OK, so McMurray is out of the question for now, their prices are more expensive anyways, so now it is between meyer and cackle, I'm getting 2 different ratings from both of you so, one for cackle, one for meyer , first Lets Start With shipping Cost between The two places?
It's really a matter of opinion. I dont believe you should have to medicated birds that aren't sick. My birds from Cackle were dying from day 1 while my birds that I got from MPC/Meyer were separated and doing great-same food, brooder conditions etc. MPC refunded me for a very expensive chick that was injured from shipping and with the care they suggested-it recovered. Cackle told me that they give their birds antibiotics from day 1 because the FDA doesnt allow enough of it in the medicated feed now and refused to do anything about the 20+ dead birds-and that was the owner I spoke to! I am happy people have had success from Cackle but my experience was terrible. I hatch most of my own birds now and have had much better success with that as well. I offered to send them receipts including a vet bill to prove I was caring for the chicks-said it was not their problem. So any time I order chicks now it is from MPC or Meyer. No customer deserves to be sold sick animals or treated as poorly as I was by Cackle Hatchery.
Yea I've never medicated my birds either they just have always been healthy, I bought a lavender orpington from a flea market a few months ago and she couldn't have been more then 16 17 weeks old and, all I feed them I cracked corn and occasionally fruit which they love to peck especially cantaloupe. I recently had ducklings naturally hatched by mother and I feed them cracked corn and corn flour-flour mix in water and they are perfect. So no medication for me. And I have also read cackle birds tend to be weaker then other hatchery. And doesn't Meyer provide for MPC?
Yes it was early this summer. i ordered 30 birds-they sent over 40 which i thought was nice. one was DOA and one dies the next day-i figured weak or shipping issue plus they sent extras so no need to contact them for a refund. But over the next week they were dropping like flies! The owner blamed it on me not medicating the birds from day one and not contacting them when the first 2 birds died so she could instruct me to put the rest on Corid. One died of pasty butt that i missed and I did mention that and thats when she said it was my fault for poor brooder conditions. My birds I hatched and those from MPC were all in separate brooder-all the exact same conditions and were all doing well-no pasty butt with any of them. and the ones that were dying on me from Cackle were mostly the same breed-my porcelain d'uccles & phoenix from them did ok-my rare breed special and crested top hats did very poor. I had mentioned that maybe it was an incubator problem on their end which she denied. I offered to provide receipts and pics of my care, food and set up but she had no interest in seeing those. My request for refund was for the value or reshipment of 6 chicks-I did not request refunds on the "extras' because they were just that-extra-just the 6 of 30 that I paid for that died within a week(within 10 days i only had 21 out of 40+ birds left). She said absolutely not and that was the end of conversation. I just think that is a poor way to do business and will buy my birds elsewhere from now on.
