Frequently Asked Questions

It's always disappointing when a bird isn't sexed correctly, especially if your "girl" ended up being a "boy" and was the family's favorite chick! Since chicken sexing is an art, not a science, sometimes errors do occur (though our professional chick vent sexers are correct more than 90% of the time). 1. We will refund you for any bird which has been incorrectly sexed, provided you notify us within the correct sexing error reporting time frame. Early or late reports can't be taken. Sexing errors must be reported when the birds are 14 to 22 weeks old. Sexing errors for...

Yes, we're happy to cancel an order provided you let us know by 6:00 PM on the Thursday before your scheduled ship week. As you remember from checkout, baby chick orders cannot be cancelled (or changed) later than that date. Be sure to have your order number at hand so we can find your order to cancel it. The reason we require this notice is that, in many cases, the shipping schedule must be shuffled so the baby chicks we were hatching for you can find new adopters in time to receive them when they hatch. In addition we need...

Yes, in most cases, you can change your baby chick order. Contact us to have your order changed. But before you do, read on because there are some important things you should keep in mind before placing your request!     Let us know by 6:00 p.m. the Thursday before your scheduled ship date We require this notice because we need time to make sure the shipment can been changed or stopped. Obviously, we don't want to send baby chicks out to Post Offices where they will never be picked up, or to send you your original order if you are...

There is no minimum number of chicks per breed or size. Although your total order must meet the minimum number for the time of year that your order is shipped. So you can mix and match to your heart's content: really cherry pick your flock! Minimum Baby Chick Order April - November: 3 Baby Chicks December - March: 8 Baby Chicks The neat thing about having a mixed flock is that it's easy to tell them all apart. It can take longer to schedule a delivery when you have lots of different breeds, however, because they must ALL be available...

Yes! We usually have up to six batches of juvenile 6-week-old chickens available each year at various times. They do sell out very quickly, so keep your eyes peeled for availability. They sell so fast because, unlike other hatcheries, My Pet Chicken often has a selection of several rare and heirloom varieties like Black Copper Marans, Speckled Sussex, Welsummers, Easter Eggers, and so on. Most hatcheries offer started pullets in only a few limited high-production breeds like Red or Black Stars (or other sex-linked varieties), Rhode Island Reds, or Leghorns. We don't know of any other hatchery that offers started...

Please notify us Thursday if your package has not arrived by then--but do not notify us before Thursday. The US postal service is very good about handling baby chick deliveries, and they are rarely late! In fact, we only have losses about 1% of the time. A package is late only if it does not arrive by Thursday afternoon. If your package has not arrived by then, its tracking number will have been associated with the individual orders in the hatching facility's system, so on Thursday we will be able to track down individual packages should there be the rare...

Not yet! The best way to peruse our offerings for right now is to browse the category listings on the left hand side of any page on our website.

You may have heard that hatcheries sometimes include extra "males for warmth" in their baby chick packages, but you can be sure we'll never purposely include extra males in your order. When necessary, we include one or more heating packs to keep your chicks warm, and to prevent jostling we add extra nesting material. We pack them very carefully. Our goal in life --- yes, our goal in life! --- is to make it easy for you to keep chickens, and having a bunch of extra roosters that you don't know what to do with wouldn't be easy, now would...