Comments regarding Ideal Poultry Breeding Farms, Inc.

We've ordered chicks from Ideal for many years but found that the chicks had problems. Unless your willing to give them antibiotics when they arrive they probably won't live. We decided that cheap wasn't the best. There are alot of hatcheries that have excellent chicks like Cackle, Hoover, McMurray ect. You'll get what you are looking for and that's healthy vigorous stock.

We wanted to increase our egg laying so we began researching breeds. We settled on Australorps - seemed like the right combination of productivity and nature. These were in two batches of 30 hens - not just a one hatch.

I should note that we feed 22% protein feed as well as produce we pick up from a local restaurant and a farm stand. We've been raising chickens for several years now.

They came into laying at the usual 6 months and produced well. Then dropped to near zero - that is 4-6 eggs a day for well over 50 chickens. For the last 3 weeks, they have been at zero - not a single egg.

The Greenfire Black Copper Marans - we have 6 hens and a rooster, out produce them every day from the breeding pen.

Wasted a season on substandard birds plus all the work of replacing them and putting them in the freezer.

Wow, Ideal get your crap together

I ordered 8 assorted feather legged bantoms. They arrived this morning along with 9 large makes. I knew i would receive males for warmth but i didn't know it would be so many. I have ordered baby chicks before from another hatchery but these chicks poop is watery and stinks like something is wrong.. Not to mention they have fleas or mites bcuz I've noticed the little bugs crawling all over my baby chicks. I am about to email ideal and let them know about the bugs. I do not want my other chickens to catch them. I keep my baby chicks in a Brooder in the laundry room inside my house. I hope these bugs don't infest my home. Let's hope these chicks survive the night.

Let me start off by saying just like many others i already have many chickens who are happy and healthy. This year i wanted a few new breeds so i ordered in pairs, according to breed. I orderes most for may and for a few breeds i was placed on a waiting list. I called and asked if i could have the birds together in order to make plans for shelter or at least when id be getting the next batch. All i was told was they couldnt say because i was on a waiting list wich i understood. Then a week later i got an email saying i would get all 36 chicks at once so i was scrambling. I called to confirm and wasnt trated badly just that no one knew about that email and were not even aware two prders were placed only the most recent waiting list order??? So i was asked is i was sure i ordered correctly and if my card info was right. And i decided to foward the email back to them and they got it apparently because the next time i called they said they had no idea about any of the previous events but magically had one full order of 36 chicks. So i was just glad things were back on track and couldnt wait to see my chicks. When they got there one one almost limp. I hydrated, fed him, and gave him vitamims and within hours he seemed better but then passed that same day. I didnt report it because i figured as sad as it is 1 out of 36. The rest seemed peppy but to my horror within the next 24 hours all but 4 died of cocci. I had vet rx on hand and immediately gave it to them but it was to let. I just decided to cut my losses because i had already seen how unorganized they were but it was sad. My kids went from happy to crying overnight and the ones that survived only survived because on my swiftness. Also those chicks are 9 months now and even after being well fed and recieving vitamins on a daily basis are about the size on one of my miniatures. There just tiny and iv seen these breeds in full size sp something went wrong in the breeding process. I still like then and all of them have grown on me but one looks a little odd nothing like any of the breeds i ordered. I wont ever order from them again the chicks were sick, weak and poorly kept. It was just obviouse and who knows what breed they really are seeing how there litterally pint size no bigger than a regular sized pigeon. Looking back now i say what was i thinking. I didnt think about it at the time but, there are no pictures of any breeds only draeing. I looked to friends with the same breeds or google images. Thats jusr odd. Usually you show off what you have. I cant complain! Even though you should get what you pay for i feel like i should have known. Iv baught from other breeders with pictures and never had problems. I just hope my expirience helps some one. If you dont care about quality, color, size, shine or health this is the place for you. The sad part is a beautifull kelso i previously owned had just hatched 20 little ones in the pin over and all but two of them died of cocci. None of my other breeds got sick only the ones next to the ideal poultry chicks. I wonder if i can get them to pay me back for my kelsos. Way more valuable but fat chance. If your thingking about it really prepare youself. Because you never know what youll get

I have been breeding livestock for over 20 years. I have traveled the US in search of "good" livestock for my farm. I have always taken great pride in what I raise and sell. I do not go to auctions to buy, therefore I know where all my animals come from that are not bred here. This past spring I needed 2 new bloodlines of chickens for my farm. I have 21 breeds of NPIP birds. I needed a new rooster for my Silver Laced Wyandottes and a couple of new pullets for my Barred Rocks. I normally order from Cackle if I need something new but since my former feed store was ordering some chicks from here they asked if I needed anything. I said yes since I would not have to buy more birds than I wanted to meet the requirements from Cackle or any other hatchery. I ordered 5 barred rock pullets and 5 SLWyandotte cockerels..Boy was I surprised after about 3 months...None of the cockerels had rose combs...all straight combs and actually had lots of brownish/red color in them. The pullets were faded grey like roosters were and not dark at all like good quality Barred Rock hens have. I called Ideal on 4 different occassions and had to leave messages for "Russ" who I was told would be the only one to correct the problem. Well that was in April and it is now almost December and never recieved one single phone call. First of all the customer service was a joke and the quality of birds was a bigger joke. Needless to say those birds were culled and no longer exist on my farm. I understand that they contract with outside breeders in order to get their hatching eggs just like all the hatcheries do but come on ...not one phone call...And at this point, I am still need of a SL Wyandotte rooster..I have run adds all around the neighboring states and not one reply..That is sad...0 out of 5 correct roosters...Pathetic...I will never ever buy from them again. I am opening a small organic farm store this next spring and I will offer birds from my own flocks as "chick days" to ensure that my customers get what they pay for....When people get as many messages from me and dont return the call...it wasnt missplaced...they ignored the call and dont want to fix the problem...with companies like that ....we are all just another paying customer and if we dont come back then no loss...they will just get another customer that was not satisfied with the birds they got from another supplier...It is a vicious cycle...Just remember good views and negative views come from all sorts of people. Nothing is ever perfect...If you want it done right....do it yourself...I will next year as soon as I can get a "clean" rooster!!

Posted on August 24, 2012, updated August 28, 2012
I've never written a nasty letter to someone until now. Customer service person was making one assumption after another, saying I did not report losses of an order on time (I did it the day they arrived) and then disregarded en total another set of messages I had been dealing with concerning another order where a large amount of birds had died unexplained. Also referred to me by my first name, but never left their name which I find particularly disrespectful to customers. Either tell me your name or call me by my title or Mr., not as you would a child in familiarity. If you are going to refer to someone with familiarity then you should treat them as such, not like they are trying to pull something or get away with something. Very very disappointed, and this was not the first time either. Therefore, the negative experience stands as such.

Placed an order in July for variety of breeds to be delivered week of Sept. 22. Breeds could not be guaranteed at that time but order was still placed. I e-mailed on Sept 14 to find out exactly what breeds were being shipped and was told there was no order. I then placed a call to Ideal Poultry. Sure enough, confirmed that my order did not exist. I reluctantly placed another order to be delivered the week of Sept 29(a week later than the original order). Sept. 21, I receive an e-mail stating my order shipped. Confused, I called them back and they tell me everything is fine and my order will not ship until the 29th. I questioned the e-mail I had received and they tell me without a doubt there is no other order in my name. A few hours later I get an e-mail (not even courtesy of a call) that my original order had been found and did indeed ship. I was not expecting a shipment until next week and was forced to cancel out of town plans for the rest of the week. The only compensation they will offer is a $7 discount on the order. They tell me they cancelled the order that was supposed to arrive next week...I sure hope so, but will not be surprised if another box of chicks show up. Very disappointed in their customer service.

I ordered 25 pullets, I had read the reviews about peoples chicks dying and just assumed people didn't know how to care fore the chicks. When mine arrived one was dead, I thought not bad. Well one week later 7 just fell over dead. I emailed the company and provided them with a link to this forum about how it seems they ship sick chicks. They refuse to even credit me. I will never order from them again. The higher price of McMurray is worth it. I'm sure the rest of these will die too as they now seem sickly aswell!

going to keep my story short. I ordered some chicks on 6/15/09....website clearly showed as available for delivery 6/17/09 the pullet assortments for brahma, cochin, feather leg and rare breeds....in fact at the time of this post it still shows them available, might be fun for you all to watch how long it takes to fix the problem. Well guess what they are not available until fall or even 2010....so I ask why does the site still show available? I then sent them a list of all the birds I would take as replacements on a date that would work for them, I was basically told they had 5 of the 35 I would take and I could take multiples of them, when that is not satisfactory. I clearly wanted 25 different birds with maybe a couple duplicates to help them out 20 duplicates is not a few. I feel like some items are shown available just to get more orders and back log them. Dishonest and unethical. And I assure you I bent over backwards to be kind and considerate. And am posting this inc ase I am not the only one.

Well, I have ordered chicks from IDEAL prior to this years horrible experience and they, for the most part, survived shipping and I had no problems with deformities or disease. Not the case this year. My first order was placed in march, which was a little cold in NY. The order of 69 chicks was shipped and received with only 51 in the box, of the 51 5 were dead, not bad considering the long shipping distance and the bad weather. Things were looking relatively good the first day, but the next morning held a much different scene. 5 of 6 Gold Necked D'Uccles and 4 of 6 Blue Mille Fleur were in horrible condition, later that day they had all died. The first week I had lost the 9 d'uccles along with 6 more chicks (most likely from disease). Keep in mind I have been raising chicks for over 15 years and am no novice. Anyways, I called IDEAL and explained the situation. They were extremely polite, as always, and sent out a replacement order for the next month with some additional chicks that I decided to order last minute. The order came in on time and with better weather. I had expected a better outcome. Not so. Birds that had been listed on the invoice which were not included within the order (24 total). By this time I am a little aggravated and called IDEAL immediately. They apologize and tell me the most of the missing chicks were out of stock, and another replacement order will be placed, surely they couldn't mess it up again. The replacement order was received and again there was considerable dead-loss as well as some missing chicks. By this time I had no more patience for games so I decided to take the hit and did not call IDEAL. About two weeks later chicks began to get sick (Avian Encephalitis or MS) and I noticed that 5 of 6 Self blue d'uccles started to show scissor beak (deformity from inbreeding). This took the cake. I decided to write IDEAL an informative e-mail stating that they have been breeding sick and or terrible quality birds producing horrible results. Included in the e-mail were multiple pictures of the sick and deformed chicks as proof. No answer. And so I call back and this time was greeted with a different tone. Basically I was asked why I did not call earlier and was treated as if I was trying to scam them. I explained that I had gone through this several times and did not wish to put myself back through the motions of receiving bad quality or even worse dead chicks. The replacement order was eventually shipped once again and once again I received only half my order and this time they had placed 12 barred Rock males for warmth! A miscommunication I was told when I called back and spoke with the same rep. She apologized AGAIN and shipped out another order. Finally I received the chicks this morning all accounted for, all alive. The end of a final chapter of this horror story. I will not be ordering from them again.

Be weary, if you order birds from IDEAL, expect less than average to terrible results and DO NOT place the chicks with any others you may have. There is a good chance they are carrying multiple transmittable virus'. This may seem like a smear campaign, which it is, but all the information I have provided is accurate to my IDEAL experience, no pun intended.

I ordered 40 chicks from Ideal Poultry and was shipped 34 chick after several delays. They did not send extras, their shipping box was NOT labelled, and it was not insured. The US Postal Service put the box in a cold storage room and didn't call. By chance, my employee was picking up a package the next day and asked if there might be chicks sitting around. I lost half of the chicks within 24 hours. I called Ideal and was told that they would replace the chicks. After several calls and e-mails - I have received no reply, and no replacement chicks.

Be aware that if you order chicks from Ideal - don't expect extras. Request that they label their shipping box IN LARGE PRINT for the US Post and insure the shipment. Additionally, the quality of chicks in the bantam varieties is fair, not great.