At Livingseeds Hatchery, we want you to have an eggcellent experience with us. We strive to provide the best possible service to you, ensuring that every part of your chicken or egg purchase goes smoothly.
Your concerns and questions are important to us; we want you to feel confident in your choices and in your ability to raise healthy chooks, so please feel free to reach out to our hatchery team if you require any assistance.
Sexing of Birds
Sexing of birds at 18 weeks or older is guaranteed. However, mistakes can occur. If you accidentally end up with a rooster, we will gladly replace it with a hen. However, for biosecurity reasons, we cannot accept returns of any birds onto our property.
Please note that the exchange of birds is limited to the breed in question and only applies to birds that are sold sexed at 18 weeks.
Sexing of birds younger than 18 weeks specifically is not guaranteed, as this type of sexing is based on the overall assessment of the bird’s appearance and the likelihood of it being a pullet rather than a cockerel.
Exceptions to this are only on breeds that are sex-linked or auto-sexing: Examples are the Livingseeds Cinnamints and the Double Gold Laced Barnevelders (which we can guarantee to be female from day old), or White Leghorns (which can be guaranteed to be pullets from 10 weeks old).
Fertile Eggs
Livingseeds Hatchery only supplies fertile eggs of selected breeds in limited quantities. Please check in with us throughout the season to establish the fertile egg availability by breed.
The availability changes weekly for multiple reasons.
Fertile egg orders are accepted throughout the week, subject to availability; however, shipping will only take place on a Monday unless otherwise requested. Payment needs to be received by 10 am on the Monday to ensure shipping on the same day.
Late payments will affect the timeous deliverability of your egg order.
Livingseeds cannot be held responsible for delays in courier services when shipping eggs. We will do everything in our power to ensure that you receive your eggs on time. However, sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Courier services are, unfortunately, not something that we can control.
It is the buyer’s responsibility to keep in touch with the courier office closest to your address to help facilitate a smooth and timely delivery. We will select the best option available to get you the best price and the fastest delivery of your eggs. If you require a specific courier service, please advise us of this, and we will quote you for that service. You are also welcome to arrange your own courier service.
When shipping fertile eggs, we guarantee that the eggs are fertile but cannot guarantee a specific hatch rate. Unfortunately, when shipping eggs, it is normal to experience a drop in hatch rates; this is unavoidable. Livingseeds Hatchery strongly suggests that you allow couriered eggs to rest for 24 hours at room temperature prior to incubating them.
No refunds are available on shipped eggs. If you do experience a negative hatch rate, please contact us, and we will help troubleshoot/advise as best we can.
We do not ship eggs unless we are happy with the fertility and hatch rates we are experiencing in our facility. Eggs are no older than 5 days at the time of shipping.
If you would like to collect, you are welcome to come through. The best days for this are Monday and Tuesday morning, when we have the largest availability.
Bird Sales
Livingseeds Farm is open for collections Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 2 pm. While we advise that you enquire about specific breeds ahead of time, you are more than welcome to come through and see what is available.
With the prevalence of online scammers, the ability to visit Livingseeds Hatchery sets your mind at ease. Most importantly, you can see for yourself the conditions that the birds are raised and kept in, and you can be assured of the quality of the birds before you buy.
We will gladly assist with selecting your birds to help you reach your specific goals; every chook owner has unique goals in their chicken-keeping journey. The more information you can give us regarding your requirements, the better we can advise you.
We take the welfare of our birds seriously. This can be seen in the steps taken to care for our birds on Livingseeds Farm. Our birds are happy and healthy.
Every bird sold on Livingseeds Farm is subject to a health inspection with the new owners before being handed over. Upon collection, you, as the owner, must be happy and comfortable with your purchase.
Once the birds leave our farm, we cannot guarantee their health and wellbeing, as we have no control over the conditions in which they are transported or housed.
Durban and Cape Town “Chicken Runs”
We no longer make use of any pet couriers. Our primary concern with pet couriers is that birds are “hot swapped”, and the transport cages are not cleaned and sanitised between birds. This can lead to the previous bird transmitting a disease or pest to our clean birds. If you receive a sick or infested bird, this is seen as a direct reflection on Livingseeds Farm, and we simply cannot take the risk. We also want your birds to arrive in the same healthy state they were in when they left us.
Livingseeds Hatchery now ships birds to Durban and Cape Town ourselves; this service is exclusively for birds bred on Livingseeds Farm.
Such delivery runs are scheduled based on the availability of birds and subsequent interest when the trips are advertised (On Facebook).
You will be notified of your collection point and estimated time of arrival before the shipment. A no-show at the collection point will forfeit the delivery and any monies paid. These deliveries are timed, and you will be notified of any changes to time or location via the dedicated Chicken Run WhatsApp Group.
We strongly recommend blocking out extra time on either side of the given time, as you will essentially be on call to collect chicks if the trip is running early or late.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A ”Chicken Run WhatsApp Group” will be created the day before the run. It is imperative that you join the group and acknowledge yourself on the group.
Logistically, this could become a nightmare without careful planning. This necessitates checking off each bird loaded against the WA group. This process happens at 3 am for most runs, and we are simply unable to phone people during the process to confirm.
If you are not on the WA group, we would need to leave your birds behind. The monies for the bird(s) would be refunded, but not the transport fee.
Invoicing
In the instance where birds are being shipped by Livingseeds Hatchery or for collections on behalf of the customer, our invoices are valid for 48 hours after creation. If we have not heard from the customer or received payment by that time or by the date specified, the invoice will no longer be valid, and we cannot guarantee that the birds can be held for you. The demand for our birds is high, with customers arriving to look for birds daily.
Refunds or Returns
Our livestock leaves the farm in good health. Once the birds leave our farm, we cannot guarantee their health and wellbeing, as we have no control over the conditions in which they are transported or housed.
That said, we are always happy to help and would love for you to have great success with happy, healthy birds. So, if you are experiencing any challenges, we would love to hear from you to see if we can assist.
For biosecurity reasons, we cannot accept returns of any birds onto our property.