Recent Alchemist Farms Experience?

[cityeggs]

Hi there - I'd love to hear about any experiences with Alchemist Farms chicks - both positive and negative, and particularly those who have picked up locally, since that's what I'll be doing.

I ordered 3 guaranteed female chicks from AF that I plan to pick up in 2 weeks, after only getting 3/6 females of sexed chicks from our local feed store, all 3 EEs being cockerels. It didn't occur to me to check reviews here first - I was just so happy to find blue-ish egg layers that were sex-linked (and not just cream legbars) after having more than my fill of unintended cockerels, as well as ones that I could pick up instead of worrying about shipping - losses, minimum numbers (I can only have 3 more birds), and shipping stress.

After seeing a recent thread about possible Marek's in a flock on BYC this week, I remembered that the AF chicks aren't vaccinated, and then started digging further, including searching for threads mentioning Alchemist Farms. There was a thread from 2020 with mostly positive experiences with Alchemist Farms chicks, but two more recent comments from this fall raised concerns about serious illness that potentially could have been from AF chicks, genetic issues, and poor survival rates with AF chicks in general, so now I'm wondering if I should cancel my order and take my chances again with a local feed store.

Thoughts?

 

[Iluveggers]

Hi there - I'd love to hear about any experiences with Alchemist Farms chicks - both positive and negative, and particularly those who have picked up locally, since that's what I'll be doing.

I ordered 3 guaranteed female chicks from AF that I plan to pick up in 2 weeks, after only getting 3/6 females of sexed chicks from our local feed store, all 3 EEs being cockerels. It didn't occur to me to check reviews here first - I was just so happy to find blue-ish egg layers that were sex-linked (and not just cream legbars) after having more than my fill of unintended cockerels, as well as ones that I could pick up instead of worrying about shipping - losses, minimum numbers (I can only have 3 more birds), and shipping stress.

After seeing a recent thread about possible Marek's in a flock on BYC this week, I remembered that the AF chicks aren't vaccinated, and then started digging further, including searching for threads mentioning Alchemist Farms. There was a thread from 2020 with mostly positive experiences with Alchemist Farms chicks, but two more recent comments from this fall raised concerns about serious illness that potentially could have been from AF chicks, genetic issues, and poor survival rates with AF chicks in general, so now I'm wondering if I should cancel my order and take my chances again with a local feed store.

Thoughts?

I don’t know anything about AF, but I do know Meyers has sex-linked colored layers, if you are interested in paying shipping. And they won’t have Mareks.

 

[cityeggs]

I don’t know anything about AF, but I do know Meyers has sex-linked colored layers, if you are interested in paying shipping. And they won’t have Mareks.

Thanks! That's good to know - which ones are the sex-linked ones?

 

[Iluveggers]

Thanks! That's good to know - which ones are the sex-linked ones?

They used to have them labeled. You may have to call or do an on-line chat with an agent. Hoping they aren’t already sold out for the year!

 

[Painted Calls]

@JustBabyMargo

 

[JustBabyMargo]

Honestly, I would cancel your order. My experience with them was so awful that I will never be buying from, nor supporting, them ever again. Talk about awful breeding. I ordered from them, and it was the absolute worst hatchery experience I’ve had, and not once, TWICE. All I’ve gotten from them was crossbeaks, dead or dying chicks, crooked toes, and chickens with lots of problems, and all for an extremely expensive price.

I don’t know about Mareks, but I got a giant rooster with respiratory problems from them, it wasn’t anything contagious, but he was certainly not healthy. Probably due to their terrible breeding practices. I also lost several chicks upon arrival, both times, and lost two pullets from them before they turned a year old.

And if this picture of my Shelly trapped in their monstrosity of packaging doesn’t change your mind, I don’t know what will.

Spoiler: Warning: Graphic

She was trapped in one of their (perfectly chick sized) cups and two chicks (neither made it) were pinned under their unsecured heat pack. After I nursed Shelly back to health, her beak began crossing. This was my first crossbeak from them.

They refunded us for this mishap, and from that I got more chicks stuck under the heat pack (and dying) and another crossbeak, Kevin.

My crossbeaks:
Shelly-

Kevin-

Sorry that was so long, but I felt I should cover everything. Cancel your order, you won’t regret it.

 

[cityeggs]

@JustBabyMargo - Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm so sorry that you've had to deal with all of that, and all those poor chicks! I'm impressed that you were able to get Shelly OUT and healthy after that awful start to life that she got! Shelly and Kevin are so lucky to be with you.

I'd found your Shelly and Kevin write-up and that was one of the threads that really concerned me. I was somehow hoping maybe they'd figured some things out and gotten better since then but even so, it's an expensive bet to take. I already have a (much cheaper) feed store hen with mild cross-beak and malformed naris who's mostly self-sufficient, but I don't think I could take on more special needs chickens, especially since I'm only allowed to have 6 birds total. AND the whole reason I wanted sex-linked blue layers was because raising/dealing with/rehoming unintended cockerels was enough of a time-suck and stress, so having weak chicks with potential genetic issues who may die before POL doesn't sound like it solves that problem!

Now to see if I can cancel my order without too much fuss...

 

[cityeggs]

They used to have them labeled. You may have to call or do an on-line chat with an agent. Hoping they aren’t already sold out for the year!

I'll have to contact them - the only sex-linked blue layers I could find were bantams (aside from cream legbars, which I don't want), so it's possible that they've just sold out of the standards already.

 

[Tonyroo]

I'll have to contact them - the only sex-linked blue layers I could find were bantams (aside from cream legbars, which I don't want), so it's possible that they've just sold out of the standards already.

Were you planning to breed them?

 

[cityeggs]

Were you planning to breed them?

Nope, no space/time/interest (except theoretical) in any breeding at this point! I just want them for eggs and enjoyment.