40 Reasons to Love
Meyer Hatchery
Since 1985, Meyer Hatchery has been dedicated to delivering excellence in poultry care, customer service, and innovation. As we celebrate 40 years in the industry, don’t miss 40 unique reasons why flock keepers trust us for high-quality birds, expert advice, and a passionate, community-driven approach to backyard poultry keeping.
About Us: The Story of Meyer Hatchery
Founded in 1985 by Karen Meyer, Meyer Hatchery began as a small hobby with a backyard flock on her family’s dairy farm in Polk, Ohio. What started as a passion for poultry quickly grew into a trusted name in the industry, now offering over 160 breeds of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas, and game birds. Today, Meyer Hatchery serves customers across North America, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, shipping high-quality birds and providing expert support to backyard flock keepers and farmers alike.
In addition to our extensive poultry selection, we offer a full line of feed and supplies to ensure your flock’s success. Whether you choose to ship or pick up your order, our goal is to make poultry-keeping easy and accessible. Visit our retail store in Polk, Ohio, where you’ll find everything from poultry feed and supplies to gifts, home décor, and books. We even offer a convenient drive-through for feed pickup!
At Meyer Hatchery, customer service is personal. Our real person agents are available via chat, email, text, or phone to answer your questions and help you build your dream flock. For 40 years, we’ve been dedicated to quality, care, and the passionate pursuit of poultry-keeping.
40 Reasons to Love Meyer Hatchery
Customer Service & Support
- Shipping Made Easy – Enjoy simple flat-rate shipping, ensuring your birds arrive safely and on time.
- 48-Hour Policy – We cover your order through transit and 48 hours after your chicks arrive, giving you peace of mind.
- Customer Service Access – Reach us by phone, text, email, or chat, with extended spring hours for your convenience.
- Online Chicken Chat – Get expert advice even during nights and weekends with our messaging service.
- Help Desk – Our help desk offers quick, informative answers to all your poultry questions.
- Shop with Confidence – Photos provided on our site come from our own flocks, ensuring what you see is what you get.
- Drive-Thru Pick-Up – Convenient local pickup with low order minimums, plus a drive-thru for easy feed and order collection.
Quality & Care
- Hand-Packed Orders – Each order is hand-packed with care by our team to ensure your chicks arrive safely.
- Year-Round Hatching – We hatch and ship breeds every week of the year, offering unmatched availability.
- Gender Accuracy Policy – We proudly uphold a 100% gender accuracy policy with our chick sexing process.
- Leg Banding Service – Identify your birds easily with leg banding for hard-to-distinguish breeds.
- Hatching Eggs – We offer the same high-quality eggs we hatch for your at-home hatching experience.
- Free GroGel – Enjoy added care with GroGel included in select chick order to help chicks stay hydrated during transit.
- Stamped Hatching Eggs – Our hatching eggs come stamped so you can easily identify each breed.
Poultry Selection & Expertise
- 160+ Poultry Breeds – Choose from an extensive variety of over 160 different breeds of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and more.
- Rare & Heritage Breeds – We’re committed to offering hard-to-find breeds to enrich your flock’s diversity.
- Started Pullets – Skip the brooder! We offer started pullets to make it easy for you to build your flock.
- Meyer Hatchery Feed – Our custom feed blends are formulated with your flock’s nutritional needs in mind.
- Poultry Supplies – From brooding to processing, we offer a full range of supplies to meet your needs.
- Poultry Assortments – Enjoy surprise assortments or build your ideal flock with curated collections.
Innovation & Education
- Meyer Meal Maker Program – Give back to your community with our Meal Maker Program, offering free chicks to donate to those in need.
- Chick ID Page – Easily identify your chicks using our detailed Chick ID guide.
- Homestead Helper – Our Homestead Helper program offers a free chick for sustainable flock management.
- Partnership with ChickQuest – We provide Ohio teachers with education and resources to hatch eggs in classrooms.
- Community Education – We proudly participate in FFA, 4-H, and classroom programs to share knowledge about poultry keeping.
- Interactive Social Media – Follow along for great tips, live streams, and engaging content on our social media channels.
- Meyer Hatchery Blog – All our blogs are written by poultry-keeping employees, sharing firsthand expertise.
Community & Giving Back
- Ohio Nationals Sponsor – We proudly sponsor the Ohio Nationals, supporting the poultry community and show circuits.
- Egg Donations – We donate thousands of eggs annually to local food banks, helping families in need.
- Family-Owned Business – Proudly family-owned and operated, Meyer Hatchery has been serving poultry keepers for 40 years.
- Woman-Owned & Led – Meyer Hatchery is a woman-owned business with a passion for poultry and community.
- Local Retail Store – Visit our retail store for everything from poultry supplies to home décor.
- Community Education & Support – We proudly support local classrooms, FFA, and 4-H programs to foster a love for poultry keeping.
Legacy & Trust
- 40 Years of Excellence – Since 1985, we’ve been trusted by generations of poultry keepers for our dedication to quality and service.
- Trusted Poultry Source – Take pride in the quality of birds you get from Meyer Hatchery, known for healthy and vibrant flocks.
- NPIP Certified – We maintain NPIP certification to ensure our birds are healthy and meet strict biosecurity standards.
- Built-In Discounts – Large flock owners benefit from built-in discounts when ordering high volumes of birds.
- Hatchery-to-Farm – Our birds are raised with care and arrive at your farm ready to thrive.
- Partnerships for Preservation – We are a lifetime member of the Livestock Conservancy to preserve rare poultry breeds.
- Egg Donations – You’ll love that Meyer Hatchery donates an average of 11,790 eggs annually to local food banks.
Meyer Hatchery
Over the Years
1985
Meyer Hatchery is Born
Karen Meyer purchases her first breeder flock and incubators, launching Meyer Hatchery as a small hobby business on the family farm. The layer flocks consisted of 4 different breeds totaling around 1000 hens on the farm.
1993
The Family Relocates to the Dairy Farm
The Meyer family moves to Karen’s childhood farm, making it easier for Dewey to work the dairy, while Karen continues to manage the hatchery.
1995
Waterfowl Added to Meyer Hatchery
Due to customer demand, Meyer Hatchery begins offering waterfowl for the first time, expanding its poultry offerings.
1999
Meyer Hatchery Moves to Its Current Location
The business outgrows its original farm and moves to its present site, with commercial incubators and expanded operations.
Early 2000s
New Breeds and New Employees
Meyer Hatchery hires more non-family employees and expands to meet growing customer demand, diversifying its breed selection.
2005
Starts Offering Bantam Breeds
Meyer Hatchery adds Bantam Breeds to the breeds they offer.
2008
120+ Breeds
Meyer Hatchery offically has over 120 Breeds to offer to customers.
2011
Construction of On-Site Layer Barns Begin
Meyer Hatchery builds its first on-site layer barn to better control flock health and hatching egg quality, ensuring consistency. Today there are 5 layer barns on-site and we work with several other contract barns that raise birds for us too.
2014
Launch of Chat Feature
In 2014, Meyer Hatchery launched live chat on our website, offering real-time support for quick answers to customer questions and enhancing the overall experience.
2016
Addition of Remote Team
In 2016, Meyer Hatchery welcomed its first remote employee, Meghan Howard, who established and still leads the remote department, enhancing customer support and operations.
2019
100% Sexing Guarantee and Leg Banding
In 2019, Meyer Hatchery introduced the 100% Sexing Guarantee, ensuring customers receive the correct gender for their chick orders or a full refund for any mistakes. Additionally, we began leg banding select rare and Hard-To-ID breed chicks, making it easier for customers to identify their breeds upon arrival.
2020
Customer Service Goes Remote, New Box Design Launched
In March 2020, Meyer Hatchery transitioned customer service to a fully remote team. That spring, we also unveiled a fresh, updated box design.
2021 and Beyond
Meyer Hatchery’s Commitment to Excellence
In 2021 Meyer Hatchery launched a new user friendly website. Over the decades, Meyer Hatchery has remained a woman-owned and run, family-operated business, continuously growing its breed offerings and investing in its people and processes to serve poultry enthusiasts worldwide.
Our customers
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A Thank you to our customers
As we celebrate 40 years of Meyer Hatchery, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you. From our humble beginnings in 1985 to becoming the trusted hatchery we are today, none of this would be possible without your support, loyalty, and belief in what we do.
We look forward to serving you for many years to come, with the same dedication to quality, innovation, and community that has defined Meyer Hatchery from the start. Here’s to the next 40 years and beyond – thank you for being part of our journey!
Sincerly,
The Meyer Hatchery Team