What is a Chicken Micro-Hatchery??

Not unlike Micro-Breweries, a Micro-Hatchery is a much smaller version of a chicken hatchery.

The chicken hatcheries use to be your only choice for chicks for many years. Some common drawbacks to the large hatcheries is you have to order a minimum of 2 dozen chicks and the large hatcheries focus more on quantity and not so much quality. Your local feed stores are another common source, but they usually order their chicks through one of the big hatcheries too.

For the more focused chicken enthusiast, a local breeder or purchasing at poultry shows was where you could get a better quality chicken of a particular breed.

At Ole Yankee Farm, we have raised all different animals for the past 20 years. Horses, goats, alpacas and yes, chickens. In fact, chickens have always been present on our farm. Our first chickens were hatched from eggs using a borrowed Styrofoam incubator. From there, the obsession grew. We discovered the hundreds of amazing different breeds of chickens and we loved seeing them pecking around the yard. We also loved the fresh eggs too!

From hobbyists to breeders, we focused on a few specific breeds and continued hatching more and more chicks. We started selling our chicks on Craigslist and to our friends. Another local farm that we did chicken business with suggested we organize and offer our birds nationwide. We did just that.

From breeders to a “Micro-Hatchery”. We named our new chicken business “The Hatching House” and launched our website on January 1^st, 2015. We obtained our NPIP certification along with our state licenses and we were up and running. We also encouraged surrounding farms in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts to acquire their NPIP and state certifications. We then purchase the eggs from these farms in order to offer more breeds on our website. We also offer alternative outlets for the many male chicks that are hatched. The large hatcheries unfortunately will grind up their male chicks. We see this as a waste of life. One way is we offer our “Fry Pan Specials” which are at discounted prices on male chicks for the “Homesteader” to raise for meat.

When establishing our base flock, we are very selective on picking hens and roosters that will truly represent the breed to the Standards of Perfection. We then, through selective breeding, will continue to improve our breeds. This is where we focus on the quality of a bird as opposed to just quantity. As a Micro-Hatchery, we do not just pump out chicks. Our eggs are set based on the orders we receive through our website. Once we have reached our capacity for a particular month, we will then close that month out so we can focus on filling our orders and communicating with our customers.

We are constantly looking for more interesting and exotic birds to offer up to our customers. Along with our amazing selection of English Orpingtons, we have the all-black Ayam Cemani, the rare Russian Pavlovaskya and the Swedish Orusts, just to name a few. We will also continue to show our birds specifically looking for feedback from the judges in order to fine tune our breeds.

Our Micro-Hatchery is constantly evolving and growing, but we will always keep our focus on our quality of birds and our customer service.

Thank you,

The Hatching House