Visited a big hatchery last month and their birds looked rough

I stopped by Hoover's Hatchery in Iowa and most of the pullets had dirty vents and some were coughing. Everyone talks about ordering chicks online like it's fine but after seeing how crowded they keep them I'm sticking to my local breeder who raises them in smaller batches. Anyone else had bad luck with hatchery birds?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige_martin9d ago

Wait, weren't they just dirty from shipping stress or is that a different thing?

julia_burns99d ago

Oh @paige_martin, I totally thought the same thing at first! But no, this is different. Shipping stress usually shows up as dust or that white powdery film on leaves, which wipes right off. The stuff in the photos is brown and crusty looking, almost like little scabs stuck to the stems and undersides of leaves. I've seen it on a few alocasias I grabbed from a big box store last spring. It's not something you can just rinse away, it actually needs treatment with neem oil or something similar.