Murray McMurray hatchery???????

[Fortholm]

On 3/29 I ordered the Barnyard Combination 2 (9 ducks, 6 Turkeys) from McMurray.

It was a sad trip back from the post office on Friday morning the week they shipped. I had 3 tired ducks, 2 tired and sick barely moving ducks, 4 dead ducks, and 6 turkeys that were running all over the dead duck bodies.

That night and the following day, 2 of the turkey poults died and 1 of the sick ducks passed away.

I have to say they are very nice on the phone at McMurray. They not only set up a replacement for the losses to be shipped to me, but told me to feed a dropper of honey to the ducks and turkey's acting lethargic with a few drops of water to follow. The honey actually worked for one of the ducks.

So I ended up with 4 ducks and 4 turkeys and they are sending replacements this week for my lost babies.

Here's hoping that I have better luck on this shipment. If not, I'm done.

 

[HealthNut2]

I ordered 33 chicks from Murray McMurray a year ago in November. I ordered 5 Roosters, and the rest hens in numerous breeds. I recieved 6 Roosters which fell within their margin of sexing error. We lost one the very next day. Which I called and reported and let them know another one didn't look like it was going to make it. They gave me credit. That was great, but as time went on I had one that within a week was showing severe signs of cross beak which is hereditary and another one with mild signs of cross beak. The one that was the worst died within a couple weeks and the mild one lived to about six weeks . As she got older her beak got so bad that she starved to death. Also half of the flock that I bought from them developed twisted toes, which I learned is also hereditary. I called their customer service and they acted like they had no idea about either problem in chickens. I asked for a return call from the owner or a manager. They said I would be contacted. I never heard anything from them. I have hatched some chicks from their eggs and they also have the twisted toes. I would never order from them again because now I can't use any of their stock for future breeding. Beware!

 

[Fortholm]

Originally, I was short 5 ducks and 2 turkey's due to deaths as mentioned previously. The replacements came this morning.

Despite the fact that every label clearly read '5D and 2T', I received 5 Turkeys and 2 Ducks. But THIS time, they were all alive. The ducks had barely open eyes due to dehydration, but perked right up as soon as I gave them some water.

So I had to call McMurray back today and tell them that whoever shipped the container filled the order backwards and that I now have too many turkeys and not enough ducks.

They are sending me 3 more ducks next week. And I get to keep the turkeys.
Yippee. Plenty of Holiday Broad Breasted Turkey.

 

[Fortholm]

So it took 3 shipments from mcmurray total, but I now have my total order. Plus 3 extra turkey poults. And the three replacement ducklings which arrived this morning are cayugas.

They met their commitment by Replacing the loses and gave me a little more variety by not giving me more Pekins.

I am a completely satisfied customer. Yay.

I will order again.

 

[KW Farms]

So excited. I have one more order coming and then i'm DONE. LOL I caught the chick fever this year...bad!

15 more BLRWyandottes straight run.
2 Speckled Sussex pullets.
2 Buff Orp pullets.

Coming mid May! Can't wait.

 

[jocd]

We recently ordered our chicks from McMurray Hatchery-they are about 2mos. old now. Quality chicks. Very friendly & sweet. We could not be happier. All chicks are very healthy upon arrival. My husband & I highly recommend them.

 

[ZoeS95423]

I ordered from them last year, about a dozen ducks and a pair of African geese.
I lost a duck and my male baby goose to a weasel, due to me taking a risk of putting them at my parents in their barn, thinking the old chicken pen was secure, which is wasn't.
The goose I have has been VERY friendly and out going from the beginning. I then had to order another gander, I ordered from ideal since they don't have a minimum bird order, I got a male goose, and a few more ducks. My male is much more standoffish than my female.

I was going to order from McMurray again this year, but their shipping is so much more expencive than other hatcheries, so I ordered from cackle instead.

I have been pleased with all 3 hatcheries so far, but everyone will have different experiences and every hatchery will end up with some negative feedback.

 

[chickenguysmom]

Not sure if I would order again from McMurray. This is only my second time ordering from them. We ordered about 4 years ago with good luck on our part of the order. Split order with a friend and she had some loses right out of the box. First order from four years ago - Nice birds - mille fleur, porcelain d'uclles, bantam rocks and bantam EE. Most of the milles survived beyond year one with two left although one may have water belly as I post this. Porcelains were all male except one female - that's what you get when bantams are straight run. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get mostly roos. Rocks all died during that 1st year. Bantam EE were mostly roos, one female who died at about 1 year.

Fast Forward to this year. Thought we had the best luck with the mille fleur and wanted blue/green eggs so we ordered 10 straight run mille fleur, 6 bantam americauna (EE) and 10 cornish X. Ordered these in January with a late March delivery. MM called that Friday morning in March and said "problems with bantams laying/hatching" - new delivery will be in April. In April, they charged my credit card for all birds but did the same - called the Friday of delivery to say "still having problems with bantams/laying hatching". I asked to have the meat birds shipped now and send bantams when ready and because of their 15 bird minimum they wouldn't do it. Customer service was lacking. At that point, I could have bought some of the same birds from the local Tractor Supply for $1.99 and from the feed store for less than $3.00. But we were going to stick it out with MM.

Today our chicks arrived.......Same complaint as others on the shipping on Friday. Our birds arrived this morning (Monday) at 6:30am, I was at the post office by 7:30am. Losses so far ((just 6 hours since they arrived) 1 EE - DOA, 1 EE - looked 1/2 dead - it died within 1 hour, three others looked weak. Of those 3 - two have died (1 EE, 1 Mille) and now the last of the weak ones (mille) is taking its last breaths. Hard to watch. I tried water, water with electrolyte, water and honey. Nothing.

Just went to check on the little one that was weak and it took its last breaths while I watched. So I've lost 5 bantams out of 16. That is almost 1/3 GONE! I won't do MM again. This has been heartbreaking. And it's 85 degrees here in Alabama so I don't think they got cold. I attribute it to shipping stress of a weekend shipping schedule.

From the problems with getting them to finally ship, to the poor customer service, to billing me 4 weeks before shipping, to having almost 33% die within 6 hours. I won't try them again. Even if you consider the first order years ago a successful experience, this one has not been and that is a 50% failure rate.

I may be the exception, but I won't take the chance again.

 

[ZoeS95423]

85 degrees isnt warm enough for day old chicks. They probably did get cold.. on top of stress of the post office.
Did you call and get refunded for the dead ones?

 

[chickenguysmom]

Sad to report that we lost the bantams. It is so sad to watch them struggle and go down hill. You would be holding one as it took it's last breath and others you would comeback a few minutes later and it would be still. We have never had this type of loss.........

Up above I said that it is 85 degrees and what I mean is it's 85 degrees here so there isn't a struggle to keep them at 95 degrees. As opposed to those who live in areas where it 42 degrees and you have to put them somewhere where you wouldn't normally keep a chicken (like your bathtub with a heat lamp). Or you worry that you can't get it warm enough for them. For us, that means they can be in the coop, in the brooder with a heat lamp and keeping a warm spot for them is not an issue. So warming them back up was not a problem.

I just got off the phone with McMurray and found out that the chicks go through Minnesota on their way here. I am going to see what the weather was like Saturday or Sunday morning as that is the most likely time they got cold. Although, the loading dock at the post office here could have been the culprit. Those bantams are tiny things. I will amend my previous post comments about customer service. McMurray was great when I called to complain. She even offered to let me speak to a supervisor, but I declined. She was so nice and explained that it is in McMurray's best interest to get the customer the best birds and get them there alive because they guarantee them they would not be in business long if everyone had my experience. So, with that said, I am appropriately humbled by the professional and caring folks there. They are true grief counselors. She did not try to rush me and sounded truly as sad as I was in hearing how they died one by one.

All the meat birds are doing well and two standard breeds also fared well. But the bantams .... RIP little fellers.