Comments regarding Meyer Hatchery

We have been Meyer Hatchery customers for 10 years, purchasing both egg layer and meat chickens. We do one batch of meat birds a year and always purchase all of our feed from the hatchery. We've always been reasonably happy customers, never complained when a chick or two died right after purchasing, didn't even fuss when they called us on hatch day one year and told us our entire order of meat birds was cancelled and made no effort to replace them in a timely manner, leaving me scrambling to replace them elsewhere. Right now, though, I AM complaining, and I will not be shopping with them again. Because of Covid shortages, my husband and I decided this year to purchase our meat bird feed early, in the spring. We weren't getting the birds until August, but we wanted to make sure we'd have feed for them in case there ended up being shortages in that supply chain too. We bought 1 bag of chick starter and 7 bags of Walnut Hill Non-GMO Broiler Grower Finisher. They were transported inside a car, and stored in our enclosed, covered, completely dry and non humid sun room, where I also store our grocery dry goods and other animal feeds. We store our feed there every year and have never had an issue.
Fast forward to now. We opened a bag of chick starter two weeks ago, and it was fine. It was stored right next to the grower/finisher. We opened a bag of grower this morning and the feed is damp and black with mold. opened another bag, same deal. And another, and another, all junk. I am devastated, this is a huge expense for my budget. I called Meyer Hatchery and told them what happened and expected them to do SOMETHING to make it right, but nope, not even an apology, nothing. I offered to send them photos showing where and how they were stored, complete with pictures of the totally dry cardboard boxes and human foodstuffs stored in the same area. They would not give me any contact info for a manager, absolutely no customer service whatsoever. Unless I hear from them, I will never do business with them again and will tell everyone in our rural community, especially our 4H friends, about our bad experience. We are honest people, I am not looking to take advantage of them or cheat anyone. I just want them to make this right since this feed was transported and stored properly by us and obviously was exposed to something before we got it. We bought it from Meyer to support a small Ohio business. I wish now I had bought it from Tractor Supply or another chain instead. Very disappointed, I thought Meyer Hatchery had more integrity than this.

I wanted to report my experience with Meyer Hatchery 2/2018. I ordered 10 Marans and 5 Buff Orpingtons. The chicks were shipped and received within 24 hours picked up at USPS 10:00 a.m. The outside temps were mid 60's no winds to speak of. Opening the box at home I noticed the 2 white Maran females and the 2 Blue Copper Maran females and 2 Blue Copper Maran females were VERY TINY. The Orpingtons seemed small but I had never experienced that breed. Chicks were placed in NEW brooder with 97* readings on heat lamp, puppy pads on brooder floor, Medicated starter and supplements. I ordered GroGel, probiotics/electrolytes/vitamin packs and prepared Grogel immediately presenting to the chicks - prepared water with filtered spring water room temp with feeder filled with medicated crumble. One of the white Marans was listless and would not take Grogel, water or food. That bird died by end of day. The next morning the other white Marans died. I notified Meyer, they refunded the $23 for the birds. I told them my concerns with the frail/listless condition of the 4 Blue Copper Marans. Over the course of the first week, 2 white Marans, 4 Blue Copper Marans and 1 Golden Cucko Marans femal and all five Orpington were dead. Folks that 11 chicks out of 15 dead within the first week. After the first two losses, I mixed up an ACV in second water in the brooder. Those birds failed to thrive while one Black Copper Marans male, one Golden Cuckoo Marans and one meal maker (?) have survived. Clearly Meyer mailed chicks infected with coccidiosis. I cancelled other orders with two other sources because I didn't want to loose those chicks. I wrote to Meyer expressing all this. Their response is they don't refund chicks older than 48 hrs, directed me to a book that covered coccidiosis and basically told me to pound sand. This is clearly the wrong customer service response. I plan to challenge the $197 credit card charge and will post this on all forums. Order from Meyer at your own risk. They completely failed to step up to a problem that rests solely on their hands

Meyers Hatchery 16 ordered 15 arrived 1 doa and then another with in an hr The first was trampled 1 month later I find they are all roosters , WOW Meyers cant sex must be the transgender Confusion , Males have Peckers females dont . So pissed im tempted to wright to BBB and let them know how they are screwing people ! VENT check or even color check these are sexlink chicks YOU can look and see what they are No excuse and meyers says OH well you cant prove they came from us . UM No but i can Use my radio station loud and clear to discuss their Customer service

All dead chicks. If I could add the picture I would. I ordered 3 lavender orpington chicks ( female) months ago, my first mail ordered experience. Things seemed fine, I was told my chicks would be delivered in April. Yesterday got an email that my birds had shipped. Great,now I'm excited, I've wanted this particular variety awhile, they were $20 each but worth it to me. Post office called today, I went immediately to pick them up, got in my car, opened my much anticipated box. Three cold, dead chicks. I stormed back in the post office to show them, the woman informed me they had called me right away, in fact the driver was standing right there and both were horrified by my box of very dead chicks. Just want my money back now. Never buying sight unseen again.

Very bad at sexing chicks. I ordered 2 black copper marans females and one male. All three turned out to be male. They'll refund the price difference if you ask, but that hardly compensates for the 4 months I've spent raising them.

i ordered from them before. one order good.next related to hot weather and post office issues very bad. so i started with looking into other hatcheries. i wanted some rare breeds. other hatcheries did not take an order before christmas. so meyers took it. i was glad to be in line for my rare breeds. even so the arrival date was scheduled for april. the weather should be good for shipping than. march would have been a better date for me.a friend with whom i ordered did wanna stock up because she lost her hens to a predator. so i called and worked with the friendly customer service out what i can extend without losing my anyway late shipping date.i made payment arrangements too. all is well until than. we got another phone call to give us a voucher because i waited one hour on the phone for customer service. two lousy bucks. my wife felt insulted better nothing at all and we declined. a view weeks later another another call and they offered 20$. which we accepted and felt appreciated. we tried to attach this to the outstanding delivery. no problem. than the customer service informed us our shipment was canceled. for meyers there were no other solution than to start a new order. and go back in line. this year i changed to a different hatchery. see how this goes. if meyer would have made the same effort to work on my order as to dangel vouchers in front of me to rail me in for the next purchase all would be well. its all about money and they take enough for their birds.

so here is what happened i ordered 6 hatching egg's from Meyers because i don't like the idea of shipping live animals through the mail and because it was way cheaper then buying live chicks. And it was all i could afford at the time it was also my last ditch effort after 6 months of trying to get chickens.

I live in the deep south the eggs where coming from the north. I expected the egg's to be have a heating element of some type because it was 40 degrees here in Texas at the time. God knows how cold it was where Meyers was. The egg's where several days late they where suppose to have arrived on the 11th and didn't until the 15th of April. They didn't have a heating element and all but one egg had a detached air cells and the one that didn't have a detached air cell had no air cell at all. So i set the egg's the next day after they reached room temp and This is where the fun begins.

Even though I'm new to hatching eggs in a incubator I'm not new to hatching egg's period. I have been helping my grandma raise chickens since i was a little kid. And i have hatched under broody's just fine.

Long story short none of the egg's hatched. When i opened them to see what had happened the yolks looked like store bought egg yolks. No blood, no veins, no embryo's, no development of any kind. Nothing they looked like i could cook them.
So i called up Meyers to see if their was a chance these egg's had not been fertilized. And i was told by one of their people that i would get either a one time replacement of hatching egg's or my money back since none of the egg's hatched. which i was very happy about and made made the mistake of hailing them for not a week ago.

i don't know if it's me but when someone tells me that they are going to do something i expect them to do it

i then got a e-mail saying i in fact would not be getting a refund of any kind. So i called them again and i had a heart to heart with a very rude person from Meyers. And i found out the hard way that they discriminate ageist new hatchers. And won't give me a refund because i am new to incubator hatching and because i don't have a professional incubator. How did they even know this to begin with you ask? They used a online chicken forum called backyard chickens to spy on my conversations. And used my updates on the Hatch a long thread as an excuse not to give me a refund.

But you know what that's OK because not only am i never going to order anything from them ever again. But I'm going to tell every one that doesn't turn a deaf ear to me not to order from them either because if that's how they treat paying customers i don't want anyone Else to have to go thought this shear amount of stuff they have finished putting me through.

And for the record to the people from Meyers that think it's OK to use my confidence in more experienced hatchers ageist me. I have read EVERY hatching thread, post and book i could get my hands on and i went through the hatching process just like i was suppose to. So if my hatching process was wrong you need to take it up with sally sunshine because her process is the most professional i have seen and i followed her instruction's to the letter and YOUR eggs didn't hatch.

And further more i hope you Meyer people are paying attention I was going to order from you after i got my refund. So i could add some ducks. Now every season i get birds I'll get them from people who sell poultry and have nothing to do with your site. i was going to order from you but i see you all are full of it i can and will get my birds ELSE WHERE.

I will never order anything from Meyers ever again and you shouldn't either

"On May 21, 2014 3:10 PM, Meyer Hatchery responded with:

Unfortunately, there are too many variables involved in a successful hatch, that we do not guarantee hatching eggs. Our policy states:

"...We will ship fresh eggs - the same eggs we hatch here. We guarantee the eggs to be true to breed variety and to arrive in good condition. However, we do not guarantee hatchability due to conditions beyond our control during shipment, and hatching equipment or methods used..."

In your case, April 11th was the ship date, not the arrival date. Most all of our eggs ship on Fridays, expect turkey eggs.

No mention was ever made to our company about detached air cells, cold weather, etc so we can't speak to that.

Found in a general "Meyer Hatchery" search on a forum, not by purposefully spying, comments post by yourself were discovered, that in summary, stated you had second thoughts because you weren't sure what you were doing and were also considering using methods that would be less likely to produce good hatch rates. E.g. homemade parts, heating pad element, etc. We can stand behind our product but can't stand behind those methods. It is why we have the policy in place that we do. So many unknown things can happen during shipment and incubation and clearly did, since we hatched the same eggs, from the same hens, the very same week with great results.

We simply do not replace or refund hatching eggs unless they arrive damaged. It was not a matter of discrimination, but rather sticking to our policy."

I placed an order on 12/12/13 for 26 birds including 6 bantams with a ship date of 1/27/14. I several phone calls at 5:30am on 1/24/14. I finally answered the phone, and as soon as Ursula announced who she was and where she was calling from I asked her if she knew it was 5:30am. She seemed unconcerned and told me she wasn't used to the time difference (I am in Alaska) and just kept talking. I feel that as a manager looking at my order she should have been able to note the location of my address. They are in the business of shipping birds all over the US right?
I interrupted her and told her I would call her back at a more appropriate time.

I understand that mistakes happen but I thought it VERY rude for her to not apologize or seem in any way contrite that she woke my entire family. I called them back at 8am and was told that they had an issue with their incubator and would not be shipping my bantams.

I was very very disappointed because they were for 4-H project but hey, things happen right. They said they could ship half my order Monday and then ship the bantam at the next hatch. Sounds okay right? Wrong, I was told they could ship them in July. Uh What??

No one seemed apologetic in the least about disturbing us at 5:30am with multiple phone calls, and they were unconcerned about the order that I had already waited over a month for. What a joke. I canceled the bantam portion of the order and am just hoping they manage to get the rest of it to me next week.

They did credit me the cost of the bantams that I will not receive but my shipping stayed the same.The sales staff were very nice and tried to help the best they could. The management was a joke however, apparently it was the office manager who called my home at 5:30am.

As a business owner I would have done everything I could to correct the failure and had I disturbed someone so rudely in the morning I would have called back at a later time and apologized along with sending a note and maybe small token. This was our first time ordering with Meyer and I think it will be out last. I will update my review to let you know how the birds arrive. I am not particularly hopeful at this point.

I ordered a batch of chicks from Meyers that arrived in the 14th of august. Within 2hrs. of getting them home the chicks started showing signs of illness. I made sure they were not in a draft, the heat was correct, they had plenty of water, etc. I also used vital-pack plus water additive and gro-gel plus for their food. Nothing has worked and now all are either dead or dying. If your thinking I can't handle mail order chicks this is the 6th time I've ordered chicks and have always had good results. UNTIL NOW. Meyers Hatchery has completely let this farmer down. There isn't any reason in the middle of august for chicks to have this kind of trouble. The worst situation I have experienced is when I ordered chicks very early in the year. I will not be ordering from Meyers again.

Ordered 5 baby chicks and had expedited delivery. 2 arrived dead and the 3rd died a day later. The response from the company was call on Friday to give the final number dead and we can send more. I know to a hatchery this may be normal but not to me or my family. I understand the risk of shipping live baby animals but to have heartless, disrespectful individuals ask you to wait till they all may die... is disgusting. Will never use them again

Today we received 9 Indian Runner ducklings from Meyer Hatchery, Ohio. We're in PA, so we figured it would be safe to order from an adjacent state, given post office problems of late. 8 of the 9 were dead, some for some time. Only one remains, and seems o.k. One month ago, we received a shipment from Meyers, for 5 Rhode Island Reds, 5 Barred Rocks, and 5 Columbian Wyandotte chicks. 3 arrived dead, and 2 more succumbed despite dropper feedings with electrolyte water. We are not novices to raising chicks and ducks, and lost at the most 1 per shipment before. It's not so much the money; it's the suffering of these little ones, which were to be basically pets. We won't be doing business with Meyers any more, needless to say. No refunds can compensate for what those poor birds endured. Our advice is to pick up at the hatchery. We believe the fault lies with both the post office and Meyers. KanaKukkula, PA

Spring 2012 I ordered a rainbow pullet pack. Spring 2013 I have 22 hens that lay brown eggs. I tried to order another rainbow assortment and asked them to tell me what chicks they are sending me so I know I'm getting what I paid for. Basically they said we don't care if you're not happy about what you already got and no we aren't going to verify that what we send you is what you paid for. They cancelled my order and don't seem the lease bit concerned that I'm unhappy. Fine, I'll take my business elsewhere and be sure to let other potential customers know about how I was treated.

I ordered 3 started pullets in January 2013 (1 easter egger, 1 golden buff, 1 black australorp) . I live in Medina County Ohio about 40 miles away and drove to pick up the hens on April 27. I had them about 1 week and the golden buff started sneezing and shaking her head. About 2 days later the other 2 started doing the same thing. They all have a terrible "odor". Not anything I've smelled before. I called Meyer and talked with a customer service person. I asked her if anyone else had called with these symptoms and was told no. I asked her what she thought was wrong and she said its just a respiratory cold because the weather has been cold. Not true. Its been in the mid 70's around here. Perfect weather. She didn't seem to know anything about chickens and was on the "My Pet Chicken" website trying to answer my questions. Never once asked me if I wanted a refund. I'm thinking they have CRD (or Corzya, even worse) and went to TSC to get Duramycin-10. It's been 2 days and none of them are better yet. It's looking like I will have to "do away" with the 3 because CRD is easily spread and I don't want my flock exposed to this. It's treatable but is often reoccurring and the 3 will always be carriers. I'm glad I have not formally introduced the sick ones to my flock yet, but time will tell if my chickens will get sick from the 3 new ones. I will never purchase chickens of any age from Meyer Hatchery. Just be warned!

My first experience with my was with my first order I ordered 39 chicks and only got 37 not only did I receive 37 chicks I also received someone else's box of 50 now my chicks were supposed to have been vaccinated against Marek's but I am for sure that the 50 were not I called Meyer and they sent me the chick that we could not identify as our own not only that we sent them pictures of all the chicks, now you would think that someone that is in the business of hatching chicks could identify them...guess again...the next box I received 3 dead sultans and 3 dead lakenvelders now Meyer has closed my account...which is probably a good thing...Back to the 50 misc. box it had what looked to be like 6 Welsummers in it 3m and 3f now here it is 2 mos. later and I have a female Welsummer acting like it has Marek's I have segregated her from the rest of my flock but Doc says its to late they have already been exposed, that means all my chicks I have hatched or bought from a private dealer have been exposed too....WILL NEVER RECOMMEND BUYING FROM MEYER...WONDER IF THEY WILL PAY TO REPLACE MY FLOCK IF THEY ALL DIE...NOT

My original order was for 27 chicks including their "meal maker" offer. The first chick death was likely caused by poor handling by the USPS, arriving to me dead in the Meyer container. Their customer service was good even offering to let me wait the full 48 hours of their guarantee period to report any other deaths/problems. By the end of that period I had lost another and a credit was added to my account.

Since then (the chicks are 10 days old today) I have lost six chicks total, despite the new brooder, new coop, no other chickens on the property to pass disease and constant monitoring of food, water and temperature status. I require my children to wash their hands before and after handling food and water containers AND the brooder has been placed inside our house for constant monitoring.

For clarification, this is not my first time with chicks. I have started and grown six flocks of chickens of various breeds over the last twelve years. This has never happened to me before, not even the first time when I was 'green' and probably just got lucky, raising 24 of 24 hatched out and given to me by my neighbor.

This time I have had to watch my eleven year old daughter run away from the brooder crying after finding one of her "babies" lying dead. Not only that but just yesterday I learned a local farm supply store ordered 1500 chicks from Mt. Healthy hatchery and only lost three (3!).

Meyer tells me I have a credit on my account. I will never use it. I would strongly recommend anyone not yet supplied with chicks avoid Meyer hatchery; any savings on their "cheap chicks" is lost to chick demise. These birds are not healthy.

Posted on November 13, 2011, updated November 19, 2011
we ordered from Meyer Hatchery,,25 pullets & 2 male orpingtons, recieved them just fine, when we got them home we realized one was going to die, in 48 hours we lost 4 or 5, & we have continued to loose chicks up to now.
we have raised chickens for 10 years, & also hatched our own chicks from the flock we had.
we wanted to introduce new blood line, but not sure that will happen, we have 6 chicks left.
not sure at this time if any will survive. we have 3 or 4 that can stand up & walk.
we will not buy from the meyer hatchery again.

Posted on May 26, 2011, updated May 27, 2011
Hi everyone!

This is my 1st post so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but I want to give it a try !

I'm also new to the World of Chickendom , but I think I'm doing great as far as taking care of my Babies.

Here's the deal.

I orderderd from other hatcheries and haven't had Any fatalities , however , about 1 month ago, I ordered 1 Salmon Favorelle Rooster and 1 SF hen along with 2 Partridge Cochin hens from Meyer Hatchery.

2 weeks ago, they sent me my Tracking number.

I live in Upper Michigan and they were coming from Ohio
I tracked the shipment and on the 1st day, I saw that my babies travelled from their hatchery , to Detroit ( which was perfect because the next stop would be home at my post office ) , BUT then BACK to their hatchery!!

The hatchery said " we dont know Why that happened , but maybe you'll get them in a day or 2 more "!!!

1 1/2 days later at the post office, I opened the box and the first thing I was greeted with was a SF with SPRADDLE LEGS who never opened his/ her eyes !

ALL of the babies had Pasty Butt , however I caught that in time , cured the remaining Cochin , but I Battled it for Several days with my SF until I learned that maybe lowering the brooder heat and offering Plain Greek Yogurt, might help.

Greek because of the higher protein in it.

Got them home and IMMEDIATELY called them to report it .

I put a Bandaid around the baby's legs , but the poor thing was NEVER able to stand and open eyes and he/she didn't make it thru the night ALONG with a SUDDEN loss of a Cochin !

They did honor their 48 hr guarantee for in store credit or money back on my card but since I will NEVER order from them again, why order more babies just to have them sent Again in Horribly poor packaging ( too much room in box and just 1 hole for breathing )!

Being new to the World of Chickens, I have further discovered, that my surviving " Cochin" is actually a Partridge Rock, and a Roo at that ..

I have lost a total of 2 Hens of the 4.

Also, you will read on their website, that they send " 20 percent more chicks with order in case of fatalities "..

I did NOT receive my 20 per cent , and when I mentioned that to them, they THEN, informed me that " they only do that IF they have extras"..

Now, I totally understand that, however, maybe they should ADD that statement right after the original ..I dont know, maybe its me, but that makes sense.

So, needless to say, I WILL NOT use Meyer Hatchery again.

My first experience was early spring, 2010. I called re. an advertised special, and they denied the order- and not too friendly about doing so- said I was past the deadline, by my clock I still had another day.

In early June 2010 I called re. the same advertised special- 25 chicks for $25. The order was successfully placed- with $21 added for shipping.

That order arrived 100% fatality. I did not blame the hatchery- I blamed the USPS... $21 shipping???

Meyer did send 25 replacement chicks- 24 arrived alive.... within 24 hours 1 more died (I did call hatchery- and they wanted to give me credit... since I won't be ordering from them again, that will be useless). Within 48 hours another 2 had died.

Now the chicks are fairly feathered- 2 have beak deformities, others have had continual deaths classified as "failure to thrive". All have a rather ratty look about them. At present, out of 25, there are 10 remaining.... 7 weeks old.

I've raised chickens for 45 years. I've never had this poor experience before. Prior to this, I've only had maybe 1 or 2 deaths per year.... until the chickens are aged.

I have another batch from another hatchery alongside- they are thriving. 100% success with the other batch.

The two emails I've sent have not been responded to.

Simply put- I'm done with this hatchery- this has been my only business transaction with them.

Ordered chickens back in April. Policy states that all orders ship with up to 4% more polutry...BUT THATS ONLY IF THEY HAVE THEM IN STOCK! Ordered Turkeys in June. Order was to ship on June 7 and receive them the next day...called June 8 order shipped on that day. Turkey's will arrive anywhere from June 9 - 11! How do they expect newbornes to surrive THAT LONG????? Meyer hatchery WILL NOT CANCEL ORDER! Company DOES NOT CARE ABOUT CUSTOMERS OR LIVESTOCK! ALL THEY WANT IS YOUR MONEY! POLICYS CHANGE DAILY AND THEY DO NOT TELL THE TRUTH WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE YOUR ORDER ON TIME!!!

I ordered 25 chicks from Meyers. Upon arrival 5 were dead and then another 6 died within 48hr. I called and told them they had too much room in the box and that it only had 1/2 of the holes punched out - they suffocated and were trampled. They sent out a replacement shipment which I received this morning. Out of the 11 shipped, only 3 were alive and one does not look like it is going to make it. I called and talked with Cindy. I asked to speak to a supervisor (this is almost 9am) and she said there were none there. She said that she was told she could handle it. I asked for an owner's name and extension. She gave me Ben. He is not an owner. He is a line supervisor. This replacement shipment had only 2 holes punched out on one side and 5 holes on top. The chicks suffocated. It was over 90 degrees yesterday and approaching that today.

Ben had every excuse in the book. He said that they had shipped them correctly. I had ordered from other places in the with virtually no loss of chicks. Do not order from them. The chicks suffocated in transit. A total of 7 air holes is not sufficient to keep them alive for 2 days in 90+ weather.

There were other chicks at the post office this morning from other hatcheries and they were just fine!
I live in NH.

Do not do business with this company. They do not care about the customer, they are simply greedy individuals.

This was my second year ordering from Meyer Hatchery. In 2008 I ordered about 25 chicks. I had quite a few dead on arrival and I went through the process of getting replacements sent out. The process was over all time consuming and by the end of last year ALL the chicks I had ordered had died, including the replacements. We had during that time also purchased a number of chicks by a variety of means and from a number of different locations. I try never to judge based on one experience, BUT.... forgetting that all of last years stock died, I was once again lured in by the catalog that was sent to me and the prices listed for the different breeds. I made an order of 33 chicks the second week of February. The first available ship date was expected to be on March 16th. I also noticed that my Visa was charged that very same day and not on the 16th of March as I had been told on the phone.
I was waiting at the post office the morning of the 18th and was very surprised that my chicks were not there. I called and was told that they had in fact shipped a day late. Well that was Okay as long as they were not in transit. It would have been nice to get a phone call or an email but I guess they assume that we would just wait for the postmaster to call to know our chicks are ready for pick up.
On Thursday morning I went to the post office to claim my chicks that I had been waiting a month for. When I arrived home I discovered 6 dead chicks in the box. They had sent ONE extra.
I also discovered that the chicks were all different ages. We hatched over 200 eggs last year that we purchased off eggbid.com and I would have to say that I know at least enough to know that we were talking about a week difference or more in the ages. The first day was rough and we lost 5 more through out the day. The next day I was gathering my documents to call Meyer when my husband brought in 2 more dead chicks and asked that I wait a little longer to see what our total number of dead was at the 48 hours. Since the 48 hours landed on a Saturday I expected to call on Monday after calling and receiving a machine.
By Monday morning we had a total of 17 dead chicks!
I called customer service and was told that I would get no refund, credit or anything since they only allow a 48 hour window to claim.
I actually understand that but I could not get through to anyone on SATURDAY to make my claim. I decided not to fight it. Of our remaining chicks we have three that have pasty butts and two we are watching closely. I will not be ordering from Meyer again and in fact I did call again to ask to be taken off the mailing list.
Instead I have found a really good hatchery with even better prices and a great reputation- Cackle Hatchery. I will be ordering all my "replacement" chicks from them.

I am sorry Meyer but you failed me twice!

We had always gotten our poultry from Murray McMurray in the past and been very satisfied, but this time we wanted only a few Toulouse geese rather than the minimum order of 10 that MMcM requires. Meyer had gotten good reviews as well as offering poultry in limited quantities. So we ordered eight Toulouse geese from them.

They arrived in the beginning of June and looked fine. However, a couple of weeks later one of them became sick and died, and then a second one. When the third began to fail we brought it in and after doing some research decided it was coccidiosis and fed it with chick starter, which contains the antibiotic Amprolium. It slowly recovered and is now back with the flock, but meanwhile another became weak. We treated that as well, and added Terramycin to the water for the others, and that one is also on the road to recovery. However, we have raised poultry for many years, have a flock of 50 or so healthy chickens, four healthy adult geese, and about fifteen geese that we put in the freezer last fall, all without the need for medication or other intervention.

When I called Meyer this morning the customer service woman was very polite but told us that they don't assume responsibility for losses beyond 48 hours. I can understand that, but in view of our long history with poultry I have to assume that the loss of goslings had to have something to do with the quality of their stock. Needless to say I won't order from them again.

I ordered 2 different breeds of chicks (26 total) on 3/25. I was told my Visa would be charged on the day of shipment, about a month later. On 4,14, the day they were to ship, I was informed that 1 of the breeds was going to be short 6 females (of the11 ordered). Customer service stated that they would have that particular breed available the next week. She then said if I wanted the 6 missing females shipped the next week, I would have to pay an additional 32.50 in shipping charges. I told her no way, and to just credit my Visa for the missing chicks and send the others. Approximately 30 minutes later after having time to apply a logical solution to the problem, I called Meyer Customer service to ask them to just hold my order until they could fill it correctly, even if it would take another month. You guessed it, no humans were available, had to leave a message. After waiting 2 hours, I called again. This time I pushed all the necessary buttons to get to a human. I explained the situation to Customer Service. She said that there should be no additional charges for shipping the extra chicks, since they were not able to fill my order. After checking on the order, she said holding my order until they were "all" available was not an option since my shorted order had already shipped. She then transfered me to another department, so that I could ask them to please send me the additional 6 female chick order, and recharge my Visa for the 6 females. You guessed it, had to leave another voice mail. After waiting another 2 hours, I called Meyer Customer Service again and explained the complete saga to yet another Customer Service person. She in turn placed me on hold while she consulted a manager. When she returned, she began by appoligizing for the information the manager had ask her to relay. According to her, the Manager said they would not ship the missing females without me paying additional shipping, as no chicks leave without shipping charges. If however I would place the order for the missing chicks, and pay the additional shipping, Meyer would give me free shipping on my next order. I explained to Customer Service that after having this experience, there would be no next order.
When the chicks arrived on 4/16, 2 of the shipped "shorted chicks" were dead, leaving me only 5 of the original 13 that I ordered. Upon opening the packing slip I discovered that my Visa had been charged on 3/25 for the full amount of the original order!! Still not wanting to believe the above saga incurred with ordering a few chicks, I went online and checked with Visa. You guessed it, to add insult to injury, no credit was issued for the shorted chicks, and my Visa was charged on the same day I placed the order, 3/25.
As you might assume, I am extremely disappointed with Meyer Hatchery, after I called several times, trying to resolve the problem. I can only conclude that their main concern is billing Visa's and not Customer Service. I can be contacted by email at .