Check out our new handmade soaps and candles in our Shop! Our hatching season is late February through the end of May.Pre-orders will open January 15, 2026 at 8pm PST.
terms, conditions, and policies
You are required to thoroughly read these Terms, Conditions, and Policies BEFORE placing an order. If you place an order, you acknowledge that you have thoroughly read our terms/conditions/policies and agree to be bound by them.
PREORDER POLICY
ALL ORDERS FOR HATCHING EGGS AND/OR CHICKS ARE PREORDERS ONLY. Placing an order only reserves your place in line. Orders must be paid in full at the time of purchase. Hatching and collecting eggs depends on the weather, fertility, and when hens lay. We cannot guarantee a specific date, only a spot in line. Be prepared to receive your order at any time during the season but it must be during the same season for which the order is placed. You cannot move your order to another season for any reason. You will be contacted when your order is next up in line (usually 2-3 weeks ahead of time). If you cannot take your hatching eggs or chicks for any reason, you will be moved to the next hatch/ egg pickup date. We will allow up to 3 reschedules, after which, the amount paid and the items in the order are considered forfeit. If you cannot receive your order during the season for which they were originally ordered, you will also forfeit any birds/eggs and all amounts paid. No refunds. We have a limited number of hatching eggs and chicks each year. When you reserve eggs or chicks, you are keeping others from being able to place their order. We also do not want people to get into the habit of postponing orders until breeding season is over in order to try and obtain a full refund. This is very dishonest. If you do not agree with these terms, do NOT order from us.
Orders for handmade products such as soap, candles, hand soap, holders, bags, and gift boxes have immediate availability. They are usually shipped or ready for pickup within 1-2 business days (excluding custom products). Shipping timeframes will depend on the method of shipping you choose at checkout.
​
If you do not agree to these terms, do NOT order from us. Placing an order means that you have thoroughly read all of our terms, conditions, and policies and agree to be bound by them.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
There are no returns, refunds, or exchanges. Cancellations are subject to a 20% cancellation fee, and requests must be submitted in writing via email to ellisonfamilyhomestead@gmail.com more than 5 days before the anticipated pickup/ship date. We are not responsible for how USPS handles the eggs/chicks, and the buyer takes full responsibility for any chicks and/or eggs that are lost in the mail, damaged, arrive late, or deceased. We insure all chicks for the purchase price (minus shipping costs) and priority mail automatically comes with $100 of insurance but the buyer assumes all responsibility for filing an insurance claim with USPS to be reimbursed for losses. We will help by providing shipping receipts if needed. We cannot guarantee that the post office will pay the claim. We recommend taking clear photos from multiple angles of the box with the deceased birds and returning to the post office with the box, deceased chicks, and photo evidence for post office verification and to submit the insurance claim. Shipping is hard on chicks. Temperature fluctuations and rough handling can injure and kill or cause weakness in otherwise healthy chicks. Understand that as a small farm, we are not set up to replace losses or reship for reasons beyond our control. That being said, we will do our best to give hatching eggs and chicks the best chance of arriving intact and healthy by providing proper cushioning, protection, hydration, feed, and heat packs if needed.
​
We make no guarantees on the fertilization or hatch rate of hatching eggs. We test fertility and hatchability of our breeding pens regularly throughout the season, including before offering any hatching eggs for sale. We get excellent hatch rates from our pens in our GQF Sportsman Incubator. We do not sell any hatching eggs from pens that have a low fertilization rate. You may see different breeds go out of stock throughout the season and this is usually because the fertilization rate in that pen has dropped below 75%. Your hatch rate from our eggs can be anywhere from zero to 100% no matter if the eggs are shipped or not, as hatching is dependent on the type of incubator, hatcher or broody hen used, the ambient temperature and humidity, and handling by the person doing the hatching. If you have eggs shipped, we cannot control what the post office does with the eggs after they have been dropped off at the counter. Rough handling, x-ray, altitude and temperature fluctuations in shipping, and delayed packages can cause eggs to crack, air sacs to detach, or kill the embryo, rendering it nonviable, and therefore, they will not show any development in the incubator. Fertility cannot be confirmed by opening an egg after the egg has been incubated as incubation alters the blastoderm. By purchasing eggs from us, you acknowledge that you have read and understand these facts and accept the risk that you may get a great hatch or none at all. Shipped eggs almost always have a lower hatch rate as compared to eggs picked up locally. No refunds or reships will be given for poor hatch rates.
​
We make NO GUARANTEES on chicks as to the health, well-being, growth, condition, or egg color a pullet will lay once they have left our hands. Please do your research and have a proper brooder available BEFORE bringing your chicks home. For help and tips for setting up a brooder, refer to our FAQs section of our website. We would never sell anyone a chick that we know is injured, sick, or weak. All breeding birds on our homestead are blood tested for disease. We are NPIP certified and our flocks are inspected by the state of California for health, condition, and biosecurity every year. Diseases can be already present in the environment, be brought by wild birds and rodents, even carried on the wind from nearby flocks and on shoes and clothes if you come into contact with other poultry. 20% of poultry disease outbreaks have been tracked to the tires of vehicles as carriers for bacterial and viral agents. It is important that you make yourself aware of poultry diseases, conditions, and biosecurity protocols to best deal with issues that may arise.
​
If you order a sexed pullet and the chick grows up to be a cockerel, we will refund you the cost of the sexed pullet chick. A photo or video of the bird in question will be needed as proof of mis-sexing. There are NO GUARANTEES on the sex of straight run chicks. They may end up being 50/50 male/female, all male, all female, or any ratio in between. We will not issue any refunds for chicks sold as straight run due to the sex of the bird. We do not take roosters back due to biosecurity reasons.
We guarantee that the chicks will be of the breed that you ordered. However, we cannot guarantee that any of them will grow up to be show quality, meet the breed standard, or lay the exact desired egg color. There are always variations in every breed and recessive or undesirable traits that may take many generations to show up. There can also be dozens of genes that control each individual trait, like egg color. We are constantly culling and breeding the best of each generation, but we have never seen a perfect specimen of any chicken. They all have flaws. We can make an educated guess on the egg color that a pullet will most likely lay but we can never guarantee 100% that the pullet will grow to lay an exact color. Even two full sibling hens from the same clutch can lay different colors. It is impossible to control all variables of egg color. For example, we only hatch the darkest eggs from our Black Copper Marans dark egg pen. Pullets from these hatches will most likely also lay a dark egg. However, we can never guarantee that they will. Over 2 dozen different genes control egg color. There can be mutations as well as genetics that we cannot identify by looking at a bird. Eggs also change drastically in color depending on the age of the bird and where they are in their laying cycle. Every breeding pen is a work in progress and the work never ends.
Elector PSP, Safeguard Aquasol, chicken stickers, and in stock handmade products have no wait time. Orders of these items ship separately from chicks and hatching eggs. Most orders will be available for pickup or shipped within 1-2 days.
All soaps, hand soaps, candles, lotions, body butters, and creams are handmade. Therefore, they will not be completely uniform and each bottle/bar/jar may have imperfections and differences in size, shape, design, scent strength, or consistency. This is the nature of handmade, small batch products. Ingredients may also change from time to time. Please check the specific label of your product for most accurate ingredient list.
​
We make NO guarantees on any products, chicks, or eggs whether they are sold, donated, or gifted. The buyer fully acknowledges that he/she understands that poultry are fragile and highly susceptible to disease, injury, and/or death. Furthermore, the buyer acknowledges that they will not use any products purchased from Ellison Family Homestead in any manner not consistent with the usual safe handling and usage of said products. The buyer agrees to release Ellison Family Homestead, its owners, partners, members, agents, representatives, employees, assigns, heirs, associates, and affiliates from any and all actions, claims, or demands that buyers or their owners, partners, members, agents, representatives, employees, assigns, heirs, next of kin, associates, spouses, legal representatives, or affiliates now have, or may have in the future, for injury, death, damage, property damage, loss, disease, negligence, regulatory compliance, legal causes, or obligations that may arise from products, eggs, or poultry offered by Ellison Family Homestead, whether directly or indirectly. The buyer agrees that products, eggs, nor poultry cannot be returned and no refunds of any kind will be given for any reason. State and federal laws, along with the requirements of the National Poultry Improvement Plan, prohibit us from taking back poultry that has left our property due to biosecurity. Bar soaps have a shelf-life of 2 or more years. Lotions, creams, body butters, and hand soap have a shelf life of about 1 year. Products should be used up within those timeframes. They should be discarded if buyer sees any evidence of mold or fungus formation or a drastic change in the scent of the product.
​
Buyer should not use a product if he/she has an allergy to any of its ingredients. All products have their ingredients listed on their label as well as on our website. If an adverse reaction such as burning, hives, rash, itchiness, or redness occurs, stop using the product immediately and contact your physician.
If you do not agree with these terms, do NOT order from us. Placing an order means that you have thoroughly read all of our terms, conditions, and policies and agree to be bound by them.​​
​
SHIPPING AND PICKUP POLICY
We recommend local pickup in Fresno, California. We do NOT recommend shipping as the shipping services usually do a number on eggs and chicks. However, we understand that for some breeds, there is no other option but to have chicks shipped. We only ship to the lower 48 states (minus Hawaii and Alaska) and only between the months of February and May 31st of the year as laying and hatching allow. You must be able to receive your chicks/eggs at any time during this timeframe. There is a minimum of 6 chicks and maximum of 12 chicks per shipping box. There is a maximum of 2 dozen hatching eggs per order. If you need to order more than this, please place multiple orders. Each order will incur its own shipping cost. Otherwise, choose "Pickup" to arrange pickup locally in Fresno, California. When your order is up next in line, you will be contacted with an anticipated shipping/pickup date. Please do not place an order and then immediately call or email me for a ship/pickup date. We do not know. We are a small homestead. Our flocks are small but very well curated. Our birds are not commercial layers. We believe in quality above all else. We can only fill orders as quickly as laying and hatching allow and we do not want to give you bad information. We only ship on Mondays and Tuesdays to avoid any delays over the weekend. We can only fill orders as quickly as laying and hatching allow and we do not want to give you bad information. We only ship on Mondays and Tuesdays to avoid any delays over the weekend.
Hatching eggs are packed pointy side down in a custom foam shipper and shipped via USPS Priority Mail 3-5 Days ($40) or USPS Priority Express 1-2 Days ($70). Chicks are shipped via USPS Priority Mail Express only, in an approved, ventilated box with grogel, feed, a nonslip nesting pad underfoot, and heat packs if needed ($100). All shipping costs include the USPS surcharge of $15 extra for perishable and live products. Of note, USPS does NOT guarantee that Priority Mail packages will arrive on time. Currently, shipments have had delays of up to 5 days. USPS does offer a money-back guarantee on Express packages, but it still does not mean that they will arrive on time.
​
There are NO refunds, returns, reships, or exchanges for shipped eggs for damage, fertility issues, non-development, or non-hatch. If you do not agree to take on these risks, do NOT purchase from us. Please make yourself familiar with hatching shipped eggs as they should be handled differently from your own eggs or eggs that were picked up locally. All shipped chick and egg orders will be marked “Hold for pickup” with your phone number. The post office will call you when they arrive at your local post office. Most shipments will arrive within 1-3 days. You must plan to be available to pick them up on that day.
​
All shipped chick and egg orders will be marked “Hold for pickup” with your phone number. The post office will call you when they arrive at your local post office. You must plan to be available to pick them up on that day. Most shipments will arrive within 1-3 days.
​
Hatching eggs, chicks, poultry treatments, stickers, and other products cannot be shipped together. They must be shipped separately. If you do not agree with these terms, do NOT order from us. Placing an order means that you have thoroughly read all of our terms, conditions, and policies and agree to be bound by them.