My Pet Chicken

Agree with the other comments here. I spent a ton of money to get showbirds, of which ½ of them died within a few days of receiving. I have a 100% hatch and survival rate on chicks that I incubate from my own chickens, so this wasn’t an error on my part. They make it very clear that they do not care at ALL about their customers, and wouldn’t offer anything for my loss. I will never EVER again purchase from this company again. Save yourself time, money, and frustration — and go with a better hatchery!

So, the end result after receiving 13 eggs (and nearly costing us $ 70) is one chick.
One.
The phone call went something like this, «Yes, it’s sad. However, we can’t guarantee eggs. We’ve all [meaning the people who work at My Pet Chicken] spent thousands of dollars trying and hoping for successful hatching eggs. I hope you have a good day.»
We know how to hatch chicks from eggs. My wife has done the hatching project in her 1^st grade classroom for several years. Every once in a while one or two eggs out of 15 or so won’t hatch. This was a huge disappointment.
So — if you’re considering purchasing eggs to be shipped, just know that My Pet Chicken packages them well. And that’s the end of their responsibility. You could spend a bunch of $$ and end up with ZERO chicks. I suppose we were lucky to get one. They do not, and will not reimburse you for any non-​hatched chicks.
There’s nothing like building a child’s expectation by showing them pictures of what the beautiful full-​grown chickens will one day look like, talking about their different and interesting personalities, discussing the care of chickens… and then ending up only hatching one.

In October of 2011, I purchased 11 chickens from this company. I was excited about their business because they ship chicks in small quantities, unlike the larger, more well-​known hatcheries.
To make a long story as short as possible, the several-​day old chicks arrived when expected. One of the Buf Orpingtons had pasty butt, which if I hadn’t caught and removed the plug from her vent several times, would have died within a couple of days. This put me on alert for the health of the others.
One of the Australorps seemed to have trouble with her eyes and a couple months later, I realized she was blind. It was so sad as she was so beautiful and sweet. She had trouble finding her sisters when they’d go exploring.
Two of the hens were supposed to be the Dominique breed, but only one of them was a Dominique. The other turned out to be a Barred Plymouth Rock that keeled over dead one day last summer.
Two of the hens were the beautiful Light Brahmas, one of which suffered from a chronic respiratory illness. She just died the other day.
I’ve had chickens before and chickens after this group from My Pet Chicken, and all the others were purchased from the very reputable Murray McMurray Hatchery and all of which have been in super good health since 2009. Only the My Pet Chicken birds have been sick or afflicted with genetic ailments. This is clear because I have the healthy ones from McMurray to compare them to.
When I called My Pet Chicken to tell them of the blind Australorp, they said it was not their responsibility or their problem after a couple of months and I should take her to a vet.
Recently I wrote them to tell them of the bad experiences I’ve had with the others they sold me and they didn’t not reply to two of my emails. I wasn’t asking for my money back or anything like that, I just wanted them to make sure they chose more scrupulous breeders in the future. It’s heartbreaking to raise these little cuties from day-​old chicks only to have them suffer from genetic deficiencies that could have been bred out.
If you want to purchase a small quantity of chicks, go to McMurray Hatchery. They’ll sell 15 chicks now (used to be a minimum of 25) and they’re the best hatchery in the country. Don’t go to My Pet Chicken. They just don’t seem to care about their customers or the chickens that they sell. I don’t know how they stay in business.