We are a family-run dynamic poultry operation focused on a closed line of standard-bred Black Copper Marans throwing deep pigmentation and heavy blooms, and a good number of experimental heritage crosses. We offer these genetics to you as hatching eggs and live birds under the following terms and conditions. If the following terms and conditions cause you pause, do not purchase from Crosshatch Farm. Please reach out to brooke@crosshatchfarm.com with any questions.
1. Point of Sale
All sales are processed through this site via Paypal. You will receive an automatic receipt to your Paypal email. Please ensure you have access to your Paypal email.
Other than an occasional overhatch or add-ons to your order on ship day (through Paypal or Venmo), we do not generate sales through Facebook Messenger or use platforms like Zelle or Cashapp for rapid payments. Buyers should use caution— scammers regularly use stolen photos from sites like ours to build fraudulent farm pages that appear to have significant followers. These scammers generate sales through Messenger and block you after you send money. Legitimate Crosshatch Farm sales process through this website only.
2. Order Minimums & Shipping
Our DAY OLD CHICKS 2026 order minimum is 8 chicks. They are shipped Priority Express for a flat fee. Larger orders or orders with various breeds may come in two shipments at Crosshatch Farm’s discretion.
Our HATCHING EGGS 2026 orders can be built into one box with foam shipper as either one dozen (12 +2) or two dozen (24 +2).
IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE BOTH CHICKS AND HATCHING EGGS, PLEASE CHECK OUT IN TWO SEPARATE TRANSACTIONS WITH TWO SEPARATE SHIPPING FEES. Chicks and eggs cannot be shipped together, and will be shipped at different times through different shipping methods.
PULLETS and COCKERELS can be shipped for $125, maximum one bird per box.
Note: Some are experimenting using UPS for shipping eggs. As part of the NPIP we ship through USPS, who temperature controls their environments.
3. Presale Model
Checking out on this site during 2026 presales reserves an egg collection window and/or hatch date for your order in 2026, between May and late October. When you check out and receive a receipt to your Paypal email showing your completed sale you are “on the list.”
Generally speaking, we build our ship list in the order of received sales. As we build our shiplist we take into account weather and climate at the destination, as well as other patterns we can see in our data such as natural variations in laying cycles and USPS holidays that can disrupt shipping timelines.
As much as we want to please everyone, we have to run on a weekly model based on procedure and minimalism. We are doing our best to manage the logistics of seasonal livestock with weather dependencies, without administrative staff that would raise costs. We cannot guarantee you a ship week. We cannot time your order to coincide with other orders you may be receiving through the year. We can delay your order if you are not prepared to receive it when notified. And we always get confirmation before we ship to you.
Note: 2026 is an audit year for Crosshatch Farm. We are limiting our quantities and limiting our breeds. Orders placed in 2026 presales will start shipping in mid May, after we hatch for pullets, cockerels, and fill overwintered orders.
4. No Refunds. Store Credit, Gift Certificates & Delaying a Shipment
Crosshatch Farm is a small farm business with a seasonal window for limited sales outpaced by fixed, year-around costs. The presale model allows us to distribute funds in support of the next year of farm operations. Once you purchase live birds or hatching eggs, your sale is final. There are no refunds. You can always delay your order to the next season. If you need to cancel your order, we can issue you a store credit or generate a digital gift certificate you can give to a friend.
If national laws and regulations limit the transport or shipping of live birds (due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza or other regulatory reason) we will pause shipping and hold all orders until the coast is clear to return to business.
5. Straight Run Policy/No Rooster Refunds or Replacements
Crosshatch Farm offers primarily straight run chicks, as our breeds cannot be sexed at hatch. As each egg and each chick has a 50% chance of being a rooster, please plan accordingly for how you will handle and provide for male birds you may not be able or wish to keep. Though statistically rare, we did hear of one customer receiving all males in small (6) chick purchase. As breeders of breeds that cannot be sexed at hatch, we are unable to determine sex at birth and we are absolutely unable to exchange males for females under any circumstances. There is some ‘luck of the draw’ involved in establishing your flock— please commit to the process and its risks before purchasing chicks or eggs. It takes time to grow a flock, genetics are an investment, there will be many trials and tribulations along the way!
If you require females only, we recommend you choose our Pullets or find a local breeder who will grow birds out for you (or shop your local shows).
Crosshatch Farm is absolutely unable to take eggs or birds back for any reason once they leave the property, due to the biosecurity guidelines of the National Poultry Improvement Plan. Many of our customers have good luck rehoming our young cockerels in social media groups dedicated to heritage breeds and colorful egg breeding, as folks are always looking for a male ‘that hatched from a dark egg’. Alternately, many find success with homesteaders who respond to Craigslist area ads for free dual purpose roosters to process as food, while some supply local wildlife rehabilitators.
6. Local Pick-up
Local pickups for either chicks or hatching eggs can be chosen as a $0 shipping option at checkout, and are arranged by email after purchase (waitlist status still applies, but sometimes we can work in local pickups early if temps are too cold to ship). We are located in Xenia Township, south of the Village of Yellow Springs and near Cedarville and Wilberforce. Major highway intersections include Rt 35 and Rt 71, or Rt 675 and 35; we are approximately 35 mins from the major interstate crossroads of Rt 70 and Rt 75. Area attractions include private, state, and federal nature preserves, documented Native American Mounds, and small towns with coffee shops and boutiques. There are many small farms and producers of local food products, herbs, tinctures, ferments, etc. in the Ohio Valley. Please be in touch if you’re looking to plan a trip.
Note that our biosecurity practices and participation in the National Poultry Improvement Plan means that we are unable to receive guests at the coops or to do walk-throughs at the time of pick-up, though we can gather the whole family on our front patio for conversation and consideration of a number of birds/eggs.
7. Shipping— Hatching Eggs
All hatching eggs are sent USPS in a custom foam shipper and padded with packing material. We stock two options, one dozen and two dozen. You will choose the appropriate shipping method for your order from a drop-down menu.
With our commitment to fertility rates and the special care that goes into shipping, we feel sure that you will receive quality eggs. However, hatching eggs are purchased buyer-beware with absolutely no “hatch guarantee” implied. Like all other hatcheries, homesteads, and heritage breeders, we put our best into the box but simply can’t control what happens during shipping or incubation.
As such, there are no refunds nor replacements on hatching eggs, irregardless of their status upon arrival or the hatch rate you achieve. If your box arrives obviously damaged by the post office with broken eggs inside, document this with postal workers at the time of pickup in order to file a claim. In my experience, USPS claims are rarely successful.
We are unable to replace or refund damaged eggs beyond any postal refund, as per the buyer-beware policy above. Our experience as both buyers and sellers of quality poultry suggests chicks are hands down the best way to go.
8. Shipping— Live Chicks, Ducklings, Quail
Chicks and ducklings are shipped immediately after hatch in live bird mailers with a coco liner pad, heat packs, and Grogel, an electrolyte and protein concoction that helps keep them stay hydrated during their journey (or to give them a place to exercise their emerging pecking instincts). Chicks have a natural window of 72-hours after hatch where they do not require food or water to stay alive, as they have absorbed the yolk sac and will wait by the mother hen and she sits the remaining eggs to complete a multiple day hatch cycle. Accordingly, the USPS adds a 3-day estimate to the tracking number when shipping live birds. Despite the long 3-day estimates (which limit their insurance liability), they often arrive overnight, unless your location requires two distribution centers. (Quail can be shipped in groups, sold as a sexed tiny covey of one male with females once fully feathered.)
In 2026, Crosshatch Farm will ship chicks via Priority Express plus Live Animal Fee only. Please note: Priority Express will usually generate a one day or two day table between my zip code and yours. Once accepted at the Post Office, the guaranteed service window you see on your tracking will automatically extend to 3 days, increasing your estimated delivery date.
We rarely ship lives through our local distribution center at Dayton Ohio, because they no longer contract overnight flights out of Dayton and the probability of sitting on the shelf for a day or two before being trucked to Cincinnati is too high. We usually drive the birds a half hour to a post office that ports through Cincinnati Ohio, where they often catch a plane that night. We sometimes drive the birds to a different PO that ports through Columbus, especially when we’ve had issues with slow shipments through Cinci.
To sustain our mental health during the ship season, we no longer refresh tracking numbers on the boxes we send each week. If you have a tracking number that has not been scanned or has not moved locations for 12 hours PLEASE go directly to your local post office and ask to speak with the Post Master. The post master at the destination can see additional tracking information, the intended path of the package, and can and will call the managers at the distribution centers to track down your box. Your local post master is your best friend if you are receiving live animals!
9. Live Arrival & Store Credits/Please DON’T MIX THE CHICKS Policy
We have a live arrival guarantee for the first 24 hours. You must receive the package from the Post Office within 2 hours of notice of arrival and place them under heat with hydration immediately. Should your birds not arrive happy, healthy, and vital please send photo documentation of both living and perished/compromised chicks and we will issue you a coupon or gift certificate for an adjustment per bird. Deceased chicks must be reported immediately (same day) and all deceased chicks must be in one photo. This is mandatory and non-negotiable.
Very, very rarely, an entire box of chicks can suffer a misfortune during travel. If your box is damaged, delayed beyond 72 hours, or suspected to include fatalities, please open the box in the presence of post office staff or your local postmaster and ask for their documentation in addition to your photos taken on site. Successful post office insurance claims are increasingly rare these days, and major losses must be documented at your local post office. Crosshatch Farm will issue a gift certificate or coupon for the birds, not shipping.
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT mix our chicks with other chicks on your premises. We cannot and will not refund or replace chicks that perish after being merged with other chicks you’ve received from other breeders or hatched from your pens. Chicks from different lines do not share the same immunity, and mixing chicks that all appear healthy and vital can and will cause death for the following reasons: (1) overcrowding and bullying of food, water, heat resources in brooders with different aged chicks, (2) debilitating disease via exposure to fecal material or bedding carrying coccidiosis or other unknown poultry diseases that our birds do not have immunity to.
Chicks even just a day or two younger placed into a brooder are not as strong as their older and stronger brood mates. The older and stronger brood mates will steal early nutrients at a critical stage of development.
Merging apparently healthy chicks with other apparently healthy chicks means you are exposing both sets of chicks to things you may not know you have. For instance, your chicks may have generational immunity to the coccidiosis living in your soils, and will appear healthy with no symptoms in your brooder. Your new chicks do not have that same immunity, and deserve some time to recuperate from shipment and build strength after shipment before being exposed to what is endemic in your line via fecal droppings in the brooder— yes, even a clean brooder!
Healthy chicks WILL fail to thrive for these reasons, and if you mix your chicks from multiple breeders along with your chicks you will not be able to trace where the problem came from if issues arise. Don’t do it.
Biosecurity is crucial. Keep your flocks closed, plan for new additions, quarantine new birds until you’ve established their health and vitality (whether you hatch from eggs or receive chicks), and don’t introduce new birds to your existing birds until they are strong and healthy growouts ready to graduate from the brooders.
We cannot and will not refund or replace chicks that (naturally) lacked immunity to issues in your brooders or on your land such as coccidiosis, Marek’s, respiratory disease, or other misfortune due to temperature regulation, access to feed or water. The health of the chicks and the biosecurity of their environment is your responsibility once they arrive.
10. Shipping— Juveniles
We are excited to offer grown out juveniles, including female pullets and males that have made it through multiple culls for the SOP in type and conformation. Shipping is set at a flat rate of $125 as Priority Express is calculated by box size and weight. If your location and the bird’s weight requires more Crosshatch Farm will cover the difference.
11. Gift Certificates
Gift certificates are available in any denomination. In the check out process, you will be asked to enter your email (the sender) and the recipient’s email (who receives the gift). You can choose to send the gift immediately or on a scheduled day in the future. You can add a message. The recipient will receive a Crosshatch Farm email with a discount code that they will enter upon checkout. You can also choose to purchase yourself a gift certificate, you will be prompted to make an account.
Note: Our annual presales open in mid-December at Winter Solstice for the following year, we build our waitlist from those sales for ship dates from late March through late September. We are often sold out after the presale window, so a gift certificate purchased mid year may not be able to be used or ‘spent’ until we open sales again for the following Spring.