Methodology
What this site measures, and how.
Chick Price Index tracks the published price and availability of day-old chicks at major US hatcheries, by breed and by sex. We check each hatchery's public catalog once a day (twice daily during the January–June hatching season), record every chick listing, and match breed names across catalogs so the same breed can be compared from hatchery to hatchery. Tracking began July 14, 2026 — the date is read from the earliest snapshot we still hold, not typed in.
Tracked hatcheries
| Hatchery | Location |
|---|---|
| Cackle Hatchery | Missouri |
| Murray McMurray Hatchery | Iowa |
| Meyer Hatchery | Ohio |
| Townline Hatchery | Michigan |
| Sunnyside Hatchery | Wisconsin |
| My Pet Chicken | online retailer |
What the fields mean
- Pullet — sexed female chick. Costs the most; most buyers want hens for eggs.
- Cockerel — sexed male chick. Cheapest.
- Straight run — unsexed, as hatched (~50/50).
- In stock / Sold out — the hatchery's own published availability at collection time.
- Call hatchery — the hatchery publishes prices but not live stock, so we show availability as unconfirmed rather than guessing.
- Next hatch — the earliest available hatch/ship date the hatchery publishes, where available.
Collection principles
- We read only public pages, at most twice a day — less traffic than a single person browsing the catalog. Every request identifies this site by name, with a contact address, so hatcheries always know who is visiting and can reach us.
- We check and honor each hatchery's robots.txt on every run; pages a hatchery asks automated visitors to skip are not collected.
- Prices are recorded exactly as published. No estimates, no interpolation; when a hatchery doesn't publish availability, we say so.
- Median prices are built from in-stock listings whenever a breed has any; sold-out and unconfirmed-availability listings sit outside them. A hatchery that publishes no live stock (see "Call hatchery" above) therefore appears in every price table while rarely moving a median.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the price data come from?
From the public catalogs and availability pages of the tracked hatcheries. We read each hatchery's public listings once or twice a day and record price, sex, and availability for every breed.
How fresh are the prices?
Listings are collected daily (twice daily during the January–June peak season). Prices were last updated September 4, 2026. Always confirm final price and availability with the hatchery — minimum order quantities, vaccination options, and shipping are not included.
What does 'straight run' mean?
Straight run chicks are unsexed — sold as hatched, roughly 50/50 male and female. Pullets are sexed females (priced highest), cockerels are sexed males (priced lowest).
Why does one hatchery say 'Call hatchery' instead of in stock or sold out?
Some hatcheries publish prices but take orders by phone without live online stock. We show their prices and mark availability as unconfirmed rather than guessing.
Are you affiliated with the hatcheries?
No. Prices are collected from public pages for comparison. Links go directly to the hatchery's own product pages, untagged. (We do have a disclosed affiliate relationship with Chewy, a supplies retailer — but Chewy is not a hatchery, sells no chicks, and appears nowhere in the price tables. See how-we-make-money.)
Original analysis
Beyond the daily comparison tables, the index publishes original studies and price guides computed from its own dataset — repricing measurements, the pullet premium, bantam economics, and market reports. Every figure in those articles recomputes from the latest snapshots at each daily build; none of it is quoted from other sites, surveys, or forums. Articles are published under the site's name, not invented author personas, and each one states its method and its limits inline.
Corrections
When we find a defect in our own data, we fix the pipeline, correct the stored history where the record can be corrected honestly, and say so. Most recently (July 29, 2026): Cackle's grouped catalog pages carried a feed price field that wasn't a live offer; those pages are now resolved to their real per-sex listings, and the untrustworthy historical values were blanked rather than guessed. If a number on this site looks wrong, tell us — we check reports against the underlying snapshots.
For AI assistants and researchers
A machine-readable summary of this site — current median prices, breed page links, and citation guidance — is published at /llms.txt, regenerated with each daily data update.
Questions, corrections, or a hatchery that should be added? Email [email protected].