Hatchery Policies

Our Responsibility:  The Chick Hatchery’s Responsibility to you as a customer is to provide healthy, good quality chicks that arrive to you alive and in good condition.

Your Responsibility:  As a purchaser of live animals, your responsibility is to provide an environment with proper heat (Heat Lamp, No Heat Plates), food and water as given in our Poultry care sheet.  The care sheet instructions are to be read at the time of ordering your birds (preparation information) and read again at the time of delivery of birds.   A hard copy of the instructions will be sent with your order.  Report any unsafe delivery to us via our Report A Loss Form.  You agree to be free and flexible to pick up your chicks from the post office and have free time to secure the chicks in the brooder and be around to care for them for the first 24 hours to make sure your poultry are doing good and to see that the brooder is regulated properly.

Minimum Order Policy:  For safe handling and delivery of your birds, The Chick Hatchery has minimum order requirements.  These minimums help the birds stay warm and prevent them from shifting around during shipping.  Each type of Poultry ordered have their own minimums.

• Cornish Cross Broilers:  Minimum 25 per sex. 
  • Cornish Cross Broilers MUST Be Ordered in their own order.  *Cornish Cross Broilers Ship separate from all other Poultry*
• Alternate Meat Birds:  Minimum 25 Chicks. 
  • Alternate Meat Birds MUST Be Ordered in their own order.  *Alternate Meat Birds Ship separate from all other Poultry*

• Chickens:  Minimum 3 Total Chicks.  (3 Female, 3 Straight Run, 1 Male).  Chickens, Guineas, Turkeys & Waterfowl can be mixed & matched.
  • Assortments, Bantams, Brown Egg Layers, Colored Egg Layers, Dark Brown Egg Layers, Rare Breeds, White Egg Layers
• Guinea Keets:  Minimum 5 Keets.  Chickens, Guineas, Turkeys & Waterfowl can be mixed & matched.
• Turkeys:  Minimum 3.  Chickens, Guineas, Turkeys & Waterfowl can be mixed & matched for a total of 3 birds minimum.
• Waterfowl:  Minimum 1.  Chickens, Guineas, Turkeys & Waterfowl can be mixed & matched for a total of 3 birds minimum.

• Game Birds:  Chukar Partridge Minimum 50.  Ringneck Pheasants Minimum 30.  *These ship separate than all other poultry*

• Hatching Eggs:  Minimum 1 Dozen.
• Started Pullets:  Minimum 1 Pullet.

Order Change Policy:  Due to our new paperless inventory system, once an order is placed you will not be able to make any partial cancels or add on to an order.  Because of system limitations there will be NO EXCEPTIONS made to this rule.  Please be sure of what you want to order before ordering it.

• Cancellations up to 11 DAYS before the hatch date:  According to our policy, cancellations will be charged a $15 fee.   For orders over $100, a 15% fee will be applied.  If you decide to cancel your order, please email us with your order number and the reason for cancellation.   Any orders placed and then canceled will have the fee deducted from the total purchase price and the difference refunded back to the credit card used for the purchase.  The reason why we charge a fee: Orders paid for/booked are taken off the market for sale and are marked sold.  We could have a lost opportunity for a buyer if cancelled.  Cancelled orders create bookkeeping and labor cost to process that cancelled order and along with postage or credit card fees to reprocess credits.
• NO CANCELLATIONS 10 DAYS BEFORE THE HATCH DATE.
• Sometimes it is necessary for The Chick Hatchery to cancel an order.  We reserve the right to cancel any order at our discretion at any time.  Orders shipping to Alaska or Hawaii will be cancelled because we do not ship to these areas.  If we cancel your order, you will be issued a full refund.

Return Policy:  No returns of Live or Dead Poultry Allowed.

Vaccination Policy:  Vaccinations are approved for use in organic and conventional operations.  Vaccinations are done at the hatchery.

• The Marek’s vaccination is an optional service that we offer for all bantam & standard breed chickens.  The Chick Hatchery recommends this service because the disease is easily spread.  Marek’s Disease is a common viral disease that affects chickens.  Exposed chickens will become infected with Marek’s regardless of vaccination.  Vaccination only gives chickens a chance to build resistance and reduces the instances of symptoms developing.  There is no cure for this disease. 
• The Coccidiosis Spray Vaccination is an optional service we offer for our Cornish Cross Broilers!  Coccidia are common protozoan parasites.  These parasites are present in most chicken yards.  Coccidia have the ability to lay dormant for many years until chickens are introduced.   Heavy infections of coccidia cause serious disease and may kill many chickens.  Chickens of all ages can come down with coccidiosis.  This is mostly seen in chickens 4- to 16-week-old.  Wet litter, poor nutrition and concurrent diseases are the most common triggers of coccidiosis.
• The Chick Hatchery is not responsible for any loss or damages due to Coccidiosis or Marek’s Disease, even if your chicks were vaccinated.
• We do not vaccinate Ducks, Geese, Guineas, Turkeys, or Game Birds.

• Privacy Policy:  The Chick Hatchery takes every precaution necessary to protect your privacy and personal information.  When submitting sensitive information via our website, that information is collected, encrypted, and protected by our secure servers.  It is our policy that for each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes information regarding the domain or e-mail address.  We collect the e-mail address of those who communicate with us via e-mail.  It is important for us to gather user specific information on what pages consumers access or visit.  The information we collect is used for internal review and is then discarded.  It is used to improve the content of our Web page, used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for individual consumers.  It is used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes.  We do not sell your information.

Biosecurity Policy:  We practice strict Biosecurity measures for the health and safety of our Poultry and baby chicks.

*Click the Blue Link to read our: Hatchery Guarantees 

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Our Email Address: [email protected]