01/16/2025
Always buy local!
The ugly truth about hatcheries...
Now that were getting into chick season, I thought I'd reiterate, I will NEVER support buying chicks from a hatchery.
Want to know what really goes on behind the scenes in the large hatcheries? Buckle up, because its not short, and it's quite graphic.
I worked for the largest hatchery in the Pacific Northwest for all of 24 hours before I quit.
Treating a live animal with respect should never be questionable.
Heres what really happens...
About 7 years ago, I was hired to s*x chicks for a huge hatchery that supplies alot of the feed stores in the PNW. I was shown how to wing s*x the day old chicks, which is technically only accurate for certain breeds.
"Females" were placed into boxes to be shipped to the feed stores, but the "cockerels"... well they were packed ALIVE into 50 gallon trash bins. So the bottom half just suffocated under the weight of the top ones.
To make matters worse, half the wing s*xers were teenagers in high school. They treated the chicks as if they were a crumpled up piece of paper and "slam dunked" them into the trash bins. Cheering when they made the shot, and booing when they had to go pick up the chick off the cement floor after slamming it down and half the time killing it.
Mind you, the teenagers were likely not even s*xing them correctly.
Once these 50 gallon trash bins were filled to the brim with live chicks, they were emptied into an incinerator to be burned. I understand the roosters get culled since no one really wants roosters. But I wholeheartedly believe any animal should be treated with respect up until the point of cull.
Its not like management didn't know what was happening, they were in the same big warehouse room as all of us, and they watched as all this happened, acting like this was just another normal day.
In the building next to that one was the "hatching room". Stacks upon stacks of racks of eggs mid hatch. Anything that was only half hatched or not fully ready to be moved to the s*xing room, was just left on the plastic rack, while other racks continued to stack on top of them, crushing the unhatched or half way hatched chicks.
It was the most disgusting, traumatic, and sickening experience of my life. I was told I could take as many chicks home as I wanted...so I kept a box next to my station and carefully placed all my "discard" chicks in the box and took them to a friends farm to be able to live.
I came home and was so traumatized, I called my mother and told her about it, and she just cried on the phone.
I was shocked and so horrified to learn this was a regular practice in the hatchery business, at least for this company, so I vowed I would NEVER support another hatchery ever!
Dont you wonder why hatchery chicks have to be vaccinated? Its because they are kept in unsanitary and inhumane housing, crowded together with other sick birds that they just keep breeding.
This is why local breeders dont have to vaccinate their chicks, because they are more often raised properly, and bred to be disease resistant, healthy stock.
Good local breeders also breed to perfect what they have, and improve their lines. Hatcheries breed for mass distribution with no regaurd to standard or health of the chicks.
After seeing first hand how the hatcheries operated, when I decided to start my own chicken business, I got all my stock from breeders across the US.
I did my research on where their lines came from, got photos of their parent stock, and asked alot of questions.
Being an ethical and responsible breeder means you will have to cull your own chicks at some point. Should I ever hatch something that is deformed, or not of quality to be bred, I respectfully and quickly cull them myself.
If they are deformed but able to live (ie crossbeak or crooked toes) I allow them to live and thrive, so long as they stay healthy and happy. Those ones are then given to pet homes or special needs homes and taken out of my circulation of my breeding program. I dont have the heart to cull a bird that is thriving and living a happy life because it's imperfect. I definitely won't breed it, but if it's a hen, she can still lay eggs for a family to eat just fine.
I do also cull and butcher roosters as well. Anything thats not of breeding/selling quality, I raise up until they are big enough then butcher them humanely, and offer the meat for free to local families, and coworkers.
But prior to butchering, the roosters live in a bachelor pad and are well spoiled up until the time of butcher. They are taken care of just the same as all my breeding pens, and treated with the same respect.
I work at a farm store where we sell chicks from these large hatcheries. The person who ran the Animal Health section, moved to another department. My manager asked me if I would be interested in taking over, since I have so much knowledge in livestock care. I politely declined and told her, "I couldnt ever support our customers buying hatchery chicks", so I would never be able to step into that position. Even if that means declining a promotion at work...I just couldnt do it.
If you've read all of this, I appreciate you taking the time to hear my experience and my feelings, and I hope this helps guide your decision when purchasing chicks this season.
Always support your local breeders first! You'll be much happier with the stock you get from someone who loves their birds!
XOXO❤️ Red Dog Ranch ❤️XOXO
