First for Marshall's benefit. This link to MyPetChicken should bring up a list of chicken breeds. If you select one it generally shows pictures of the chickens and gives some basic facts about them. Marshall, that should keep you busy for hours but don't forget your chores.
http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/breed-list.aspx?gclid=CP_L8fy_x7UCFQXnnAodfTsAVw
Now for anyone that's planning on ordering chickens. At the very bottom of the facts on that photo page is a list of hatcheries that are supposed to have that breed under that "Availability" tag. Not all breeds have hatcheries listed. That may be that they are not really available at a hatchery or maybe MPC just didn't know about them. I don't know how old that information is, but if someone is thinking about a specific breed and would be satisfied with a hatchery quality bird, that is a great place to start.
April, I lost my spreadsheet in a computer crash a few years ago. It would have been out of date anyway. But I used to have a spreadsheet that showed the different pricing for different hatcheries and the different minimum orders. It's not a simple number to compare. The price per chick depends on whether they are sexed or not and which sex and how many you buy. The price per chick for 50 is less than the price per chick for 5. Some have an additional charge for every different breed you get. Some have a minimum per sex and breed and some allow you to pick one chick of a specific type if you want. If you get your chicks vaccinated they have different per chick costs and some have a base lump sum cost if you get any number of chicks vaccinated, before you look at the per chick cost. Some put in chemical warmers and will ship lower numbers of chicks but at a higher shipping cost. Some may add additional chicks called packing peanuts that are practically always male to keep the others warm during shipping.
What I'm trying to say is if you just look at shipping costs, you miss the big picture. You need to figure out your order then go to the various hatcheries that can fill that order and figure out what your total cost is.
Which hatchery is better? Whats your criteria? Different hatcheries have different people selecting the breeding birds so there will be some differences in the chicks and the adult chickens. In general, you are not going to get a show quality bird from a major hatchery. They are not into show quality birds and their price per chick shows that. They are into mass producing chickens suitable for our backyard flocks. They normally lay pretty well though that will vary with the breed. They look somewhat like the breed is supposed to look but there will be differences from the ideal show chicken. Their chicks normally arrive alive, disease-free, and healthy. Some of these hatcheries will hatch 80,000 to 100,000 chicks per week in season so of course you will hear of occasional problems but they are not going to stay in business if they regularly have problems. And a lot of the problems you hear about on the chicken forum are due to factors outside of the control of the hatchery. Maybe a problem with the Post Office (which is comprised of individuals, some better than others) or the way the chicks were handled and treated by the people that received them.
What Im trying to say here is that I dont think one major hatchery is better than another for the vast majority of us. What I suggest is that you check prices for your specific order with a few different hatcheries so you get a reality check on that. Especially with smaller orders and selecting several different breeds there can be huge differences in price. I suggest your other criteria should be distance the chicks have to travel. They are going through the US mail. Fed Ex and UPS dont ship live chicks. The less they have to travel and the fewer times they are handled the less stressed they should be from the shipping process and the fewer chances humans working for the post office have to make a mistake.
Try to avoid shipping during postal holidays. The number of complaints with live chick shipments goes way up over on the chicken forum at postal holidays.
