Mcmurray

Yes, I looked at the major hatcheries (because those were the only ones I knew about at the time) and evaluated a few things that mattered to me: Ease of selecting birds, selection of birds that I wanted, and vaccinating for coccidiosis.  I ordered from MM via web  selecting a monday date a month away. THey arrived at the PO on the Sunday before. 25 plus 1 plus a special selection =27.  1 died on day two--it acted oddly and didn't eat, ran and got stuck away from the food and water. VEry odd, it only had to turn around. 2nd bird died a few days later. It laid down and died quickly. All others are healthy at 5-6 weeks.They were helpful when I called asking the hatch date; I didn't bother about the ones that died because I still had 25.

I would order from them again; and I would and have ordered from others.

I have had my share of bad luck with Mc Murray. Before you order. Call your post office and see if they get shipments on Sunday. Mine does not. I ordered 50 chicks this year. 22 arrived dead and most of the rest were weak and appeared dead. Over the next two days I lost 14 more. I had them reship. Same thing happened. Even my extra chicks and free rare chicks died. I got a refund. Only 11 lived out of the 2 shipments. Two had cross beaks. I thought maybe the breed was weak but I already had ordered the same breed from Welp. I wanted two different breeding lines. Welp sent 26 chicks. They where spunky and healthy. Not one died.

I have clients that want started chicks. Last year I was raising chicks for resale. I had placed a few orders with different ship dates to make sure I got the chicks I needed. I booked them 6 weeks apart so I had room to brood them. To my horror, they shipped them all at once. I did not know it until I went to the post office to pick up what I thought was my first order. I had 600 chicks and nowhere to put them. I should have learned from this screw up.

"Two had cross beaks"

In my last order from MM I had two chicks with this, and I posted here asking how to cull chicks.  I've never seen this before.  What causes it?

i have also ordered from them. i ordered 30 polish chickens i lost every single one of them. i had hatched 40 chicks from my own flock and kept them separated they all were heathy . i called and complained and they just basically blamed for them dying which i know wasnt true. so still on a mission for my polish chickens i found this man on craiglist that had some for sale, so i drove 2 hours to get this chickens .i get there and they are all mixed colored and nothing like the polish chickens should look like . dont buy anything from them!!!!  i just put my order in to cackle for my geese and chickens and townline for my ducks and turkeys. i like to try different places but from now on im sticking with quality hatcheries .good luck let me know where you decide to order from.

i ordered 25 bantam chicks and half died hours aftr recieving, i called (the workers are awesome) and they gave me a refund and i used that to get another order!!!! all 25 of my second order are doing awesome!!! i didhave two chickens with crooked toes and a chicken with a crossed beak but all are still alive.... i reccomend them!!! my chickens are doing good and are beautiful

See my post in this forum titled "so mad I could spit nails...  (McMurray)"

This will fully explain my feelings towards McMurray Hatchery.

Chicks die very easily with improper care--this can happen when handled right out of the incubator, in the shipping process, how they are cared for when unpacked and the care in the brooder.  You can  add the other, genetic and disease problems and you have a variety of reasons for losing chicks regardless of the source.  That being said I've order chicks from MM for 25 years, over several hundred birds, and lost only one.  Call it luck or skill but I can't fault the hatchery.

ETA: Read what I said on my blog back in Jan. http://jimmortensen.com/?m=201101

Yep, ordered from them twice. Never again after that though.

We've ordered twice from MM: 32 the first time and 27 the second. Our first group was great and we had no problems at all. Second group we had a few die within 48 hours. I called and they were very helpful, and we ended the call with deciding to wait a few more days. As it turns out the few who died were entirely my fault (I still feel bad), so I never asked for a refund. We are about to put in yet another order with them.

The ease of ordering, quality and variety of available chicks, and customer service would keep me going back to them. Only thing I would say is if you accept the free specialty chick, don't be surprised if it's a male.