Urban Farm Store

We recently visited the Urban Farm Store at their new location to pick out and purchase chicks. We’ve been keeping chickens for over 10 years and add new chicks to our urban flock as needed. We’ve bought chicks from the Urban Farm Store before, but NEVER AGAIN. The customer service was non-​existent and the condition of the birds was appalling. The chick area stunk, almost all of the chicks were suffering from pasty butts, but the worst was the older chicks (pullets, 6 – 12 weeks old). I noticed that several pullets in one particular cage had red on their beaks. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was blood. They were pecking each other bloody! When I mentioned this to the employee that I had to flag down he responded with «they act that way sometimes. I’ll throw them some treats later». We made the decision to save 4 chicks to bring home and nurse back to health. This same employee nearly squashed a chick to death with the waterer as he was aggressively trying to grab chicks. My ten year old brought this injured chick to his attention to which he barked «I’ll deal with that later!». She was in tears by the time we left. I felt like crying too. We quickly left and went to Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply to purchase our remaining supplies. At Naomi’s we were treated with kindness and respect, just as they treat their birds. If you are an urban farmer that cares about the way poultry is treated, you do not want to support the Urban Farm Store.