Rhode Island Red Chicks — What's a Fair Price?

Prices from 4 hatcheries, updated October 24, 2026. In stock at 3 of 4 right now.

A Rhode Island Red pullet chick typically sells for around $6.49 right now; straight run (unsexed) runs around $4.99. Prices below are each hatchery's current listing per sex.

Price by hatchery

Minimum order quantities and shipping differ by hatchery and can change which is cheapest to your door. "Call hatchery" means that hatchery publishes prices but not live availability.

Reading the availability signal

Rhode Island Red is listed at 4 of the 6 hatcheries this index tracks — the others don't currently carry it under this breed name, and today it's in stock at 3 of those 4. When some hatcheries have sold out but others haven't, the remaining in-stock listings set the real price of getting chicks now — the medians above already exclude sold-out listings when in-stock ones exist, so they reflect what you can actually order today.

Before your chicks arrive

Disclosure: the Chewy links below are affiliate links — if you buy through them we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. This never affects the prices or hatchery rankings above. Details.

Day-old chicks need a heat source, chick-specific feed, and clean water ready before the shipping box arrives. Chewy — a pet-supplies retailer, not one of the hatcheries this index tracks — carries chick starter feed, brooder heat plates, and chick feeders and waterers.

Price history

A flat line here is normal, not a tracking gap: US hatcheries publish seasonal catalog prices and hold them, so genuine repricings are rare events (we measured — zero across our entire tracking window so far). The median moves only when the in-stock mix changes. What varies day to day is availability, shown above.

Common questions

Every answer below is computed from this page's own numbers at build time, and updates with the daily data refresh.

How much do Rhode Island Red chicks cost?

As of October 24, 2026, the index tracks 15 Rhode Island Red chick listings at 4 of the 6 US hatcheries it follows. Chick prices depend on sex, so each class is priced separately: pullets (sexed females) — median $6.49 across 3 listings ranging $5.99 to $19.99; straight run (unsexed) — median $4.99 across 3 listings ranging $4.49 to $15.99; cockerels (sexed males) — median $3.69 across 4 listings ranging $2.99 to $12.99. Prices are per chick and exclude shipping, and hatcheries set minimum order quantities. A further 5 tracked listings carry no published price at all, so they are counted above but left out of every price figure.

Which hatchery has the cheapest Rhode Island Red chicks?

Cackle Hatchery has the lowest price for pullets (sexed females) at $5.99 per chick, as of October 24, 2026, compared across the 2 hatcheries with that class in stock. Minimum order quantities, vaccination options and shipping differ by hatchery and can change which one is cheapest to your door.

Which hatcheries sell Rhode Island Red chicks?

4 of the 6 US hatcheries the index tracks list Rhode Island Red chicks as of October 24, 2026: Meyer Hatchery from $2.99 (cockerels), My Pet Chicken from $3.49 (cockerels), Cackle Hatchery from $3.89 (cockerels) and Murray McMurray Hatchery (listed with no published price). Each price is that hatchery's cheapest current Rhode Island Red listing, whichever sex class it falls in, so the classes named can differ from hatchery to hatchery.

Are Rhode Island Red chicks in stock right now?

10 of the 15 Rhode Island Red chick listings the index tracks were in stock as of October 24, 2026, at 3 of the 4 hatcheries carrying the breed. No tracked hatchery publishes a next hatch date for Rhode Island Red right now. Availability is the figure that moves day to day on this site; price mostly isn't.

Has the price of Rhode Island Red chicks changed?

The daily median for Rhode Island Red chicks has moved 18 times across the 103 days the index has tracked them, starting July 14, 2026 — but that is the mix changing, not a hatchery changing a price: when a sold-out listing drops out of the in-stock pool or a different sex class restocks, the median moves on its own. Genuine repricings are rare here — the index has observed 1 across 105,926 day-over-day listing comparisons.

Do pullet Rhode Island Red chicks cost more than straight run?

Yes. Rhode Island Red pullets (sexed females) run a median $6.49 against $4.99 for straight run — $1.50 more per chick, about 30%. Sexing costs money and most buyers want hens, so females carry a premium across nearly every breed. Both medians come from the same 2 hatcheries. Cockerels (sexed males) sit at a median $3.69.

Cite this page: Chick Price Index, "Rhode Island Red chick price," data through October 24, 2026. https://chickpriceindex.com/breeds/rhode_island_red

Related reading

• The Backyard Classics, Priced: Orpingtons, Rocks, Reds, and Australorps — The four beginner breeds every hatchery carries, compared hatchery-by-hatchery — and why the most-recommended chickens are also among the cheapest.
• The Pullet Premium, Measured: What Sexed Chicks Really Cost — Same breed, same hatchery, same hatch — and the female chick costs two-thirds more. We measured the pullet premium across every matched pair we track, and found the one bird where it flips.
• Do Baby Chick Prices Actually Move? We Measured. — More than 12,000 priced listing-day comparisons across six US hatcheries — and not one genuine repricing of a chick listing. What that means for when (and whether) to wait for a deal.

How this works: we collect every public Rhode Island Red listing from tracked hatcheries daily and record price and availability by sex. Full methodology.