please help me pick a hatchery

[wleigh1021]

This fall I ordered for the first time from a hatchery (Meyers) and want to do so again in the spring. I ordered a standard Cochin on a whim and now I need more gentle giants who wear pants LOL. I've narrowed it down to Murray McMurray and Ideal and here are my pro's/cons:
I'm interested in LF Brahma's (not light), LF Cochins, and LF faverolles. Also maybe olive eggers and marans for a colorful basket

If you want to recommend somewhere else please do so!

Murray Mcmurray:
-I can add on to my local feed store's order so I don't need to worry about meeting mins
-offers cocci vaccine (this is high in the soil where I live)
-looks to have better quality chicks--I don't show, but I like them to be close to breed standard especially in fluff, size, and friendliness (yes, size does matter)
-closer to me in NJ so less shipping stress
-may be more acclimated to my climate?

Ideal:
-not many pictures online, but from reading reviews on here probably not as good of quality as murray
-further shipping, more risk to chicks
-$30 minimum so I don't have to worry about ordering a lot of chicks or mix ups with the feed store
-no green eggers
-self blue cochins--DROOL!
-no cocci vaccine
-cheaper chick prices

 

[NuggetTheChicken]

I also live in NJ. I ordered before from Cackle Hatchery in Missouri. It is not really close to NJ, but my chicks arrived at the post office within 30 hours. If anything does happen to them, they refund or reship. They all arrived healthy and they put in some extra females. I myself haven't ordered the large fowl cochins, but they have a huge variety of them such as silver cochin, golden laced, splash, barred, and partidge. They are about 3.95 per chick, but the problem is that they aren't sexed. They also have salmon favorelles, but they are sold out for the year, pretty cheap females, at 3.88. They have brahmas in light, dark, and buff. Olive egger females are for 11.85. They do have marans in different colors. They don't have a cocci vaccine unfortunalty. You can order 3-14 chicks for 20 extra, while 15 there is no extra. There is also a 20 dollar shipping fee. My family ordered 16 chicks (not fancy breeds, just normals like barred rock, rhode island red,etc) for about 90 dollars. If you decide to order from here, just keep in mind that all of the chicks are quickly being sold out for the year because it is later in the year to order chicks. It could be that you can't get them this year, but next year.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I've order many chicks of a variety of breeds from Ideal. They're cheap, easy and I've had some of the best customer service with them.
In the off season they have lots of sales.
The one down side to them is for one of the major hatcheries their birds are really poor quality compared to the SOP. I've also found if you're into the larger breeds theirs tend to be on the small size compared to what they should be.

 

[wleigh1021]

Thanks @25chickens. I didn't consider them because I want mostly females. I don't need the chicks now, just trying to get an idea of where I want to order from

 

[wleigh1021]

Thanks moonshiner that's exactly what I needed to know!

 

[PioneerChicks]

I ordered some silkie chicks from Cackle earlier this year. They were medium quality, but still very sweet. Some were better quality than others, though none were perfect. One (maybe 2) of my buff silkies had a blue-black feather in their plumage, so there may have been a small mixup. But if you are only looking for pets I would definitely recommend it. Like @25chickens pointed out, they sent an extra of each breed/color, but all the chicks survived shipping anyway.