Cackle vs McMurray vs Ideal

[mamawolf544]

I have ordered from McMurray for years and always loved there birds, then they had a little trouble of some kind. And 2 orders I got in a row were a disaster. I lost 75 chicks in 12 hours.
I order from Ideal and I have not had a problem. But I think most of the time you should try and find a hatchery that is closest to your home. I am lucky Ideal is in Texas where I live, I got my poults in 16 hours from the time they hatched and I got my chicks 107 of them in 20 hours from the time they hatched. Ideal puts hatch time's on your box. And they are all healthy and thriving.
Now when I really want something special I go for hatching eggs from breeders. I usually buy from hatcheries to see what I like and dont like and then start from there on getting breeder stock.

 

[rancher hicks]

Iv'e only ordered from Ideal and I got SLW with single combs, CM with a green sheen to them , Cross colored frizzles and Del with Columbian rock blood. If it had only been one breed that would be one thing but four? Never will I order from them again.

 

[loprettaerin]

Im glad to hear from your post that my desicion to place my first order from crackle is probably a good one. I was also please to see some one actually picked up there birds from them . I was wondering if they offered that and was going to call them. I live about 2.5 hrs away from them so it is a big debt on wither the drive is worth it or just get them shipped since I would spend more in gas then in shipping. Im happy I found the forum

 

[rancher hicks]

I've read good and bad about all three. Only ordered from Ideal. Not happy with purity of birds. Won't go into it. Chicks all healthy though.
Most reason people order from hatchery is guaranteed sex of the chicks. Still I'd check CL for breeders. My I'd take back any roo chicks but not refund money paid. No exchange. Otherwise you pay more for pullets. Or check here and see whose got what. Make the drive or hatch eggs.
Just don't expect top quality chickens from the hatcheries.

 

[CalebtheChicken]

I'm plan on ordering from all 3

 

[ChksontheRun]

I have ordered from McMurray and had a wonderful experience. Of the 36 chicks, all were healthy and all still alive and well 3 mos later.

I do think that there will be people that will claim horrible experiences with all of the hatcheries. They are shipping live animals through the mail and there are sooooooo many variables in the shipping process. Also, they are hatching volumes of chicks and they are not breeding to the standard so you will get nice, but not show quality from any of the hatcheries (although you may by chance get one that is nice for show). So if you want show quality----go to the show people. If you want a nice backyard flock, it is fine to go to the hatchery closest to you to minimize the variables in shipping. Just realize none of them are infallible.

That is just my humble opinion.

 

[Me & My Peeps]

Quote:
Thats how I feel as well. This is what I posted on the subject, earlier in this thread;

"The reality of it is, that the hatchery has NOTHING to do with the chicks chances of survival once they leave the loading dock. A post office driver could be mad at his wife and throw the boxes around. He could be hung over from the night before. Maybe his boss is an idiot and wants to bring the delivery time up so his boss looks bad. Some kid on a summer job may think it's fun to poke them with a pencil through the holes in the box, or shake the box to see how loud he can make them cheep. They may be at the top of a pallet, next to the overhead heater and cook.They may be driven past a farm that is spraying chemicals for insects and they breath high doses of that in. I read too often about some careless/mindless drone post office worker not calling the owner as soon as they come in - to get them. But yet, when they arrive dead/dying, they immediately blame the hatchery. Forgetting the journey in between and the endless variables with that.

That being said, the hatchery has little choice but to offer the customer a refund or risk them spreading bad publicity about them to the internet/poultry world. Is it possible that the hatchery "may" have some bad/week chicks? Absolutely. Not every chick is going to make it, but I judge company's on their customer service and presentation, not the survival rate on delivery. Your taking a 1-3 day old chick and shipping it across the country to be handled by probably hundreds of people and machines, various environments and temperatures but when they arrive ill - the hatchery gets blamed."

 

[gordonburrito]

We actually picked up our Easter Eggers from Cackle. Aside from an unhelpful teenage cashier the experience was a good one. All their chicks live comfortably in a very nice brooder setup...when you see it you're like, "that just makes so much sense". My first reaction was how nice all the chicks looked compared to the feed store chicks we had seen up until that point. There was this one little black sex link chick who watched us the whole time as we picked out the Easter Eggers. She was adorable with perfectly proportioned features and seemed to say "pick me, I'd like to come home with you".....we left without her since we already had too many chickens at home. But, to this day I regret that decision.

Anyway our Easter Eggers all turned out great. They say about their EEs they aim to "produce chickens with a wide variety of colors, patterns, combinations of colors, with a full beard under the beak and high egg production of colorful eggs". They're too young to lay but they've really turned into some beautiful birds. We gave 3 of 5 of them away to a good home but I'm sure they all turned into lovely chickens. We'll definitely buy from them again. Here are the two we kept

 

[Sledrock]

I ordered 25 RIRs from MM a few years ago. All 25 birds survived and went on to produce lots of extra-large, very nice, uniform, brown eggs.

A few years later, I bought some RIRs from the local Farm & Home store, and although the birds were healthy, they didn't produce nearly the quality and amount of eggs as the ones I bought from MM.

MM is on the expensive side, but I was very impressed with the first ones I got from them.

I'll be ordering 25 more RIRs in the very near future, and now can't decide if I should go with MM again or try Cackle. They are both about the same distance from my house....

What to do?????????

 

[oliviad51]

I've seen a bunch of posts to stay away from McMurray and use cackle.

Theres nothing wrong with McMurray...I got some very healthy guinea chicks from them..I also think that My Pet Chicken should be added in here. I should be getting my 2nd order from them.​