Frequently Asked Questions

I'm afraid not. The minimums are based on how many chicks are safe to ship, not how many we would like to sell. You can't give us extra money to send fewer chicks than would be safe to send you. Also, My Pet Chicken never send extra males for warmth. If you don't want to rehome extra roosters, please be careful when ordering from other hatcheries--be sure to check, first, and find out if you will be receiving extra roosters with you small order!

Normally you want to order the number of chickens you want to end up with---don't order extras with the expectation that some will die. But there are a few considerations you may want to take into account. Whether you lose any over the course of bringing them to laying age will also depend in part on the conditions you provide for them at your home. For instance, if your brooder isn't hot enough---or if it's too hot!---you may lose some chicks. Baby chicks can drown in waterers that are too deep, and if waterers or feeders are not securely seated,...

If you have a hen with wry neck, it is probably not a genetic problem... but read on, because the problem with answering that question definitively is that "wry neck" is not in itself an illness. It's just a symptom. Torticollis is the medical/technical term for wry neck; it is an abnormal head position where the bird may not be able to hold her head in a normal position. "Wry neck," "crook neck," "twisted neck," "limber neck" and "stargazing" are all common, nontechnical terms that are used more or less interchangeably to describe the symptom of torticollis. "My neck is...

"Red Stars" are hybrid birds; the rooster is one breed while the hen is another. Because of the genetics of the two breeds, the Red Star chicks are "sex linked," meaning that the color of their down when they hatch is linked to whether the bird is male or female. This means that males hatch out a different color from the females, so they are easy to tell apart. Generally you buy Red Star chicks when you want to be assured of getting all females---they aren't vent sexed like other chicks, so vent sexing errors won't occur. Ordering sex linked...

It's definitely best to calibrate any new thermometer you are using for your incubator. You need to make sure your incubator thermometer is reading correctly, since even one degree of difference may cause serious problems with your hatch! It's fairly easy to calibrate with crushed ice: your thermometer should read 32 degrees in a mixture of crushed ice and a little water. If it reads, say, 30 degrees, then you can either adjust the thermometer until it is correct (if the style of the thermometer permits adjustment), or else you will at least know your thermometer reads 2 degrees too...

My Pet Chicken's breeders and hatcheries handle all the state-level permits required to get the chicks safe and sound to you. So when you order from My Pet Chicken, there is usually nothing you will need to do with regard to state permits. Most states in the US require baby chicks and juvenile birds that ship across state lines to originate from clean hatcheries like ours, hatcheries that participate in NPIP (the National Poultry Improvement Plan). This is so that the birds will have been imported from flocks whose health is monitored. That's why My Pet Chicken's hatchery handles this...

Naturally, some plants are poisonous to chickens, just as there are plants that are poisonous to other pets like cats and dogs. It's problematic to come up with an absolute list of what not to have in your yard, though. In many, if not most, cases, just having a plant in your yard that is poisonous won't necessarily cause problems. For instance, daffodils are poisonous to most animals, including chickens. But many people have dogs or cats as well as pretty spring gardens in their yards, because dogs and cats generally won't eat these poisonous plants. Similarly, my chickens just...

If this is the only symptom you're seeing, she's probably not sick. (If she does show other signs of illness you will want to take her to a licensed avian veterinarian for a firm diagnosis and treatment options.) Interestingly, in some hens that lay brown eggs, eating too much canola or rapeseed meal can cause a fishy smell in the eggs . Not all hens are affected by the process that causes the smell. The smell is caused by the accumulation of trimethylamine (TMA) in the yolk. Most hens metabolize the TMA into another (odorless) compound, but brown egg layers...