Do you like mcmurray hatchery?

[Splash_Guard]

I've never had a problem with McMurray.

 

[Gregory]

I have 25 mixed brown egg layers coming the first week of February. Hope they all arrive alive and healthy. When can I expect to gather my first eggs?

 

[MNKris]

Quote:
It wasn't Avian Encephalitis, it was Avian Encephalomyelitis. I was one that lost over 100 birds, officially diagnosed at the University of MN Vet Lab. It is an USDA reportable disease in our state and it was reported to both the USDA and McMurray Hatchery by the U of MN.

McMurray Hatchery never offered an "I'm sorry" or "Let us pay for your $79 lab fee and the fact that you had to drive 125 miles on way to deliver the chicks to the lab", or the fact that I DROVE from central MN all the way down to the hatchery (5 hours one way) to pick up the chicks so nothing would happen to them. They refunded my money for the chicks, but were rude and acted ingorant. Me, as a consumer, should not have to tell a business what is wrong with their product. I knew something was wierd because I have raised thousands of chicks and have never had problems like I was having.

Chickens are supposed to be vaccinated for this disease and it is passed mostly from hen to egg and then to a lessor extent during the hatch. I literally lost $100s of dollars from these jerks. The chicks live for 2 weeks and then start dying off. I had feed costs, electric costs, etc. into these birds. The ones that didn't die on their own were either destroyed or have been sold. I don't have a single McMurray chicken on our place.

Apparently they got a "bad batch" of vaccine. Uh-huh... More likely, they were trying to cut costs and didn't vaccinate. They were giving everyone that called a line of B.S. that it was a "water problem that had been fixed " until I had them reported. Then it became a vaccination problem that "had been fixed". All the while, they kept shipping the chicks. All the while, thousands and thousands of chicks were sent to unsuspecting customers that ended up with the same problem we did. I don't know the exact numbers, but I bet people losts hundreds of thousands of chicks from that mess.

I think you can gather what my opinion of McMurray is. I was a third generation customer up until last year.

 

[Nikki28]

I've been very happy with them.
Anything that big when an issue arises it is on a large scale. I also love their website compared to others.....but I am a website snob having grown up in the computer age.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I think that if you poll enough people, you will get stories ranging from both extremes to everything in between for every hatchery out there. Yes, they had an AE outbreak last March, but the chicks likely go out before any symptoms are noticeable. I got lucky, and received my first set of chicks just before the outbreak occurred. I still lost 4 chicks, but that was my fault for ordering them in February when it is still around 0F here. But they were nothing but courteous to me... maybe it was the way I approached it to them. I ordered 25 chicks, they sent me 27, 4 died, so in reality I only lost two that I paid for. They still gave me credit for 4 chicks. I ordered 2 more times from them, lots of extras, no losses, and no complaints. Even the orders that were "one of these, one of these, one of these..." I will order from them again if I need to.

 

[MNKris]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

I think that if you poll enough people, you will get stories ranging from both extremes to everything in between for every hatchery out there. Yes, they had an AE outbreak last March, but the chicks likely go out before any symptoms are noticeable. I got lucky, and received my first set of chicks just before the outbreak occurred. I still lost 4 chicks, but that was my fault for ordering them in February when it is still around 0F here. But they were nothing but courteous to me... maybe it was the way I approached it to them. I ordered 25 chicks, they sent me 27, 4 died, so in reality I only lost two that I paid for. They still gave me credit for 4 chicks. I ordered 2 more times from them, lots of extras, no losses, and no complaints. Even the orders that were "one of these, one of these, one of these..." I will order from them again if I need to.

Actually, it couldn't have been before the outbreak occurred because I got my chicks on the very first shipment date of 2/9/08 and then the 3/1/08 reshipment that also died. I actually picked my chicks up in Webster, IA where they were hatched, as soon as the doors opened, so I am quite confident I had my chicks almost before anyone in the year of 2008. However, it only affected certain breeds, so that may be how you got lucky that time. It probably wasn't how you approached them, it was more likely they were happy that your chicks lived and didn't need a full refund. If you had AE, most of your chicks would have died or would have been damaged by the AE. How you are treated at McMurray definitely depends on who you get for a customer service rep.​

 

[Mrs MIA]

You're right, it might have just been the breeds, though mine didn't make it to 24 hours after arriving so I don't think it was AE. I guess I'll never know.

 

[sarahloveschickens]

Quote:
your rare chick as u described is a black australorp :]

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

My very first chicks were from McMurray. I got them in November of 2007. They all did well until 6 weeks. For some reason they started showing signs of paralysis in their legs and eventually died. I had emailed them about the problems and they wouldn't even give me an idea of what it could have been. Out of the 26 I received, I only have 4 to show for it. I never had them diagnosed since I really don't know where to go or who to call for that. I have never ordered from them since.

 

[farmerlor]

I've ordered hundreds of chicks from McMurray in the last five years and never had a problem. We ordered a duck and turkey mix one time and a duck died in transit and they immediately credited my order. Other than that, healthy chicks with no problems year after year.