goal. Please be patient. Small farms and small businesses rely on your patronage. We do the very best we can.
LIVE GUARANTEE. We guarantee the health of our poultry. You have the right to look over your chicks while you are here while on the farm. Once they leave our care, it is your duty to keep them alive. Chicks are warrantied for 48-Hours after pick up. If you have a chick loss, we will refund you, unless we have another chick of the same value left in the brooder. For refund or replacement you must notify us of the loss within 48 hours after you picked up and provide an emailed photo of any dead birds, your brooder set up and the temp under your heat source. Please note that we DO NOT warranty chicks being kept under brooder plates. There are no warranties on grow-outs or adult birds once they leave our property. This policy will be strictly enforced. Do not call us weeks later and say something died. Even if we are Facebook friends, the policy still has to be enforced. :-)
CHICK SEXING. A lot of our varieties are sex-linked or autosexing. Chicks from sex-linking or autosexing genes can be accurately sexed 100%. There are also some varieties we vent sex. This is an art. Even the commercial hatcheries get it wrong 10-15% of the time. This means 200 chicks hatch, roughly 100 are male and 100 are female....with vent sexing, out of the 100 females, 10-15 will actually be male due to error. We sell thousands of chicks....We do our very best...but we are not perfect. If we offered a breed as SEXED and we make an error, we will refund you the purchase price. We will also accept incorrectly sexed roosters back to the farm after 14 weeks of age. If you order straight run, we do attempt to sex the chicks, we just still learning on that breed so 50/50 is still all we can commit to, even though we are getting closer to 70%. We will always accept back any unwanted roosters. Please note that we can NOT accept any roosters younger than 14 weeks old since we run a bachelor coop and they are all adult males in there. This is for their own safety. Please also understand that while we do our best to find homes for roosters, the vast majority will end up in the freezer if returned. We are kind and humane in the process but need to be upfront with what happens here.
HATCHING EGGS. Hatching eggs are available when we feel we have sufficient laying and supply to fill chick orders. Chick order take priority. Please review individual breed pages for detailed breed information. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THE HATCH RATE OF THE EGGS YOU WILL RECEIVE! These are the same eggs we are incubating so we do know the on farm fertility before offering them. But incubators and incubating techniques vary. Your results will be anywhere from 0% - 100%. If you are not comfortable with this reality, do not purchase hatching eggs.
VACCINATIONS AND DISEASE. As a standard practice we do NOT vaccinate for Marek’s disease. If you are in need of vaccinated chicks, please let us know immediately after placing your order. We can vaccinate for an additional cost of $1 per chick. Please note that the Marek’s vaccine is not 100% effective, and even vaccinated birds may later contract Marek’s if the disease is present on your property. It can definitely help, but it is not a bullet proof vest. Vaccinated chicks must still be kept away from any positive flock members for 14 days while they build immunity and the vaccine takes full effect. If you need to discuss any biosecurity tips with us, please don't hesitate to ask. The transmission of disease is a complex and subtle process.
QUARANTINE. We always recommend quarantine and observation for 21-30 days before exposing new birds to your chicken flock. We all have different tolerances of risk. Chicken illness and disease is so delicate. On the outside we can never see what is often going on inside. Stress from a move is often when you will see illness or even parasites present. Quarantine gives you time to access your new flock members and them time to destress and adjust. It's all up to you though!
WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT IN QUALITY. You should expect birds that reflect the fundamental attributes of the breed we said they are. We are pretty picky and take great pride in what we raise but not every bird hits the mark! Just as every child is not destined to become a supermodel, every bird is not destined to win ribbons at shows. They are still beautiful! Only a tiny fraction of chickens conform to their breed standard in all respects. We do not represent that every bird we sell is show quality or is flawless. We cull for obvious defects like crooked toes, low fertility, low egg production, low disease/parasite resistance, and egg issues like egg bound/prolapses etc. We only want to pass on healthy birds. We work hard and take pride in our birds.
NO FARM VISITORS TO THE POULTRY AREA. We'd love to spend time with you showing off our birds, but we take biosecurity very seriously, and visits expose our flocks to the potential for inadvertent disease transmission. We simply can't take that risk, so we don't allow any visitors in the poultry area. We take a lot of current photos of our flocks as well as videos and are happy to send you a clip of anything you need to see.
Thank you!
Updated: 3/1/2024