Recent Alchemist Farms Experience?

[Mauka]

Ugh - I'm so sorry. I think I remember that they guarantee live arrival for shipped ones, but that would only take care of the one DOA - not the 4 other that youv'e lost in such a short time! I certainly hope your remaining 5 ones turn out to be hardy and healthy!

They are going above and beyond to help me so I have no complaints there. The only bummer is that my chick season has ended, I dont have room to bring on different aged chicks at this point so my hopes of a breeding pair will have to wait until next year

 

[CrystalAnon]

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 bought my first chicks ever from Alchemist Farm. They are extremely robust chicks in my opinion. They were shipped from CA to FL. They were lost in the mail & I still received all live chicks. Two were a bit chilled cause their heat pack had started cooling after 72 hours of travel. One had a tendon issue, which completely healed after being given nutri-drench & nutritional yeast for about a week. Another likely got Cocci, after going out to the coop on the 3rd day for a “field trip”, until I put them out there permanently. She was good after being treated with Corid, along with the rest of them.
My experience has been extremely good! I’m very happy with what I got from Alchemist Farm.

 

[Stephine]

I picked up 4 Bielefelders from them last year and am really happy with them. I actually just ordered 3 and get a 4th for free. One turned out to have a kinked spine, but otherwise they are all very healthy, lively and super friendly. Great layers, too. I am picking up two of their Azure Eggers tomorrow - so I would definitely recommend them. Shipping issues can happen with any hatchery - look around and you will find horror stories from all the hatcheries. I think generally Alchemist does a great job with shipping, too.

 

[cityeggs]

I'm glad to hear good experiences with them!

I really wanted to get some of their Alchemist Blues, but I guess it's good that I didn't, since they don't offer vaccinations and the preliminary necropsy results that I got today for my hen that just died so far point towards Marek's. The vaccinated chicks I picked up in February instead at least have a slightly better chance of surviving the next few months - we shall see soon enough.

 

[Stephine]

I'm glad to hear good experiences with them!

I really wanted to get some of their Alchemist Blues, but I guess it's good that I didn't, since they don't offer vaccinations and the preliminary necropsy results that I got today for my hen that just died so far point towards Marek's. The vaccinated chicks I picked up in February instead at least have a slightly better chance of surviving the next few months - we shall see soon enough.

Ugh. Keeping my fingers crossed for your flock!

 

[CrystalAnon]

I picked up 4 Bielefelders from them last year and am really happy with them. I actually just ordered 3 and get a 4th for free. One turned out to have a kinked spine, but otherwise they are all very healthy, lively and super friendly. Great layers, too. I am picking up two of their Azure Eggers tomorrow - so I would definitely recommend them. Shipping issues can happen with any hatchery - look around and you will find horror stories from all the hatcheries. I think generally Alchemist does a great job with shipping, too.

I received 4 Azure Eggers in February. They are so very sweet. And their little feather “helmets” are a crack-up! And I love their yellow legs & feet. Unique & beautiful feather patterns on all of them.
Wisha is our “runt” Azure Egger. She’s the most friendly & talkative of all of the chicks. Her constant little peeps are absolutely adorable! She’s fearless & just weaves in between & under all the bigger chicks quite gracefully. She won’t let the other chicks rest until she’s perfectly tucked right in between everyone on the roost. She’s known to just step right over them all. What Wisha wants, Wisha gets!
The Azure Eggers are a great pick, imo.
Happy chick-keeping!

 

[Disheygirl]

I got Silverudd’s and Alchemist Blues from them this year - so far so good. They’re about five weeks old and no problems…healthy babies!

 

[CrystalAnon]

I got Silverudd’s and Alchemist Blues from them this year - so far so good. They’re about five weeks old and no problems…healthy babies!

How many did you get of each?
I got 2 Alchemist Blues & they look so different from one another, but both are beautiful. They’ll be 12 weeks old tomorrow.

 

[Disheygirl]

How many did you get of each?
I got 2 Alchemist Blues & they look so different from one another, but both are beautiful. They’ll be 12 weeks old tomorrow.

I got two ABs and two SBs. What do your ABs look like? Mine are still pretty young so it’s hard to tell how they’ll feather out, but I’ll take some pics of them.

 

[Disheygirl]

One has some brownish barring coming through and the other looks like she may be a really dark gray. They were not fans of holding still for the photo shoot.